Response # The Shock of The New

The Shock of The New was not particularly shocking. This is most likely because it's from about 30 years ago. It seems a good rule of thumb that after 30 years anything shocking becomes mundane. Or pointless.

I did like it, and not just because there were pictures. This presents a problem for me. How am I going to write about something I like? Difficult. Difficult. Difficult.

I could just agree that the art movement has gone the way of something... old. Just as easily I could agree that the very notion of Avante Guarde is extinct. Or at least should be. Burden had himself shot, and masturbated under a gallery floor, which didn’t leave a whole lot left to do. No more shocking, SHOCKING I should say, progression.

But, what I really got a kick from was Robert Hughes acknowledging that art movements in general have very little effect on the mass of people. This of course makes sense. A very small percentage of people give a damn. And of that small percentage the majority either is practicing art in some way, or at the very least writing about it. So, as I seem to be doing a lot as of late... I’m going to focus on the internet.

Because before the internet, if I am to believe what Hughes has to say, in many cases art was being made for the masses. Sure they didn’t care, but it would be hard to say that they were not being taken into account. The internet though, has created a whole different beast. Or a hose of a different color. Or something.

Resulting from limited communication and transportation artists were previously forced to create work that engaged their locality and community. There was a desire to address this. That is if we are to look at the Constructivists, BauHaus, DaDa, they were looking towards social issues and not glancing at their twitter feed. With the arrival of the internet we can all now participate in an unpleasant array of insular systems. There are so many artists tooting each others cyber horns that not much else gets taken into account.

I am a big internet supporter. Do not get me wrong. But, when I think of all the artists making work over the internet, I have to consider that maybe something a little more genuine might get made if they stopped posting pictures of spiderman and went outside for just a second.