“If you only knew the ways I had to prostitute myself to
get films made…” –Woody Allen
We
should all know Ai Weiwei!! Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist using his visual art
to make a statement against the Communist government of China. He has been
beaten, imprisoned, and continuously threatened. Ai stands to remind us what
art has been and is really about. All that stands should be reflected upon,
questioned, and evolved. We have fallen so far away from this understanding in
our own country. In the U.S we are always happy to allow mass dissent of the
government, truth is it’s entertaining, but what about the state of human
affairs? Our greed, consumption, divorce rates, violence, sex, education, etc. Any
artist making statements about the deep state of human affairs is dismissed by
political cultural slight of hand. It’s not necessarily just the lack of
commerciality in this form of art, which obviously conflicts with interests,
etc. It’s the fact that we’ve grown so accustomed to putting progressive art on
the fringe that we are not used art anymore that simply don’t entertain
attention deficits. We use words like avant-garde, and post-modern,
experimental. What does any of this mean? To me it actually means, “Don’t make
me think, or come out of my cushy bubble of what I am gluttonously comfortable
with.” Art is not just a “shack with a couch you grew up in.” Art is not simply
a form of entertainment. As Sean Penn put it, “ If entertainment is what you’re
looking for through film you’re better off going to Vegas and getting an 8 ball
and a hooker.” Well said Spickoli! (Truth is I am inspired and a great fan of
his work) We have lost all sense of where art started in the human tradition.
It’s not a job that should pander to sales. It is the ultimate honest
expression of the human spirit through play mediums. Something language alone
can never do. Art may be the only means to truth that human beings have left.
Even science has become corrupt for personal interests. For all the pop
princesses that come and go, when are we going to learn that artistic obscurity
lasts forever and pop fades in the sands of lame! We’ll be talking about Van
Gogh well beyond any pop star du jour. But this logic doesn’t seem to stop us
deprioritizing human progress. I have been on both sides of this machine, both commercial
and non-commercial. As a musician I have toured Europe by train and van,
playing avant-garde music, sometimes to only three people at a club- as well as
the greatest concert halls and shows in New York City. Ultimately there are
great and degenerate people on both sides. I believe there is some great art
being made in the commercial realm by great artist, and I believe there is self-indulgent
works being made by the progressive artists… and vise versa. It will always
come down to the person and his/her awareness. Two questions should prevail in
this debate… 1. Can we use the commercial machine to make a statement of the
human condition? 2. Are we supporting progressive arts in society as they need
and deserve to be for humanity? Even those we assume are pure to their work
surprise us with the state of affairs in arts culture today…
“If you only knew the ways I
had to prostitute myself to get films made…” –Woody Allen
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