The Shitty Week Part 2
Monday, May 12, 2008
I'm sure by now you have some inkling of the content and process of Zander Blom's work, there has been a load of not undeserved hype. My contribution will be to say that it was a thoroughly depressing offering. It wasn't short of beauty, the prints were interesting, visually rich and impeccably executed. Nor was it short of intelligence, depth or wit. It was depressing in that it contained most of the elements of depression: self-reflection, disappointment and futility. Depression isn't necessarily a bad emotion to be getting out of a work, it's just depressing.
Self-reflection is the worst. It's when you start asking stupid questions, the kinds that don't have answers. Like "What does it mean to make art?", and "What does art mean?" or even "What does Modernism mean?" These questions form the basis of Zander's work, in various and more complex forms. These questions have been asked for years, and the answer is the basis for countless works, but is still ultimately elusive. This is the disappointment: you can't break down those questions by breaking down art. If you strip art of meaning, try to find it's basic components, you inevitably create new meaning, you reference the past attempts at the same. Our minds have been colonised by Modern art to the extent that even trying is a reference. Irony is the last refuge: playing this game on purpose to try and negate it, outrun it. But even irony is just disappointed wit.
Finally, futility. What's the purpose of spending four years building a body of work to only come to the conclusions above? Well, this is where Zander has got it right. If you don't try, you'll never know.
Self-reflection is the worst. It's when you start asking stupid questions, the kinds that don't have answers. Like "What does it mean to make art?", and "What does art mean?" or even "What does Modernism mean?" These questions form the basis of Zander's work, in various and more complex forms. These questions have been asked for years, and the answer is the basis for countless works, but is still ultimately elusive. This is the disappointment: you can't break down those questions by breaking down art. If you strip art of meaning, try to find it's basic components, you inevitably create new meaning, you reference the past attempts at the same. Our minds have been colonised by Modern art to the extent that even trying is a reference. Irony is the last refuge: playing this game on purpose to try and negate it, outrun it. But even irony is just disappointed wit.
Finally, futility. What's the purpose of spending four years building a body of work to only come to the conclusions above? Well, this is where Zander has got it right. If you don't try, you'll never know.
Labels: Zander Blom
posted by Robert Sloon at 11:25 AM
7 Comments:
Well at least now it's all been beautifully packaged by Zander, for sale soon at the new chainstore/gallery 'depressedshoppe.com' in a mall near you.
Fucking brilliant! Robert you are such a breath of fresh air. Where are you from? Heaven?
What is depressing about snivelling on about the end pointlessness of Modernism is that it is so fucking conservative. So our Great Western Culture took a fall, having discovered that it was based on some naive pompous self-constucted crap that couldn't hold up under scrutiny. That is called GROWING UP. Discovering that you're not the only little narcissist in the fucking sandpit. The solemnity that overcomes people upon making this awesome discovery makes me want to throw up.
look at you little critics
growing up so fast
you're SOOOOOOOOOO cute!!!
maybe too cute
i hope you all die
not you robert. you can live. but the cunt above me just has to go.
Throwing up in public is what little Blommetjie did with his show. Showing his parents he puked and looking for approval is the only 'depressing' thing about it.
Dear Poes
Besides the personal bit about his parents I don't think that any of this is dissing Zander's show. It's a discussion about a subject which all of us think about quite a lot, which is dealing with the end of Modernism which we all have to do in one way or another, and doing always brings up a lot of totally predictable pitfalls.
So stop missing the woods for the trees and get a grip. Personal mudslinging and little venomous rages are mindless and boring. If that's how stupid you really want to be all your life, leave out the art bit and just read heat magazine, it's all there.
Robert,
Depressed? Colonised? Self absorbed? I don't buy your analysis and could only too easily to turn it against you. I see an emerging intellectual and aesthetic integrity in "The Drain of Progress", and considerable effort and ambition in putting it together. To my mind these are rare attributes, especially for much of what is produced in "Slaapstad".
Nothing wrong with abstract art. Who'd have thought of finding inspiration in a corner of a room?
I generally find myself agreeing with your posts but in this case I think you should dump the tacky theory.
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