My Bed. 1988. Tracey Emin. Image via Wikimedia Commons
“Cleanliness is the scourge of art.”
Craig Brown
- Facing and revealing the mess…
The image above shows an artwork which represents an unmade bed and a rug covered in a messy tangle of objects. These were the detritus left when Emin spent a few days in bed after the end of a relationship.
Amongst the mess were a pregnancy test, tissues stained with menstrual blood, empty vodka bottles and other very personal items. She was having a difficult time, not eating, but smoking and drinking alcohol.
When she eventually got out of the bed, she looked at the mess she had made, and realised that it was, in fact, more than an unmade, untidy bed. It was a work of art.
- Why is this work regarded as so valuable and meaningful?
In allowing this installation to be exposed to the world, Emin revealed just how painful life can be. Most people would not want this intensely personal pain revealed so graphically to the world, but Emin is courageously unafraid of showing her depression, her pain and her mess, both physically and psychologically.
This is a confessional work, one that must have brought relief to many who saw it, those who have, perhaps, kept their messy states secret, or behind closed doors.
At this point, before I go any further with this post, let me get a confession out of the way:
“I can be very messy when I work creatively.”
This is a big confession because I tend to reveal my mess only rarely. My writing study is also my art studio. The state of my desk and studio, when I am in full creative mode, bears a striking similarity to the aftermath of a particularly frenetic robbery. It is relatively clean, but untidy. I can close the door and no-one sees the mess.
Apologies, but I cannot yet share a photograph of my untidiness. I have not reached the stage where I can visually display it, I can only tell you about it. I am not as yet as far along that path as Tracey Emin.
The state of my study may reflect an internal mess, because whenever I get things much more sorted creatively, I tidy up. My space is then transformed into the epitome of sparkling neatness.
Rest assured that I do have times when I am organised and uncluttered, and the chaos recedes; however this is only until the next creative project, which usually follows fairly quickly, and then the cycle begins again!
- Trusting the process of creativity: managing the chaos
“We have natural tendencies to achieve neatness and tidiness. However, most times, we are blindsided by chaos.”
Emma Lee Bach
When we are trying to be tidy, yet ‘we are blindsided by chaos,’ guilty feelings may arise. Having chaotic and disorientated feelings is not easy; these can cause panic and desperation. Sometimes, things do seem to fall apart..
Broken Forms – Franz Marc. 1914. Wikioo.
“Chaos,
leave me never,
keep me wild
and keep me free
so that my
brokenness will be,
the only beauty
the world will see.”
Robert M. Drake, Black Butterfly
I try hard to remember the words of RM Drake when I feel uncomfortable about my mess, for I know that, out of all the chaos, will come some clarity…with time and patience. Chaos is certainly a part of the creative process.
What about you? Do you have messy, chaotic and disordered times, both physically and psychologically?
Many of us do, but this untidiness often gets a bad press, for we are often told from childhood that tidiness is crucial.
Itsukushima Shinto Shrine. Wikimedia Commons
“The inside of a house or apartment after decluttering has much in common with a Shinto shrine… a place where there are no unnecessary things, and our thoughts become clear.”
Marie Kondo
Marie Kondo, the organiser and tidier par excellence,(not a job I could aspire to!) may indeed be right in her above assertion that, in a very uncluttered place, ‘our thoughts become clear.’
This may be good advice sometimes, but is it always important to be tidy? Could untidiness, in some cases, actually be an asset?
Within a tightly ordered, fixed and controlled environment, some of us may be unable to experience the freedom that is necessary to creativity. Whilst critical thinking is, of course, important for all of us, it need not be at the expense of creative thinking.
“Perfectionism reduces creativity and innovation.”
Jim Kwik
There is awareness of this fact in some work situations, where people need to move around to experience different working conditions.
In order to cater for this, several firms offer a selection of different work spaces, some designed for productivity and order, and others for a more relaxed creativity, a letting go of the strictures that can stunt creative freedom.
“A creative mess is better than idle tidiness.”
Michael J Fox
“Creativity happens in the transition between order and chaos.”
Andrew Davenport
Of course, there are tidy people who are creative, and who cannot be creative until they have tidied any mess. There are no absolutes or rights and wrong in this; it is very much an individual issue.
Being productive, however, is different from being creative. Productivity tends to require order, creativity, less so. We do, actually, need both.
- Creativity, innovation and discovery
Both Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud both had extremely messy studios. Have these, in themselves, become an artwork, like Emin’s bed?
Francis Bacon’s studio at the City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin, Ireland.(Reconstruction)
19 July 2016. Author:antomoro. Wikimedia Commons
“It’s kind of a dump that nobody else would want, but I can work here. These are a few of my abstract pictures here [pointing to the splotches of paint on the door and surrounding walls] because I use the walls and things to test the colors out on. I’ve tried to clean it up, but I work much better in chaos. I couldn’t work if it was a beautifully tidy studio. It would be absolutely impossible for me. Chaos, for me, breeds images.”
JD Rucker.Einstein’s Office. Flickr.Uploaded on June 5, 2012.
“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?
Einstein’s desk was also untidy, as we see above. This photograph was originally taken the day after Einstein died. He believed that chaos and clutter can be highly creative, and can lead to innovation and discovery.
It is often not easy to let go of old messages and withstand the messy, cluttered stage of creativity, waiting and hoping for something creative to arise from it. This takes courage and the ability to think constructively and clearly.
Einstein knew that “Order is needed by the ignorant but it takes a genius to master chaos.”
We all need to allow a degree of such chaos in terms of our ideas and our ways of thinking. Out of an apparent jumble of ideas and thoughts can emerge something truly original and powerful.
Without this creative clutter and mess of ideas, the ‘brainstorm’ of thoughts and feelings, there would be no starting point, nothing to grapple with in order to achieve harmony and clarity.
The Mysterious Sources of Harmony, 1932-33 – Salvador Dali. Wikioo
“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein
© Linda Berman
waysofthinking.co.uk 
