Re: nettime: WHO WANTS UNSELLABLE TRASH?

[Matthew Smith <matt@AEC.at>]

Do you dream of a time where bankrupt gallerists regain their turnover to join 
in
the boom party? Where artist that sign their work are not isolated diehards, but
a force to be reckoned with? Where painting isn't something happening on the
subway wall, but an art prusued in the studio? Where achievement is not marked
not numbers of altered works but by signed orginals? Where no art work stands
less than a century, computer reproduction is outlawed and forgers are sent to
gaol - if they can be found ? Where politics is not a spark of rebellion from 
below
but a steady drip drip of control from above ?

---

i definetly dont dream of a time 20 yrs ago, i prefer dreaming of times 20yrs
from now, when retrofreaks like u have died or getting ready 2 do so in their
comfortable homes decorated with beautiful green/brown tapestries of the early
1970ies. 

there is no problem with signing work that has been done, and there r adequate
ways of doing so in most professional softwares. also, if the work is truely 
original, it shouldnt be a problem in finding/naming its source as an 
interested viewer/consumer.

strange that most artists i have talked 2 cant remeber those romantic times
when gallerists/collectors were so common that all those painters, sculptors &
other REALLY creative people were making a comfortable living and drinking 
champagne with businesspeople at voluptous vernissages... actually the stories
of a life in roomy lofts and nice, big canvases all around the place r told
by the dying race of 1980ies yuppies (which aint that young anymore either)
and most of them have left these luxurious inner city locations for the more
reasonable suburbia of family life or appartements with rent that isnt purely
fictional.

maybe thats also a reason 4 many of these now empovrished artists 2 try 2 find
an existence in an radically changed market situation. ART is dead, many people
r saying, especially people who were painting 20yrs ago. there just isnt 
anything around that hasnt been painted yet. there is 0thing that hasnt been 
fotographed either. there is 0thing that hasnt been described in violent,
industrial scale performances and shows (even the Survival Research Labs & 
Mutiod Waste Companies have been accepted as valid standards of life & 
expression) - It just isnt about "my feelings r in this work, and i want 2 give
them 2 my environment". everybody in the western hemisphere can have access 2
technologies that enable him/her 2 express themselves in way the may find 
appropriate, even if it is only a piece of paper and a pencil. this kind of
inflation of media has produced complete oblivion of ART in the collective mind
of "society". people dont go to vernissages anymore, they just watch em on tv.
and if they really want a picture at home, they r not going 2 buy one at a
exhibition of REAL ART, but at discount postcard shop. and then they wont buy
the unknown painter postcard, they r going 2 buy a nice, cheap, Miro print
which looks nice on the toilette door.

what people of my generation collect and spend money 4 r nicely designed flyers
for good parties featuring djs who r making intelligent mixes of music that
has been put on vinyl by other, more sophisticated djs who can afford a studio
4 a few hours & own a sampler of there own... 

maybe, in 20yrs, i will organise an exhibition in a recordstore featuring
the graphical-design of LSD-blotters in the late 1990ies...but they will be
hard 2 find, cause most of them werent made 2 last, but were adequatly honored 
and marveled shortly before they started severly disorder the recipients mind;)

but at least the people knew what they were getting and didnt have 2 get all 
intellectual about the "meaning" be4 enjoying the work...





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-------------------------Matt Smith, Systemanager of--------------------------
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