sin_blog

BB you reminded me of Hiroshi Sugimoto…

Detail from back cover of Poetry Magazine, quotation from Literary Fame in the Time of Flame Wars (originally “The Fight for Recognition”) by Adam Kirsch

This line is most likely directed at the Keith Gessen topic and certain aspects of intention/reward relation in the art field rather than a general statement, but seeing it stand alone is still unsettling (because of what could be true). Allow me to rephrase it from another perspective:

Because money is needed, people earn; because power is in the wrong hands, people take over; because some values deserve recognition, people make art.

With so many things posted online, it should be very reasonable for me to have a database bankruptcy complex. I always don’t believe God so I don’t think he will listen to me. For those who always talk to him and if you are nice enough, please say the above. Thanks.

Was that a joke, that I’m not making art? Well, most of the time, I’m really not making art, and I’d like to clarify this. To make things simple and avoid turning this entry into a never-ending book, I should explain without discussing what art/artist is. Just a reminder to myself.

Classification is actually not very important. But it matters when people try to assess. Identification is necessary then, so that people won’t hire you as a photographer when you present a portfolio to apply for modelling, or criticize you for the wrong lighting. Equally, I don’t want the lousy pictures that I post on Facebook to be treated as my works of art. In fact, a lot of things that I post elsewhere online are not artworks, at least I wouldn’t consider so.

Consider sin_stuff. Call me conservative, but now I feel comfortable only with Interpretation and music-drawing being treated as art. The other things stuffed in the sin_art category are just for presentation’s sake. !postapostcard! fits barely but its drawings are free-drawings (automatic drawings), so I let it in or it will be put at sin_object. I didn’t know where to put Madcap Machine, so I left it there. The other things are named based on what they physically are. I didn’t use words such as design or writing, and there won’t ever be such a category called photography. There are several things that I am not (I’m not a lot of things, but speaking of arts-related subjects…). I’m never a photographer nor a writer. I do take photos and write, just like everybody else. But not everybody is a photographer and a writer. Right. I’m not a designer too. By job I may be one, but by nature I’m not. Sometimes I mess around with writing lyrics and melodies, but don’t mistake me as attempting to be a musician. Certain things at sin_activity could be easily tagged conceptual art in today’s context where everybody makes art, but please just let activities be activities. Simple.

Or maybe all the things can be called “blog art” or “bloghibition”, who knows.

Anyway, I just want to say, I don’t make art all the time. Most often, I just want to make something.

But I want to be an artist.

After John Baldessari

Paper and text on postcards from Vivienne Westwood’s exhibition A Life in Fashion (Hong Kong)