Okay. Good to hear from you Mary.
I have a question - isn't fashion honest? don't designers know what they are
doing and really don't feel compelled to say two shits about it? of course it's
honest because it IS fashion. Also - Mary mentions being inside on the joke/the
know etc., that's a craving everyone has because it's set up inside of the
cheesedick institution called High School. We are all set up by that shit and
strive our lives to live by those rules imbedded within. Funny thing is sooooo
many people don't know (look at the idiots on American Idol - the producers
know, the marketers know, but the populace doesn't quite get that they are
setting up sales etc., and sales of usually worthless shit - well Bo Brice and
the two black girls are cool). The same with collectors who buy into the thing
but don't quite even know what the artist wants them to know.
So on the two things I'm saying or adding to is this --- ONE - what if the
artist is being fashionable and knows it and so what? Hey, it just so happens
there is a collector (and one who may not be informed about ANYTHING) who will
want it and then everybody in this case gets something. Of course I said an
artist who basically unabashedly is fashionable. It doesn't matter to me if an
artist hits a wave and rides it - waves can be powerful forces/movements within
art OR as is often the case in our time now simply fashion. Still . . .
the second thing is that we all know this damn shit about the scene . . . and my
frustration is that IT (the scene is tired). Thus tired art/fashionable art
floats around as well and is pushed. ONE of the coolest things for me friday
night was when Kirsten and Brock and others bolted to the Royal Oak - I was
actually beat and had my version of bolting and had great conversation with Mary
and Mags, otherwise I would've gone - it was (just my view) like watching people
kick out of something that was soooo predictable. Whatever. What that has to do
with art is that the whole damn shootin' match comes into play as fashion at
times. Damn write your own script and see who watches.
Of course the armory galleries would have metal and shiite . . . what a way to
look cool and hip. But you know what was cool to me about a little over 10 years
ago? Tarantino's characters in Pulp Fiction . . . they just absolutely went
against the grain and shot hell outta people and, damn, some people laughed
along with me - and at a time when you probably shouldn't have done so. So I say
it's time to blow the shit outta people with some real headbanging.
cheers,
FRED

Quickly, I never said fashion designers weren’t honest. Artists emulating fashion designers, well I guess they are all only poor signifiers. I guess one of my points is, there is a time when we have to get past high-school in order to actually do something. I understand being stuck on high-school, but I really want to call us to get beyond that. It sort of matters to me whether the artist does that because it fills the whole art world with crap. Really, I don't care if the artist is just doing art to make a living or make money, but I want to find those who aren’t doing that, that is what my email was about, because so much that I saw I felt was just as crappy as clothes in an outlet mall. This also reminded me of (a touchy subject) artists keeping the remnants of their process so when they are famous and someone spends a lot of money on it. This is just sort of a depressing thought to me, because all we are then doing with our lives is marketing ourselves. And then the elevation that is placed on art to be something that is supposed to be brilliant when it is just trendy makes me want so much more.
MARY

I have to write this quickly and so I'm going to say things that are hypocritical, I'll misspell (sp?) and I won't be clear, or as clear.
But I am interested in your emails and I feel like you are trying to get to the bottom of something that people have been trying to get to the bottom of for a very long time. And it doesn't just concern the art world. The guy (reverend?) who runs the church I go to -wait you've been there- said something interesting about friendships. It's similar to your local grocery store. You go there everyday, chat w/ the people behind the counter, leave w/ your stuff. Then a big supermarket pulls into town a block down from the little grocery store. Their prices are alot cheaper, so you go there because you have a commercial relationship to that small grocery store. People (Americans?) treat friendships like commercial relationships. They spend time and go out w/ friends for a while and have fun. They enjoy the company of these people because they get something out of the time shared with them. But then, they are in a position to be friends with someone else that can give them more. It's a commercial relationship. You're thinking about investments and returns instead of just being a good friend.
Everyone wants to be cool. Even not wanting to be cool can be a form of wanting to be cool. Everyone does it. We're all fucked. How do we respond to this reality? Alot of people climb all over other people to get higher and some people denounce the whole thing (only to become yet another group of people fighting each other to get what they want).
And everyone eventually dies.
have a good weekend everybody.
BRIAN

Before I read anyone else's thoughts on this...
I am fuckin sick of talking about art and fashion. Seriously. If you do, I will kill you (and steal your clothes). I think that shit is really boring, and we've beat it to death. Nobody outside of the artworld cares about art's relation to fashion. People outside of fashion care about fashion. Nobody gives a fuck about who Dana Schutz besides art people, and not even all of them do...
Yeah, I don't make drawings except in my sketchbook, or as little gifts for some people... that's all. Obsessive drawings are borings, or brawings... my barbzerdry...
Otherwise, I don't want to talk about the puke that is the armory. It was a lot work. I got sick of it, fast, cause it all looked the same. It was a comodity, art is, totally, a lot of time. I tihnk people will hate my paintings when they see them...some told me they were really bad, and that they were so bad they dreamt about them... that made me happy... that's a good thing. Matt said something to the ends of unsettling how people think...shaking up people's taste, that sort of thing. The armory is the taste, the bland bland taste.
whatever.
I worked way too much to sell some shit that would appeal to people's taste... that's the job... that's the armory... what is revolutionary or avante garde? is that a mythology by the wayside...? can't it really exist?
blah. I got netflix, if anyone wants to watcha flic. got napolean dynomite, and zaotoichi...
KADAR

Hey Mary, good response...
this is what I get for writing before reading everything... oh well. lets make some shit. make it good. that's why we're all friends...
KADAR

Brian, I agree that that happens but it sounds miserable. I dont think it has to be that way. I think this is an esecially good point: "Everyone wants to be cool. Even not wanting to be cool can be a form of wanting to be cool"
In NY we are allowed more than the rest of America to deny social constructs, and at the same time we are glad that they are there. Our entire life is formed around these constructs - from manners to language to using a bank instead of digging a hole in the back yard - wether to accept them, play into them, work around them, we spend an eternity considering them. Pretty amazing. Also, if you outwardly fight a construct, you are acknowledging it, which keeps it in a perpetual cycle of existence. But if you ignore it, it can many times be harder for you to do simple things.
I met with a friend from CT last night who is organizing events there to do with topics like womens rights, political teach-ins, racial tension, etc...and she was writing something on it and asked some questions, all very feminist, and throughout, we had to consider, yea, if i want to say this word is empowering or whatever, then of course i am playing into that mode of thought just as much as the opposition is, and then it is such a waste of time and energy...but there is a fine line, if you completely ignore constructs it can just be harder for you. well this is sort of off the subject and im at work so see you guys tonight -MARY

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