Creative Content

Today’s media-saturated world seems obsessed with perfection—where algorithms correct, filters soften, and anything broken, distorted, or abstract is quickly labeled a “mistake,” often perceived as failure. A few years ago, during a trip to Los Angeles, I stumbled upon a photographic yet deeply conceptual piece at LACMA that caught my attention. Wrong, by John Baldessari, struck me as a profoundly liberating gesture. A poorly framed photograph from 1967—in which a palm tree appears to sprout from the subject’s head—becomes a declaration: sometimes, what’s “wrong” is the only path to something real.

Baldessari didn’t just mock the rules of photographic composition; he questioned the very idea that art could—or should—be measured by universal standards. Next to the image is the phrase: “I like the idea of someone saying something’s right or wrong, so I made something wrong. Which for me, is right.” That sentence holds a provocation that transcends the visual:
How often do we follow imposed rules without asking whether they’re truly ours?
How often do we avoid making mistakes simply to fit into a system that rewards repetition and punishes experimentation?

Between 1970 and 2008, Baldessari taught this very mindset at various institutions across California and Los Angeles—not leaving behind a fixed style, but a way of thinking. His message was clear: art isn’t about getting it right; it’s about exploring the unknown, accepting the risk of failure as essential to the creative process.

In today’s art scene, that lesson feels urgent. Maybe it’s time to reclaim the right to be wrong on purpose—to challenge expectations, to even contradict ourselves.

Baldessari reminds us that a mistake is not just an accident—it can be an ethical stance, a political statement. In a cultural landscape increasingly homogenized by digital platforms, embracing the imperfect becomes an act of resistance.
Perhaps getting it wrong—deliberately, intentionally—is one of the most honest ways we can create something that truly belongs to us.