A friend recently showed me a picture produced by her daughter. It was of a face, painstakingly created in photographic detail with a pen. It was exceptionally accurate in proportion and detail.

‘She’s a better artist than you or me,’ I was told.

I know what my friend meant. She meant that her daughter was highly technically competent. On that point I would not argue, but does that make her a competent artist?

Realism, as a style, has come and gone through the ages. I would have hoped that with the advent of the camera, most artists would chose to create an image that cameras can not. Realism is after all, ninety percent technique and one per cent content. An art critic would ask, ‘- very proficient, but what does it mean?’

For me a creation, whatever it is, has to achieve a balance between form and content. With buildings, for instance, an engineer can design a perfectly functional building. They do, regularly, in fact the western world has built it’s cities of perfectly functional buildings – that have no meaning, no content. You might expect an architect to be able to introduce that missing element, but with the modern style of minimalism, architects have veered towards engineering solutions. Society is partly to blame for this, because I would argue, it has lost sight of meaningful ideas, inspiration – that which it loves and holds most dear. We all love different things now and in this chaos, we dumb down content – even eliminate content – in order to achieve, if not consensus, then tolerance.

When I was practising architecture in Australia, I worked for an inspirational Chinese Australian who was also an alchemist. Not short on content for his inspirations, he told me that ‘all buildings should tell a story’. I have always followed this from that moment. It is obvious that all great literature, all great art, all great architecture, all great music – tells a story. Without this ‘content’ it is a mere representation of something else, as a photographic image is a representation of something else. So many soulless items, places, stories, tunes, films, pictures, sculptures – have no story to tell! Ironically, in societies that have no story to tell, such art is not recognised as meaningless but lauded as ‘clever’.

In a society that is rich in meaning and understands itself, all it’s creators reflect that commonality -either consciously or not. That is why tourists flock to the ‘old town’ and ignore the modern estates and factories surrounding famous cities. In the past, there was a commonality of consciousness, that included cultural myths, legends and stories – both sacred and profane – that were constant through the generations.

If you doubt this, then consider some modern artists who have achieved enduring high status. ‘The Beatles’ for instance were not only lucky for being spotted and commercially developed – they were a combination of gifted minds that came together to tell stories through popular music. The content of their songs, like the ‘greats’ who had gone before them in the 50’s (Matt Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Louis and Ella), told timeless tales of human emotion. This was combined with inspired composition of tunes and accompaniment making the opposite of a perfect storm – a perfect creation.

This is a modern example, but the principle of storytelling has always been true. The ancient Greeks for instance, produced perfect statues of their gods – into which the god moved – because the statue was perfect. The stories surrounding the gods then inhabited the sculptures. Everything made sense.

Art has to make sense, not just be well made. If an artist can create with these two aspects of creativity in equal measure, the result will give satisfaction. If it synchronises with the spirit of the age, as often art does, then that artist may become appreciated by society and famous. But that is not a given and many great artists, never achieve fame. In fact, I would argue that currently, many famous people do not achieve great art.

The music you hear today is discordant and if there are words to the song you can’t hear them. If you could hear them, they would not be the poetry of Bob Dylan or Blake, but rather – devoid of meaning. I am exaggerating but switch your radio on and you will get my drift.

The art and sculpture of today often leaves the onlooker without words, not in awe but in astonishment of the poverty of meaning.

Listen to a short story told on the radio or a film and too often the end is an anticlimax. The story has no end because the story lacks inspiration – meaning.

Western Societies produce designers and artists with such a wide range of styles and techniques to chose from, that style and technique is almost all there is.

Nobody dare pronounce a shark in a tank as naked ignorance. Instead such installations are produced on a commercial scale for wealthy people who have no idea what to buy or why – no personal story to tell – just the fragments of another person’s madness to barter and boast about in the corridors of their affluent poverty.