For college this semester I am suppose to write a manifesto and so I begin . . . with conflicting ideas and feelings on the subject. Warning nothing will make sense.
Apparently art is in Post-post modern art period, also known as metamodernism, which is art that says nothing in particular and appears vague because any future suggested may not exist. Well if that doesn't make sense to you - it's okay because it doesn't make sense to me either. Maybe that's because I'm a hopeless Romantic which fantasizes a heterogeneous world made of empathetic individuals who live their lives trying to help their neighbour. As I write that sentence I can see how I could be ridiculed, but what am I suppose to do? Become a metamodernist and think of a future that probably won't exist, give up on hope and stop loving and caring?
Do I think art today is in a metamodernist period? No - I see that we have entered a period of banalism because we so frequently see images of art so readily available (Internet) that we no longer create an original idea. Yes every idea stems from another idea, but it shouldn't imitate it. When I recently went to the Armory Show in NYC I first went to the modern exhibition. I spent hours with sweat rolling down my back looking at previous masters create genius original works of art. I could clearly see how each era of art influenced another, as did artists of their time, but it was genuine and honest, which accounted for the work being theirs'. When I ventured down stairs into the contemporary section, it was almost twice the size, and what I saw bored me. I would walk past each booth and get the meaning of the art very quickly. Almost everything I saw was comprised of multiple art movements, but stripped down and simplified with bright colors and patterns. I also noted that other audience members were like myself, they didn't take the time to investigate the art around them. It was disheartening, I felt like I was at a mall where everything is manufactured, the same, banal.
Another large impeding factor I have noticed is how frequently we research the art project we are working on, on the Internet - we watch how to YouTube videos, images on Google, Flickr and Pintinterest, and I' not trying to say I don't fall prey to this as well but I like to think that I do more investigating on my own through working out my ideas . . . hoping to find the happy accident and not looking for what my art should resemble because I create from memoirs that belong to me alone. I do take into account others opinions, theories and ideas, attempting to understand different perspectives to allow the work I create to be seen on levels which appear to a larger public. I listen to people vent about the same atrocities I face and am trying to make clear how people are effected by pain. Hasn't every person in the world experienced pain?
Art for me is based on the romantic principle, but with a twist of realism. This means I take into account what is going on around me, knowing that some people will never care about others and will look into themselves, whilst other people will (like myself) give back to society and the community. Art for me is not about making a home more beautiful and interesting with a wall piece but rather a realistic honest depiction of my experiences from the world. How can I make art about something I cannot feel or know? Researching a subject only takes you so far - it's experience that is not found in books or reading that my art is made from. The irony is I first begin my process by writing out the autobiographical story before physically manifesting it into a work of art.
The manifesto I wrote is below:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w_goSRysbAuAtTUokiqRjPAZ2xBhSS9LpUb2fifRpC0/pub
Jim Campbell, Constellation, 2012
Rafael Lorenzo Hemmer Relational Architecture 11
