On the lawn of City Hall is Michael J Walsh’s work of art — Nothing is Sacred.

It’s a powerfully allegorical statement of historic and political acuity with its daring symbolic use of Bermuda’s iconic kites impotently dangling from their wooden structure.

Gordon Harvey, the art critic once described abstract art as, “the most insidious, potentially destructive lie of the 20th century culture.”

Many interpret modernistic styles and the contemporary art movement as inconsequential while others see it as a means of expressing true emotions.

Walsh’s piece presents a bold and strident truth as an emblematic interpretation of past injustices. And so begins the Bermuda Biennial 2014 panoramic exhibition A View From The Edge.

Let me step back with a rhetorical apology in the classic Greek sense.

In recent years contemporary art: minimalism, post minimalism, performance art, installations and conceptual art seems to be cynically vacuous, an exercise in synthesising simplification devoid of emotional content — it might even be seen as materialistic.

Celebrity artists and big money have eclipsed the delicate equilibrium of social empathy and artistic narcissism that was valued and a dominant trait in contemporary art.

Instead we have an excess of pretentious clichés parading as novel creativity.

The pushing of boundaries and the deconstruction of established artistic tenets, ideas and idioms potentially becomes exercises in tedium.

Unfortunately, there is an element of this present in the Bermuda Biennial 2014. It’s debatable as to how pervasive it is — but all is not lost.

Contemporary art is driven by an innovative vernacular with varying degrees of stylistic sophistication and no matter where you fall on the divide of relevancy there has to be an assessment of its value.

There has to be an acknowledgment of its success as a means of personal expression.

The poet and painter John Berger is succinct when he states, “Although every image embodies a way of seeing, our perception or appreciation of an image depends also upon our own way of seeing.”

The process of reaching a conclusion or constructing meaning out of art is a participation that an artist may place directly on the viewer.

There is an implied expectation that the viewer will pick up the story.

When the Bough Breaks by Ami Zander is eccentric and captivatingly kaleidoscopic with a vivid and striking uses of colour and pattern, but lacks cohesion and suggests that its narrative was not fully articulated or realised.

The viewer is left isolated on the other side of the conversational gap from the artist.

I have known Vaughan Evans for as long as he has had his ‘home in Hamilton Parish’. It is within this context and through this lens of appreciation, evolution and adaptation that I connect with his work.

The artist Joan Miro said that the evolution of his life’s work and search for advances in the movement of contemporary art are predicated on disrupting artistic convention and defying expectations — mainly those of the viewer.

Central to this is the varying criteria used to make assessments.

There are parallel notions of dialogue between the artist and the viewer: what is being said and what is being heard, what is the artistic definition — whether it be embraced, rejected or reinvented.

It is this presentation of a parallel notion that is at the heart of the flaws in this biennial exhibition and quickly becomes obvious.

The decision to incorporate BNG East as a viewing site for a juried show feels curious at best and the justification offered lacks boldness with a malingering consolation and an absence of solace.

The contemporary art in this show relies on interpretations, personal introspection, reflections, opinions and experiences.

In the process of constructing meaning with their expressions of art we get a redundancy of subjects and concepts that are played out and have been exhausted in other arenas for quite some time.

Artists attempting to voice beliefs, values, even identity are severely challenged to do so in a technologically advancing world where the homogenisation of cultural diversity is transparent and global influences are immediate.

This is not unique to the Bermuda Biennial or the BNG.

Prominent venues in New York, London and Tokyo, to name a few are afflicted by the identical challenges to create new boundaries and a new artistic lexicon of definition.

A View From The Edge is successful for the very reason that it is flawed.

It is a great vehicle which gives our artists the ability to present concepts, relevant questions and reimagine ideas that interrogate the past, characterise the present, and speculate about the future.

This important exchange with the viewer is transacted with the currency of technology, media and an assortment of materials.

What has been rendered is eclectic, inclusive of any word that ends with “ism” and gives us art with the broadest scope of methods, ideas, principles and philosophies. It is a collective artistic voice that needs to be heard.

The Bermuda Biennial 2014 is a rich experience of art that mirrors our society and culture and in this regard there is much on offer. It is worth the effort to see A View From The Edge — currently open at The Bermuda National Gallery.