"Pseudo-profound language is a stylistic means in many different contexts, like advertising, politics, economics, or even science. Contemporary visual art is notoriously known for its variant: artspeak...."
I tend to go for the big art exhibit books like the John Waters and Spike Lee exhibits. I just got the book for Luna Luna (exhibit in LA that recreates a 1987 art amusement park).
Repression is a rite of passage, they tell us. It’s called being an adult, they say. It’s all part of becoming a semi-well-adjusted member of a society. Smile. Nod. Stay in your lane. Dress for the job you want. Do as you're told. Pay your taxes and your rent. And, most importantly, stuff all your otherness way the fuck down so no one knows, and no one sees...
I enjoyed Jackie Wullschlager's new biography of #Monet so much I wrote this (glowing) review of it for @NWBylines, which extends the micro-review that appeared here a couple of weeks ago.
We talk about achievement. About goals. Setting them. Reaching them. About getting somewhere, becoming something. But what happens the morning after? What happens the next day? After the parade, the party. After they sweep the confetti away. What happens when the big moment fades? Maybe it's never been greatness we were after, but a baseline standard of enoughness brought to our days.
Something happens when you're unhurried, when you escape from acceleration and speed. When you give way to haste-less activity.
Something happens when you tarry, when you linger, when you pause.
You were never trying to escape your life, only what you thought it was supposed to be. Your real life has always been in the attention you give to slow things.
🎉 Coming soon: RAPHAEL: A PORTRAIT, a fascinating film about the extraordinary life, achievements and legacy of Raphael (1483-1520), one of history’s most celebrated and productive artists, in a fresh, original format.
We collect the instances of what's expected of us. Air-quotes-normalcy. Air-quotes-conventionality. Air-quotes-respectability. In other unsaid words, side-eye-conformity. It’s the breakfast of champions, they say...
The construction of political power has always implied the need to generate a continuous flow of artefacts and actions. This matter is brilliantly analysed by Burke in The Fabrication of Louis XIV (1992). The construction of the king’s public image, linked to a sacred dimension, was the result of an unceasing collective production by painters, sculptors, engravers, poets, choreographers, masters of ceremonies, musicians, architects and tailors, among many others (all of them coordinated in a complex system organised by several ministers).
It is a rare bravery to face the factors of our lives that have fallen down, fallen short, and fallen apart. It's being present with unflinching resolve. It's grieving without giving up or giving in. That's what gives us a chance. A chance to be new and renewed. A chance to be deeper and different. A chance to begin and, more importantly, to begin again.
Gift your loved ones with a beautiful photo.
Order before
6 December (Europe)
11 December (USA)
14 December (UK)
to get yours in time for the festivities
🎨 commission. this is a fun one because i drew everything on their own canvas so i can rearange everything in the room like the unpacking or the sims game.