I’ve used this line a million times but I always say - I bet I had coined this back in Tivoli - if Aliens came down to earth they would think that our art is T.V. movies (I guess…but they are so LONG…attention spans have to shift a lot to keep these in the paradigm…)and billboards. In that way I have started to think about art in a really conservative way - like trickle down economics. I made that joke at my Bard thesis - that philosophers work out bigger “annoying” intellectual ideas, come up with a shared language, and then somehow those decisions are manifest in the language that everyone uses/the way that things are structured. Though a layman might never concern themselves with these questions, they are affected by and utilize the choices made by the dominant intellectual thinkers of the time. Same with art. A bunch of weirdos hole up, do whatever they do, come up with awesome ideas that are eventually co-opted and used for advertising - but at the same time that is the way that a new aesthetic influences new and non-elite eyes.
Re: the issue of “elite” Sure, the pure of heart can do the stuff for the sake of it, but at the same time it’s no less self-indulgent than the elitist/ritzier model, you know? Not saving lives is not saving lives and art, at the heart of it, no matter how much you intellectualize what it “represents” or what it’s “cultural significance” is (and, on a certain level, I do really believe in these things, we live in a culture and I would rather focus on the part of it that wants to break ideas down by making things than streamlined facism for sure) Art is never going to be real or feel guilt free - nothing enjoyable ever will and I think that it’s a mistake to assume that just because it isn’t aiming for grand culture ground or significance (not trying to get into the gallery scene), that it is any more nobel or less self-indulgent. That is still the problem I can’t get past - the self-indulgence. And dude, I am not one to talk, I spent so much fucking money on a “work/professional” wardrobe last year and shit that makes me want to die. I am as lost as anyone about what any of this means, I am still sitting at home in my sweatpants. Oh, and I spent money on four shots at a metal show. Late blooming/prolonged teenager-dom is not winning the good person award any time soon.
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