Sunday Dot to Dot: Playstation to J.S. Bach

As you'll be aware I am a fan of the internet, music, popular culture and so on. I'm going to display in quite a subjective manner the power of new media in terms of access to high art by using Youtube to link the popular late 1990's Playstation game Parappa the Rappa to J.S. Bach via hip-hop and Kraut Rock. Admittedly first of all one must be curious and seek out the source of audio samples but the game is simple enough, like the Bacon Factor but for art or music.

The Parappa the Rappa car Rap >>>>>>



Is based on the Busdriver track Avantcore >>>>>



Which samples Kraut rock Doyens Can >>>>>>



And in doing so shows a predilection in Busdriver for sampling great German Music >>>>>



And so we finish with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra's rendition of J.S.Bach's Bwv1067 Orchestral Suite - 07 - Badinerie

Saturday Morning TV

Illustration & Direction: Ian Stevenson
Music: Jamie Scott and the Town

Berlin TV tower - lift off from Fabian Tischer on Vimeo.

Direction: Fabian Tischer

Biennale Highlights: Swoon

Swoon and a motley crew of collaborators didn't need an invitation to show at the Venice Biennale they just went and did it. They built rafts from reclaimed detritus sailed the Adriatic and invaded the Worlds most prestigious Biennale (with a little help from Jeffrey Deitch)

I dreamed of doing this sort of thing myself but from across the land, I may yet still obtain the $150'000 budget Swoon raised to realise this project. The whole venture is a Utopian tale of collaboration, from raising the funding to negotiating the waterways a 30 strong team of determined individuals achieved something quite remarkable.

Read Vanessa Grigoriadis article on the project here

Visit Swoons project website here

Enlightement NOW!!!!

Amid glasses of whisky sours and nips of the amber nectar the convivial introduction to this years Edinburgh International Festival theme was set. The event, organised by The Skinny (click on title link) featured a panel consisting of Johnathon Mills, Fiona Bradley and Jackie Wylie whose articulate and passionate descriptions of their respective programmes facilitated illuminating insights into the critical machinations of their projects. It was also a valuable opportunity to understand something of their personalities and as such the subjective elements of flavour and nuances one can illicit from their curation - dare I say it, their taste. So, no dry polemics here.

It is fair to say the Johnathon Mills set the agenda, as director of EIF he is responsible for the curatorial theme. In the year of Scottish Homecoming he has made a valuable contribution to the branding of Scotland PLC by directing the worlds attention away from the Tartan, Whisky and Shortbread and towards the rich academic and cultural heritage the nation enjoys. One could argue that how could the festival be steered toward any other bearing given the context it’s nestled in, the compass in this instance shows true North. Mills academic rigour and verve for research were evident in his contextualisation of his programme in which he set his curation against the backdrop of the genisus of The Enlightenment, The Festival and the parallels that can be drawn with those events as moments in social and political history with the situation we currently find ourselves in. Indeed, the very act of holding such an event, this public discussion, was apt to the theme as Mills pointed out the Enlightenment was about Ideas and the open discussion of them. From a geeks point of view it might have been useful to mention the Frankfurt Schools theory of Enlightenment which informed much of Post WWII British cultural policy. In the birth of the Edinburgh Festival we have the Provost of the time Lord Faulkner state “The Edinburgh International Festival is an attempt for a Festival to embrace the world.” The idea of turning toward the bosom of enlightenment and leaving the “endarkenment” as Mills puts it rings truer than ever. It seems that we should embrace the festival and the arts as a wider context more tightly than ever. It could be said we are in the midst of a perfect storm, Scottish Cultural policy is in flux with funding structures about to be changed dramatically, economic recession is snapping at the heals of cultural organisations (In the USA private/public partnership funding for cultural institutes has been decimated seeing the loss hundreds of galleries, jobs and perhaps yet thousands worldwide) and added to this there is a current of apprehension at the immanent arrival of a Conservative Government at Westminster. So when Fiona Bradley introduced Cultural Capital into the discussion the idea of what we have and what we value and what has been built up and invested into our reservoir of enlightenment, a key issue in the function of the festival was raised.

We can agree that the Enlightenment for the most part owes it dissemination to the advent of the Guttenburg Press whose invention allowed mass publication of information for the first time, similarly we could say that with the advent of the internet and self publication, blogging and social media our access to knowledge has once again been freed from the hands of institutions who are served by controlling knowledge/information. In the same spirit access to the festival should be addressed but with the important addition of addressing intellectual access. We have so many means of disseminating information it might be assumed we have an embarrassment of riches - access to the arts could not be more open? I believe that we need to address how the information/knowledge we consume is approached and digested by the public. CultureScotland sets out high ideals in its notion of Cultural Entitlement but it fails to address the key issue in the entitlement to enlightenment - Education.

I do not believe it is the responsiblity of cultural intsitutions to join the dots for the public when it comes to viewing/consuming the arts. Illucidation is a key element of the work of any organisation in the “culture industry” but if we can return to the idea of Cultural capital for a moment you may see how important my next point is. Under the gathering clouds of economic turmoil in the culture industry or not, investing in the visual and philosophical vocabulary of this nations children is the key to filling up that reservoir of enlightenment and unlocking a genuine appreciation of the arts, of making cultural entitlements tangible. That is why I believe that the art and design curriculum should be scrutinised, augmented and then made a core component to at least Standard Grade level in schools. Over a generation this investment could raise cultural critical capital to levels we find across Europe - The thing is, there’s no point having tickets for the opera that cost £10 if it’s only middleclass pseudo intelectuals like me that get the benefit of it.

A good point was made to me - it’s a huge challenge to change the quality of access, it's as much about feeling comfortable in a social situation where the arts are concerned as being able to afford it and understand it. How do you hold yourself, what are the manners at the bar, should I drink from the bottle, what do I wear, when do I clap, when do I cheer, can I walk out, do these people mind sitting next to me?

The white elephant in the room for me was Relational Aesthetics. I was impressed with the passion Jackie Wylie had for her programme but I felt she needed to raise the issue of social engagement in artists practices more succinctly (I’ll write a specific blog about her programme as it is so fresh and fits with many of my own ideas). Fiona Bradley mentioned Rirkrit Tiravanijas work with the Modern Institute in Glasgow as an instance of a project for the people by the people with a significant contemporary cultural impact on the world art stage. By using a simple question “What is your favorite film” he was able to build a consensual forum of community activity and create temporary synergy through serving food and screening the four most popular choices at a cross roads in the neighbourhood. The films were incidentally, Casablanca, A Bug's Life, The Jungle Book and It's a Wonderful Life. Now perhaps the public weren’t aware of the critical nexus this particular brand of cultural interventionism was spawned from and it could be accused of being popularist rather than addressing the key issues which would genuinely facilitate a greater sense of community but this sort of activity where the public is directly addressed and asked to participate in the formation of the programme provides an interesting dilemma for institutions such as the Edinburgh International Festival.

Access should not be about consensus in so far as the content is pitched down to fit the lowest common denominator but it could be informed via addressing where work is staged in some instances and what over-arching themes might be in others. The Festival this year has achieved one of these aims by taking work to Dundee, it could do much more with this. The Scottish Borders, the heart of which is only some 40 miles or less away would benefit greatly from greater access to the diverse programme the EIF offers. Johnathon Mills may yet be the man to open up for what has seemed a long time quite an austere institute. When he coins "Enviromental Poetics" as a theme in conversation it is clear his desire to address the quotidian in terms of transcendence is based in a noble pursuit - EIF can be for everyman.

In Germany the Enlightenment was known as the "Zeitalter der Aufklaerung" literally translated it means the age of clearing things up. With this exceptional opportunity to engage in the history of The Enlightenment and a new context in which to consider what Enlightenment may be, it is my hope that whilst we find ourselves and our institutions in flux that we grasp this opportunity to clear some things up.

Biennale Highlights: Marjetica Potrc

"Marjetica Potrc proposes sustainable architectural solutions and modes of living that counter deep ecological and economic crisis, the explosion of the mega-cities and the dissolution of modernist projects and utopias. Her Series of Captioned images provide would-be activists with globally valid lessons learned from local experience."

I was fascinated by the strategies Potrc laid out in her work. Her ideas really made me reassess urban living. I'm based in rural Southern Scotland and often find this a hindrance to developing my practice but as Potrc points out the kind of community I am part of and the intensity of impact that it has on the environment is relatively sympathetic. I have a small and close network of friends whom I interact frequently with (community I guess) and in many cases we deal rather in barter economics than buying and selling goods for cash. We trade services and share tasks. I'm sure these activities take place else where - I know from city living that they do.

I like how she links seemingly disparate communities from the Balkans and the Amazon and shows how community ventures can enrich lives whether it's sustainable farming or community building/adaption (see painting Modernist Tower Blocks in Tirana). She highlights the significance of the creation of personal space and it's important effect of psychological geography.



In a sense this idea of adapting to, customising or hacking your environment sets forth a manifesto for much of the art work I am interested in.

Clay Shirky: How Social Media Can Make History

This video crystallizes much of what I believe to be driving the Neo-Enlightenment. I think that the TED website is an astounding resource and I have spent many hours feeding my brain there. I also want to direct a little praise towards Wired Magazine as well - I've been thoroughly enjoying the revival of the UK edition and think it's worth directing you towards their website:

Wired UK

The here and now

Imagine creating something rough that is so tactile and exposed to the public that it becomes smooth, polished and seamless as if it were liquid. Eternally yours, Piazza San Marco.
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Nevermind/Nirvana?

I'm currently outside the Elmgreen and Dragset curated Scandinavian Pavilion confronted by what British readers will understand as 'Barrymore's Folly' - for those not so familiar with UK tabloid news what I'm interpreting this portion of the Biennale as is a witty full stop to the Scandinavian show's statement. The Wallpaper Magazine perfect interior that has been constructed in the pavilions interior alludes to weight and pressure taste exerts on us. I've already witnessed several perma tanned and bejewelled grand dames coo at the exquisite design objects. The musak playing inside recalls the 'reveal' scene in a makeover show. It's so hip, so chic, so mortal.
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Chromed out rims

Sat in the departure lounge on my way to Venice via Zurich. I've recently received a couple of positive emails about my theory on the New Enlightenment. I think last nights announcement by Google about their new Chrome OS will prove useful to me. It's well documented as a challenge to the existing operating systems out there and the focus on cloud based software, open source style programming and mobility may be a good starting point to introduce "the cathedral and the bazaar"(google it *winks*) as a means to greater understand the impact Googles venture will effect.
I understand we may well just be substituting one monopoly on information with another but please forgive me, I'm only 'Humean' after all :-/ !
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I killed my laptop :-/

I've just spent an enjoyable weekend in Aberdeen catching up with old friends and making some new ones as well. I thought I'd see if I could get my email posting working for the blog as I'm off to Venice tomorrow. My laptop is bust so I'm just taking my cameras and blackberry. I'll try and make some work whilst I'm there and post some thoughts to the blog. Check out the link to Dancing in the Dark on the side bar to see what's fresh In Aberdeen as well.
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The Case Against Neo-Enlightenment?

Read the Fox news story here

Read the Book here

The Age of Neo-Enightenment supported.

I have come across a useful article online 21st Century Neo-Enlightenment by
Julie Barko Germany which supports part of my criteria for the qualification of this period being one of Enlightenment. Julie Barko Germany sets out the criteria for a social/political digital enlightenment by stipulating that in order for 21st Century Democracy to progress:

1. A system of education that enables the population to possess more than just a functional literacy. We need an education that teaches technological literacy and fosters innovation system.

2. Increased, affordable access to the Internet, including civic Wi-Fi, cybercafés and Internet stations in economically disadvantages areas, and broadband networks in rural communities.

3. A spirit of public leadership that understands and values technology, and a belief that some buzzwords of the Digital age—such as “increased openness,” “collaboration,” and “transparency”—are imperatives for public office, not clichés.

4. Additional guarantees of free speech and privacy, despite the temptations that ubiquitous computing will pose to more closely monitor citizens and restrict speech.

5. Finally, a lack of fear about and exploration of the potential of technology to make voting more accessible and more direct.

I think the manner in which Julie Barko Germany has coupled these ideas with examples by Marquis Antoine-Nicolas de Condorcet is nicely put. I am aware though that the proponents of the Enlightenment were for the most part Les Grands or Bourgeois and although the likes of Jurgen Habermas cites the existence of a public sphere the access to it as a means for debate was very much restricted. One could argue that a certain level of learning should be attained before entering into a debate but the fact remains that that public sphere was not a democratised space. I can give this blog as an example of why an element of elitism might have been required - in this space I present ideas that lack clarity and are temporal and nascent but conversely how am i to improve the quality of my thought without debate?

Damn, I'm running late - I hate feeling G.C.S.E. level when I need to be Degree level to sort this muddle out. I need more evidence.

SAMO © AS INSTITUTIONAL CRITIQUE

I've been tossing a couple of ideas around in my head today and I think it's in no small part due to Jerry Saltz' review of the Venice Biennale show. Much of what I've been reading about the Biennale has been a little negative. I think everyone is getting quite nervous about what the next "ism" is going to be. We are in flux once more, tired of post-modernism and looking inwardly to find layers of meaning. I was looking at an interesting website which catalogues some of the SAMO© images and it struck me that Jean-Michel Basquiat, Al Diaz and Shannon Dawson (of the Band Konk) were offering up ascerbic institutional critique of sorts. The anonymity of their acts was really cool and this work in particular got me into Basquiat. (In my opinion he sold out as soon as he stopped contributing to this kind of activity but that's another days blog.)
So back to the point, whilst Saltz bemoans the profusion of instituitional critque and relational aesthetics in the Biennale and wonders what is around the corner I am quietly soaking up ideas from hither and thither. I'm looking to the USA and seeing the Left reclaim the notion of personal responsibility as it's own - no longer the libertarian claxon call of the right - Obama's rhetoric is lip smackingly utopian and enlightened. I sense an undercurrent building through the art world where practice is being placed at the center of the audience's concerns (whether Saltz likes it or not) and the much hyped democratisation of the means of disseminating information and the right to assembly that is facilitated via online social networks all culminates in what we might dare to call the nascence of a Neo-Enlightenment.

So, Is it possible that we are moving into a cultural, political and philosophical period of Enlightenment with a new understanding of the Left, where information and assembly is organised via social networks based on what we have in common ideologically and intellectually and the production of cultural material/art is based on transcendence.

I mentioned this to a friend and she asked two questions:

"Do you think public life should be based on agreement?
Do you think art should be conceived in terms of transcendence?"

I think that dissent and difference are important but as a means to find concord. I believe that transendence in terms of reaching for a horizon in this world rather than plain on another world is a useful means by which to achieve an inclusive group for the production of art that seeks to move on from the aesthetics of commodity and hegemomy.

So where is my evidence of this Zeitgeist? I believe it's been happening for a while, it's not that new, and I think the rest of the world is beginning to catch up only now. Critics may be tired of relational aesthetics, socially engaged art work may seem like jumped up pedagogy or social work and street art may be so much of a commonplace that much of the impact of it's intended detourement is lost but I believe we are only at the tip of the iceberg. As new ideas and practices emanate from the East and the dissemination of work is taken out of the hands of galleries and biennales and taken up by supposed "fringe" hosts ie online social networks, I think while the sale of artworks will continue the fetishising of the art object will diminish. I think the audience will continue to ask "how much is it worth?" but now a monetary value will not be the value that is sought.

The ideas that seem old to us are barely disseminated amongst the global populace. The Neo-Enlightenment period is upon us and those more articulate than me will define it in terms that are less cloudy.

Making WORDS/worlds

This introduction to the idea of Birnbaum's curated show for the biennale illustrates an idea I am very interested in. Through semiotics and in translation the meaning of something when communicated via different languages can be quite different. This point is moot I hear you say. Well, durrr, perhaps. I am trying to imagine what my interpreation of graffiti culture has to do with a halcyon 70's NYC era. How can I appreciate it as it's intended to be. What I have, from an early age, been excited by no longer exists. I grew up watching the film Wild Style:



Which in itself is a parody of the graffiti scene. So you can imagine my facination with the aspects of versimilitude we find in cultural output. I think Marshall McLuhen put it very well when he said "Food for the mind is like food for the body, the inputs are rarly the same as the ouputs." If we consider that we consume culture and digest it then would it not be also right to regard the preperation of it as nuanced. I imagine much as my Cassoulet is to some tastes inauthentic that the creation of the art works I produce would also proove dubious to some tastes. It's this difference that I am currently interested in. In the Cult of Youth the voracious pursuit of material causes many gaps in comprehension. I recall being at a dance hall club in Munich with a group of liberal Germans who were going wild to the beats and chants of some fiercely homophobic Capleton tunes. I thought to myself, there is something wrong here. This is where the product superceeds the products content. This is a parody of a Dancehall Club, this is not ironic, this is not being post modern, this is being wittnes to blind consumerism. Rum adverts and films have conviced us this is the music to listen whilst having a good time.

These ideas are as of yet fragments - much more is yet to come. I have an artwork in the pipeline dealing with this issue, a couple actually. I should go back and read my reference books on semiotics and give Marshall Mcluhen a proper going over again.

I must manifest my research in artworks rather than blogs... I may yet become a Leben traum kunstler. A life dream artist????

The Importance of the Art

By art alone we are able to get outside ourselves, to know what another sees of this universe which for him is not ours, the landscapes of which would remain as unknown to us as those of the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing one world, our own, we see it multiplied and as many original artists as there are, so many worlds are at our disposal, differing more widely from each other than those which roll round the infinite and which, whether their name be Rembrandt or Ver Meer, send us their unique rays many centuries after the hearth from which they emanate is extinguished. This labour of the artist to discover a means of apprehending beneath matter and experience, beneath words, something different from their appearance, is of an exactly contrary nature to the operation in which pride, passion, intelligence and habit are constantly engaged within us when we spend our lives without self-communion, accumulating as though to hide our true impressions, the terminology for practical ends which we falsely call life.

Marcel Proust, in "The Past Recaptured"

Annie are you ok?

I love the optimism, the hope, the generosity which was ingrained in my youthful perception of the King of Pop. He fought the bad guys, saved the world and made it a better place. Rest in Peace MJ I never learned to moonwalk.

We build our own Utopias

A good friend of mine Alastair Wight sent me the link to the above video. I like that the film could be a parody and even is a parody inasmuch that once we start searching for meaning and context in the art world we find it. There are always connections to be made however spurious they may seem. The idea of subconscious art is hilarious, it is the absolute of the critic, I wonder if Joseph Beuys would agree? I mean, if we're all artists right?

I was at a music festival at the weekend and we were promised "art installations" - everyone is at it now... installing art, doing the place up, making it all a bit MAD!!! As is often the case the reality of the project perhaps fell somewhat short of the intention. Kelburn Castle (as you can see by following the link above) is home to one of the most exciting graffiti commissions I've ever seen - the scale of ambition by Os Gemeos and the Marquis of Glasgow was exemplary. It's a model for Estates everywhere. However, what the festival itself provided was a little less pervasive or iconic in terms of artwork... unless... we look at the festival as an opportunity to instigate some kind of Relational Aesthetic. Admittedly, in the field of Socially Engaged Artwork practitioners often seek to give voice to people who have neither the apparatus nor often the indoctrinated vocabulary to express or give evidence of their situation, in other words, to make poinient what is taking place but in the arena of the "music festival" this element of giving aid may not be so integral. I believe it is the apparatus, the tools and the skills of artists working with "relational aesthetics" or concerned with social engagement, participation and inclusiveness that would prove to be invaluable to a music festival wanting to include Art in the scope of it's cultural output.
Festival goers subconsciously or explicitly create mini utopia societies. Once through the door the economic environment is based on barter, interstice or potlach, much of the trappings of modern day life become secondary to essentials like food and drink. Social barriers are blurred and collective endeavors are undertaken. If there was someway to survey this activity and present it, a manner in which to personify or manifest, even distill this perhaps a meaningful rather than indulgent or subjective body could be formed. I'm not an anthropologist nor have I studied sociology but what I do know is that as an artist it is nigh on impossible to make a meaningful art work out of a party. One can focus on the spectacle and approach the metier of Assume Vivid Astro Focus:



or broach the Fluxus like production of the band Found but when using the festival as one's canvas one has to accept that much of ones audience may be reaching for some kind of release rather than a cerebral intervention. Is it possible to give people that and still achieve some modicum of critical artistic merit? Burning Man might be the answer it's certainly the model many festival creators look to.

In a couple of weeks I'm off to the Venice Biennale to check out Danial Birnbaums curation of this years festival. He has operated under the slogan, subject, tag-line of "Making Worlds" suggesting that this is what Art is for - we create new possibilities and ideas of how to live, how we can live. I will be blogging on this further and I also hope to develop bring some cohesion to my idea of a Relational/Socially Engaged Utopiafest.

I wanted to revisit this old work as the space where it was located has now been torn down and redeveloped. I recently was contacted by a member of the Aberdeen FC supporters club the RED ULTRAS (Check out their photostream here)congratulating me on the piece. Looking back the work functioned really well, it was honest and egalitarian.


"Stand Free where ever you may be..."

I made this mural in a derelict fore court next to one of Aberdeen's busiest roads, it also happens to be in one of the most deprived areas of the town but I'm not sure I find that too significant. I just wanted to make a piece which would resonate on a number of levels and highlight a positive aspect of the city. Aberdeen FC "Stands free" of the Church, is non sectarian I feel it also speaks about tolerance.



Admittedly this image of partisan machismo is at odds with the intention I hoped my icon would confer but what is beautiful about it is the intencity of civic pride. It is a shame that this pride is only really visible when in conflict with another body. I would like to create more synergy in the public, more discussion, more questioning, more searching. If I can find more positives to amplify in communities all's the better. I don't want to appear superficial, I understand that sometimes it's more important to provide critique - I think Hewitt and Jordan do this well. This piece done in collaboration with Dave Beech in particular might by a useful if cynical retort to my endeavors:

A Biologist, a Painter and a Sculptor walk into a barn...

I made this sculpture a few weeks ago with some friends. I intend to Scale the structure up by 300% and install in on a piece of common ground. I Imagine it may be a single colour though.



Fragment from "A User’s Guide to Détournement"


....It is the most distant detourned element which contributes most sharply to the overall impression, and not the elements that directly determine the nature of this impression. For example, in a metagraph relating to the Spanish Civil War the phrase with the most distinctly revolutionary sense is a fragment from a lipstick ad: “Pretty lips are red.” In another metagraph (The Death of J.H.) 125 classified ads of bars for sale express a suicide more strikingly than the newspaper articles that recount it.(3)

The distortions introduced in the detourned elements must be as simplified as possible, since the main impact of a détournement is directly related to the conscious or semiconscious recollection of the original contexts of the elements. This is well known. Let us simply note that if this dependence on memory implies that one must determine one’s public before devising a détournement, this is only a particular case of a general law that governs not only détournement but also any other form of action on the world. The idea of pure, absolute expression is dead; it only temporarily survives in parodic form as long as our other enemies survive.

Détournement is less effective the more it approaches a rational reply. This is the case with a rather large number of Lautréamont’s altered maxims. The more the rational character of the reply is apparent, the more indistinguishable it becomes from the ordinary spirit of repartee, which similarly uses the opponent’s words against him. This is naturally not limited to spoken language. It was in this connection that we objected to the project of some of our comrades who proposed to detourn an anti-Soviet poster of the fascist organization “Peace and Liberty” — which proclaimed, amid images of overlapping flags of the Western powers, “Union makes strength” — by adding onto it a smaller sheet with the phrase “and coalitions make war.”

Détournement by simple reversal is always the most direct and the least effective. Thus, the Black Mass reacts against the construction of an ambience based on a given metaphysics by constructing an ambience within the same framework that merely reverses — and thus simultaneously conserves — the values of that metaphysics. Such reversals may nevertheless have a certain progressive aspect. For example, Clemenceau [nicknamed “The Tiger”] could be referred to as “The Tiger Named Clemenceau.”

Of the four laws that have just been set forth, the first is essential and applies universally. The other three are practically applicable only to deceptive detourned elements.


“Mode d’emploi du détournement” originally appeared in the Belgian surrealist journal Les Lèvres Nues #8 (May 1956). This translation by Ken Knabb is from the Situationist International Anthology (Revised and Expanded Edition, 2006). No copyright.

Faust's Study (I) from line 1210

But now, that deep contentment in my breast,
Alas, wells up no more, inspite of all my best
Endeavours. Oh how soon the stream runs dry,
And in what parching thirst again would lie!
How often this has happened to me!
Any yet, there is a remedy:
We learn to seek a higher inspiration,
A supernatural revelation -
And where does this shine in it's fullest glory,
If not in that old Gospel story?
Here is the Greek text; I am moved to read
It's sacred words, I feel the need
Now to translate them true and clear
Into the German tongue I hold so dear.
(He opens a volume and prepares to write)
'In the beginning was the Word': why, now
I'm stuck already! I must change that; how?
Is then 'the word' so great and a high a thing?
There is some other rendering.
Which with the spirit's guidence I must find.
We read: 'In the beginning was the Mind.'
Before you write the first phrase think again;
Good sense eludes the overhasty pen.
Does 'mind' set worlds on their creative course?
It means: 'In the beginning was the Force'.
So it should be-but as I write this too,
Some instinct warns me that it will not do.
The spirit speaks! i see how it must read,
And boldy write: 'In the beginning was the Deed!'

Banksy's Homecoming

My responce to this small and brief piece:

Banksy at Bristol City Museum

I've got a couple of issues to flag up with this exhibition. Firstly, it was my understanding that this show was funded entirely by Banky but in the opening lines of the Guardian piece he was quoted as saying 'This is the first show I've ever done where taxpayers' money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off.' If this is truely the case then Banky's continued tragectory toward the centre and the establishment is a betrayal of the subject he made the crux of his work. I believe once accepted by the establishment he seeks to critique he compromises the quality of his dissent. The mere act of stencilling over a bill board or on the outside of a public gallery is far more incisive at pointing out the gap between rights of access to the means of production of culture and political or cultural hegemony than making a grandieuse gesture like re-curating the gallery in Bristol. He is acknowledging defeat, with out the expressed permission of the market he would be unable to achieve these feets, it really should leave anyone with half a brain thinking, "well... duh!"

I'm saddened to see so many gimmicky flares in this show, the falacy that he is anonymous is yet another function of the market - it maintains his brand. He may be this guy Robin Banks or maybe according to the auto-publishable font of dubious knowledge wikipedia, perhaps he isn't. The fact remains that his brand and artworks are now so heavily invested in that many top collectors and gallerists can not afford to have him unmasked. I don't think Banksy particularly revels in this or enjoys his new found celebrity - it demeans the potentcy of his work, he has always self-merchandised via his books but the cool thing about that was he was actually out there making work, if you saw it with your own eyes it was a massive reward. If you saw it in the book you lost out, you had been had, more fool you for buying into the "Fopp-ish" world of cool.

I think what is needed now is a more considered critical appreciation of the work Banksy produces. Let's not judge him on the magnitude of the gesture but on the quality and integrety of the work. If Banksy has paid for this entire show to be put on he is on the right track, certainly parting company with his Gallery Agent Steve Lazarides would suggest a desire to return to the honest interventionism that he made his name with. In this current environment more than ever we need artists who are willing to show us new ways of understanding the world, who provide effective platforms for discussion and facilitate a means to move forward as a society. Let's stop buying overinflated prints and glossy books and get back out on the streets and search for evidence of enlightenment.