Art news round-up

One Response to “Art news round-up”

1. dlabella Says:
   January 13th, 2010 at 9:26 am

   Decades or other discrete periods of time do beg characterization or some sort of header to satisfy our inclination to apply labels to things that we want to simplify and, we think, understand. But in doing so, we tend to turn those very times into homogenized, vanilla bites that obscure the range and reality of the events themselves. In this case, however, the times themselves have done so for us. We now consider everything , or are told that everything, is news….we are bombarded 24/7/365 with “news” that often has very little impact on our lives or any connection to the flow of history. Celebrity, tawdry episodes that vie for attention against one another, and intentionally manufactured publicity stunts (the “balloon boy”, anyone?) crowd out the genuine pulse of human affairs; and dispassionate reporting has become a casualty of the endless shrieking of the right and the left, who each present “news” in a format that offers only the host’s side of the “issue” and no discussion of the other. Is it, then, no accident that art has retreated into an insular world that seems to have disconnected itself from public discourse. If so much of our collective attention is given to the proliferation of “news” and “reality-based” programming, it is no surprise that culture and art suffer from misunderstanding and that only the most highly promoted artists- those who make an impact through pricing or their ability to market to the celebrities and institutions that have access to the media (the better to trumpet their existence on the planet to those who would listen)- prosper in the modern market. The stratification that seems to have built itself into the modern economy has built itself into the art market as well- there are a few at the top, and then there are, increasingly, more and more toiling anonymously below. Is there any of our attention left after we give ourselves up to the likes of CNN? For myself, I pay no heed to current events as portrayed by the media; and the time that I might have devoted to following the exploits of the Octomom and the rantings of the narrow-minded is tuirned toward creative works. That may make me an anachronism, it may make me rather less interesting to talk to in certain circles, it may make me ignorant of trends and the latest buzz, it may make me boring and prehistoric……….but it does make me a better artist. Maybe I’ll send myself and some selected works up in a balloon……..what? That’s already been tried? OK…how about crashing a White House party? That’s been done too? How about a talk show for artists that haven’t made the front pages yet? What’s that………no one will watch? Very well…back to work, then.

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