tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522800471258383718.post5201676569817908316..comments2024-03-26T06:56:13.092-04:00Comments on Left Bank Art Blog: Subversive Art SubvertedCharles Kesslerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07068758792988742599noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522800471258383718.post-11494763018947367202012-02-03T09:07:36.056-05:002012-02-03T09:07:36.056-05:00WOW! What an amazing insight.
Mike Kelley,in the...WOW! What an amazing insight. <br /><br />Mike Kelley,in the interview with John Miller that I just posted, said some interesting things in that regard:<br /><br />"There were these Utopian ideas being bandied about, “Well, we can make an art object that can’t be commodified.” What’s that? That’s a gift. If I give you this art-thing, it’s going to escape the evils of capitalism. Well, of course that’s ridiculous, because if you give this thing to junior he owes you something. It might not be money, but he owes you something. The most terrible thing is that he doesn’t know what he owes you because there’s no price on the thing. Basically, gift giving is like indentured slavery or something. There’s no price, so you don’t know how much you owe. The commodity is the emotion. What’s being bought and sold is emotion."Charles Kesslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13661140719490292370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1522800471258383718.post-76863064356778207382012-02-02T17:56:10.357-05:002012-02-02T17:56:10.357-05:00I used to think that work like this--transgressive...I used to think that work like this--transgressive, consciousness raising, institutional critique--had to be careful about getting co-opted by the systems being targeted therein. I'd caution artists so inclined not to underestimate, for instance, the ability of capitalist markets to consume and neutralize their message. Along the lines of your observations, however, I've begun to think the purpose of this art is to beat the system at its own game by packaging its messages as desirable commodities, as if to say the messages they contain are less a call to action of some kind than statements of merely personal opinions. In other words, they're market driven, not content driven as I initially thought; as such, they are highly successful.Carl Belznoreply@blogger.com