20 Planet of the Arts / December 1996 Warning: The following article contains language that may be offensive to some readers. Reader’s discretion is advised. *ART IS DEAD AND SO ARE YOU* *MAD UTOPIAN DREAMS ARE LIFE’S BLOOD* *IT’S AFTER THE END OF THE WORLD, WHY NOT DREAM OF LIFE* One possible definition of art is some- thing that explores new aesthetic territory, opens doors and creates a new understanding of a situa- tion or a relationship. Another definition of art is something to do in your spare time, a hobby. These are the artists who should be sent to the gas chambers; weak and petty, weepy faggots trying to express themselves and share their deep inner self with the world. A common misconception is that anyone gives a shit, or that painting can actually do anything but pass the time and maybe in the best possible case look pretty. Most people are already dead, lifeless trash. Zombies of Death. Art students are worse; upper-middle class nothings, overprivileged com- placent losers. Art school is a diffusion chamber, a Vomit Manifesto by Jubal Brown place where disillusioned, cloudy-headed young people go to grow up and get all that useless cre- ative energy out of their system or else learn to sell themselves and become designers (whores and maggots). the divine madness of love and absolute freedom, let him be slain and disposed of like the shit that he is. art school! All they contain is a stale, lifeless, obe- dient crust. not in some stagnant object. Let our creative desires fall out into the world and shine through our actions, informing our lives with a divine and complete light; filling all our movements, every step, every breath, every beat of the heart with the aesthetic, passion, reverence and magic of the most brilliant Immaculate conception... Should the artist aspire to anything but Burn down the galleries, burn down the Let us make our art here in our real lives, Die Hard by M.C. Wrapper Painters today are in a quandary in that they practice that which has been declared dead throughout this century, and especially since the sixties, namely easel painting. The rise of new technologies for representation, painting’s continual reliance on institutions and finally the closure of Modernism were to seal painting’s fate. Painters today face a clichéd sentiment that they are necrophiliacs pursuing an antiquated craft. To a large degree the idea of painting's death reflects the domineering influence and centrism of Modernism. This century has been marked by an insatiable quest for innovation along with a growing importance of the role of the critic. As painting's few fundamentally radical possibilities had been played out, the over zealous cry was issued. Painting’s supposedly final, narrow, and vital avenue described (prescribed) by Greenberg both forecasted and foreordained Modernism’s closure. However, the procla- mation of painting’s death overemphasizes the impor- tance of the wholly new and modernism’s role, reveals a temporo-historical centrism, and under evaluates context. Quite simply, this century's master narrative claimed dominion over Art and deter- mined the story’s and accord- ingly Art's ending. Writers and artists today “poke holes” in Modernism’s claims regard- ing “purity”, non-objectivity, a monolithic, progressive art history, and in the hierarchical relationships posited. One could argue for instance that instead of envisioning the gen- erative breakthrough of abstraction narrowing to nullifica- tion, “alloverness”, and associated closure in a strict linear fashion, one could see a cyclical phenomenon with nullifica- tions accumulating new and specific meanings with each major and minor eruption. Perhaps the most pertinent point is that prematurely announcing painting's demise reveals, in typically Modernist fashion, a disavowal of the importance of context. An artwork’s visual similarity to or appropriation of one of the past does not necessarily imply a lack of originality or a stag- nancy. As contexts shift over time so does the meaning of the referent. Duchamp’s lesson largely forgotten during Modernism has figured centrally in the art of the eighties and nineties. Artists such as Sherrie Levine explicitly asserted this point by solely employing context to recon- figure historical artworks. Contemporary painters freely draw from aspects of painting's history providing a multi-contextual, multi- referential hybrid to a degree previously unknown. Fundamentally, considering context involves a dialogue between art and life that had been stifled during Modernism. Modernism“ is an end to a particular theory of what constitutes Art. Some claim that what has ended is Art History, the reign of successive hegemonies and dictums stating the nature of Art. Since the seventies a | . pluralism has ensued in which “nothing is obliged and everything is permit- ted”. Artists are relatively “free” to define art on their terms (albeit somewhat cul- TO. THe VLANET) oF THe PLANET, : FOR THe PLANET THE FLESH, ST 004. NOVEMBER (7 1996. BY:LVKEO: turally determined), with little fear of ostracism from a reign- ing majority. Painting however, is often cited as being unable to respond to this new spirit of engagement with life (context) and as being shackled to the corpse of Modernism. Painting is less manifestly or less directly engaged with today’s techno- logically oriented world. This only ensures that paintings will continue to be regarded as strange things to the general public. Increasingly, painters recognize the biases, the pecu- liarities, and the somewhat marginalized voice of painting and have employed them to their advantage in terms of ‘both form and content. Thomas Lawson for instance, consid- ers an investigation of the technologically mediated nature of contemporary life to be a primary concern for artists, and the painting medium to be the most “...compelling...”, perverse...” and powerful in its unsuspecting and seeming- ly inappropriate nature. This is the familiar “critique from without” argument. There is truth in the claim that painting is shackled to Modernism with its aging conception of an art practice, history, and museum that is aloof and insu- lated from daily life. Painting has been the beloved, privi- leged medium of Modernism. The bourgeois art museum does bear witness to a concomitant history with Modernism and to painting's continued institutional dependence. To deem an art form I LAN DOue lait simply by virtue of its inherent institutional infrastructure and setting disavows the audience’s range of emotive and intellectual experience, over determines the influence of the art gallery and museum, and is overkill. Furthermore, “tradi- tional” art forms have critiqued the museum from within its walls, and the ensuing compromise and dialogue has been a continual and vital characteristic of the art museum. As new technologies have liberated cultural and artistic exchange, painting and the museum have relented their totalitarian status. Their versatile and open-ended nature is called upon as they endeavor to offer relevant discourse to an admittedly elite audience. In closing, the cry that painting is dead is a brusque revo- lutionary cry, a categorical and exaggerated slogan. The arguments sallied against painting have sound justification and help to define the nature of contemporary art and the fundamental conceptual shift that it has undergone. <@ 20 Planet of the Arts / December 1996 Warning: The following article contains language that may be offensive to some readers. Reader's discretion is advised. Vomit Manifesto bby Jubal Brown “ART IS DEAD AND SO ARE YoU "MAD UTOPIAN DREAMS ARE LIFE'S BLOOD* 'S AFTER THE END OF THE WORLD, WHY NOT DREAM OF LIFE* ‘One possible definition of arti some- thing that explores new aesthetic territory, opens doors and creates anew understanding ofa situa tion or a relationship, “Another definition of artis something to o in your spare time, a hobby. These are the Antists who should be sent to the gas chambers; ‘weak and petty, weepy faggots trying to express themselves and share their deep inne self with the world. A common misconception is that Anyone gives a shit, or that painting can actualy 4 anything but pass the time and maybe in the best posible case look pretty. Most people are already dead, lifeless trash. Zombies of Death. Art students are worse; ‘Uppermiddle class nothings, overpivleged com- placent losers. Art school i diffusion chamber, @ place where disillusioned, cloudy-headed young people go to grow up and get all that useless cre- ative energy out of ther system or else learn to sell themselves and become designers (whores and maggot) Should the artist aspire to anything but the divine madness of love and absolute freedom, let him be slain and disposed of lke the shit that he is Burn down the galleries, urn down the art school! All they contain i a stale, lifeless, obe- dient cust. Let us make our art here in our real lives, ‘ot in some stagnant object. Let our creative