Art and the Real World?

I will be leaving for Basel, Switzerland the end of the week. I'm not sure if I will be able to post from where I will be staying/performing. I hope so.

I'm reprising the Ringmaster role in "Il Tempo del Postino" the Art/performance show we did in at the Manchester Arts Festival a couple years ago. If you look back in the archives of this blog (around July 10, 2007) you will find an extensive narrative on the show as we did it then. I am sure it will be just as interesting this time around. I'm not sure if Mathew Barney will be involved. If so I am sure his contribution will be just as controversial.

I'm very excited to be around the artists again. The art world is so different from the circles I frequent it is really refreshing to hang out as an observer. I think what I learned the most from them it to let art be art. I tend to want to explain what I am doing, make sure everyone gets it. These artist don't have that same sense of obligation. If the observer gets it, good, if they get it on another level, that is okay too. If they just don't get it at all then nothing is wrong... that is just the reaction. The true artist doesn't care if you are a fan or outraged by their work. They just do the work and any reaction is the intended result. I suppose it is a matter of confidence in your specialty coupled with the idea that the art you do is important simply because it came through.

I tend to want to play the numbers. I want more people to like what I am doing than don't or than have no opinion at all. Of course this tends to create a situation of playing it to the lowest common denominator. It is possible to water down the soup enough for everyone so that it loses all the taste that could set it apart. Rather than a unique and acquired taste it becomes blandly forgettable.

More later.

As you were,
Jay