Yes and…
holding so many things all at once
Weekly wrap:
Yah. What a week. It feels like Covid Time, this week has gone by so fast and also feels like a decade. I took a couple of walks to break from my constant refreshing of news feeds. And enjoyed a lot of beautiful bits of nature. This week has felt very similar to 2017, only bluesky has replaced twitter and everything is times 1,000. After the 2024 US election I refused to let this administration steal my joy and replace it with fear again. I gave over years of my life the first go around. I vividly remember the audible exhale i made watching Biden’s swearing in and the realization that a part of me had been holding my breath for four years. I’m not doing it again. This week that refusal seems to be even harder than I thought it would be. I suppose I didn’t factor in Musk. I thought they would have had a falling out a longtime ago. So here is a reminder to self to actively seek the joy, beauty, and awe that is all around just waiting to be noticed.
Above are a couple of sketches and under paintings I made this week.
I also applied to the Jackson Art Prize with the painting Windows, I posted in last week’s newsletter. In the artwork statement I wrote “there is something here about having to make choices when we don’t really have any great options. About looking back on where we’ve been, maybe mourning the loss of a time where there was a modicum of normality, wondering what is this present, and also where we might go from here.”
This week on the thinking about identity section let’s dip our toes into Dean Kissick’s “The Painted Protest.” In this essay he rants against the over valuing of identity politics which he believes has consumed the entirety of the art world—or at least its many biennales. I am a couple months late engaging with this article—several internet lifetimes. In early December the essay was all over my internet feeds. It struck a nerve. I saw many announcing they were pro or against or eye roll. After all, it is social media, no one has time to think in that endless sea of more and everyone needs to aggressively and somehow morally pick a side. The article was peaking when I along with many millions of others were new to the Bluesky platform. During this time I saw an individual post something like “Kissick’s article is a great barometer on who to follow here. I for one am against.” I did not follow them. If we zoom really far out “The Painted Protest” is arguing against a world of no nuance, no conversation, no spaces where we can wonder and mentally wander and discover something new. Where we can experience more than a prescriptive narrative. In the broad view I agree with this. I can’t stand the idea of living in a world or bubble where everyone and everything is the same because I value diversity. Not only does diversity make a much more interesting environment it is the way any life sustains itself and persists.
Perhaps as any good or employable writer does Kissick says inflammatory and outrageous things which do not always help the argument he proposes. His Make Art Good Again ranting is uncomfortably close to another MAGA. But he did get a hell of a lot of attention and eyeballs on his words. He himself said on Zwirner’s Dialogues Podcast with Helen Molesworth (Dec 4, 2024 edition “Has Contemporary Art Lost its Edge?) that his goal is always to be read by the largest, widest audience. So well done sir.
Much of the above I wrote before these last weeks of Trump and Musk destroying all of our government with the argument that DEI needs to be eradicated and their unabashed pro-Nazi views. Now thinking about this article it also similarly rails against a DEI boogeyman with the supporting evidence being “vibes.” It seems indicative of the pervasiveness of the anti-woke, aka white suprematist, ideology. And I think Kissick is beginning to realize this. In a conversation on “The Art Angle” with Art Critic Ben Davis (who wrote a thoughtful and studied reaction to Kissick’s piece, “Will the Art World Go Post-Woke in 2025”) Kissick repeatedly says “The Painted Protest” was written before the election, as if that context absolves him from the argument he posits. I do think context matters but a more honest or curious response might be to talk about how white supremacist, “anti-woke” talking points permeated his world and wormed into his brain around the time of the US presidential election and what that says about our times. What are some of the implications for a society so easily manipulated by algorithmic reinforcement, or simply constant repetition? What does it mean to platform white nationalist? Isn’t this also identity politics?
Anyway, this past week has been a mind @#$%&! I don’t know that my brain is really up to the task of thinking and I’m not really sure where I was going with this anti Identity politics essay. Maybe that it is a sad trap to reduce a person to a narrow story about their race/gender identity/locale because of course those things matter, as does the inclusion and representation of them. But also they are only bits and pieces in a much vaster, complex, and interesting human puzzle. Pinpointed identity politics likely matter less (certainly are not all encompassing) in the artwork produced by most artists. All artists, all humans, are so much more than any little box people want to parse them into. How to say yes, I am X and also I am so much more. And also representation matters. And also the art made supersedes these narrow visions a wall plate (or curators) wants to seal me under and sell me as.
I think we all should be able to hold many things at once especially in art. If an art is so narrow that it can only be about one thing I’m guessing it is graphic design or propaganda. So, what to do? I don’t know but a start could be to stop taking nuanced multidimensional humans and pressing them into a single note. Let’s value expression and value being curious, and value people and stories that are not identical to us and our own, so we can learn and live more fully, and more truthfully.
Open Call:
Lower Eastside Printshop Keyholder Residency
Deadline: February 15, 2025