Appearing in the upcoming exhibition
"The Body and Lens: Photography 1839 to Present",
October 28 to November 20 at the New Paltz College Art Gallery as part of the "Arts in America Now" conference.
To say that art is commodified is to say that a mediation, or standing-in-between, has occurred, & that this betweenness amounts to a split, & that this split amounts to "alienation."
--HakimBey
Here in the wilds of technological
oblivion, art has been absconded by the devils of commerce, and then grabbed back in a postmodern frenzy. She is the child of a broken home, captive in an endless maze of self-referentialism.
Who is art if she can't speak for herself, use her own voice, spit out a simple sign free of anybody's "message?" Real art offers the possibility of speaking a collective language. But the Cult of Specialization enjoins us to use our talent to further obscure meaning. WAKE UP! It is time to stare down the beast of pseudo-individualism and step onto common ground.
We need art that goes deep--pushing the envelope of the senses whilst maintaining the inclusivity of abstraction. This art is immediate--without mediation.
Recently it has been the few who have chosen unmediated art. And even less mediated forms, such as painting, are rampant with consumerism and assembly line methods, i.e. Kostabi World,
The Factory, Peter Maxx. But we are turning away from institutionalized meaning and back to each other for glimpses of the Real World.
Immediate art is a reflection of who we are, in the moment. It awakens a subtle sense of meaning that would otherwise lie dormant. Fresh feelings, glimmers of insight, flash through our psyche revealing new vistas of possible experience.
Creativity is not personal. The force of creation permeates the whole cosmos, maintaining everything existing. But it is within each person. And it is sacred.
-Jason Stern