Apocalyptic Rumination: Part 1

Hi there, denied my normal writing channels during covid19, here is my first blog on this site. I wrote it in response to the Australian Government's continued destruction of the Arts sector. I wrote this in the aftermath of the fires, so you can expect more is to follow!!!

#bigburlyboss

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Did you know that Hitler wanted to be an artist?

He failed. His style was criticised by John Gunther of the Vienna Art Academy, that young Adolf applied to in 1907 and 1908.

Of Adolf’s paintings Gunther wrote "They are prosaic, utterly devoid of rhythm, colour, feeling, or spiritual imagination. They are architect's sketches, painful and precise draftsman ship; nothing more.”

Of the paintings where Hitler drew human figures, the critic said, Adolf’s art “represented a profound disinterest in people.”

The Vienna professors told him to go to an architectural school and stop trying to make art.

He went to war as a foot soldier. He then went into politics. Then he made an army. Then he used the army to destroy art. What to learn from this?

I know loads of people in the arts who have ability and skill, but lack a genuine artistic flair. This is something life sorts out. Not to worry. You either make it through or you don’t.

I also know many who have neither ability or said flair, who realise this and force themselves into positions of ‘support’ but use that position to gaslight and abuse other artists.

Warning!!! Danger Will Robinson!!!

It’s a personality type and there is often a pattern to their behaviour. They are not irrelevant. They are not bottom feeders. I have seen some become producers creating reefs around themselves that vital artists gravitate towards like colourful fish. But said producer is often more interested in controlling the art form, all the while placing themselves at the pinnacle of it, destroying the natural flow of what evolves on said reef. It is an artificial reef. These producers often make themselves the main attraction, using their position to become someone of note within the art form, and punish the artists around them by underpaying them, offering a poor existence within the platform, they exploit the artists’ energy and talent, chipping away at performers’ confidence and morale, whilst pretending to have the performer’s best interest at heart. I’ve seen others offer themselves as mentors and preach destructive pieces of advice such as “you should take out a loan to buy your costumes” knowing well and truly that the artist who does this will destroy their career onstage before they even start. I’ve seen some run competitions, making themselves powerful and appealing to up and coming performers. But it is a manoeuvre of propaganda, the promoter wanting to be seen as the community king pin, when in fact are just trying to control who gets where- and it’s another golden opportunity to get away with behaving like an arsehole to people with more talent but less opportunity. Some become bureaucrats in positions of control who eke out their existence in partitioned, carpeted cubicles in the offices of funding bodies.

The decision of what is valid art, in terms of our funding, is often in the hands of people who have rarely ever been successful practicing artists… and they are paid by our government… and our government are fascists… bringing us around again to our case study Adolf Hitler. The above probably explains why the funding process is not artist friendly at all, and I think it is designed that way, to make the production of pure art as impossible and demoralising as can be.

Again, we see those who do not make art, but claim to ‘love art’, getting to decide what art can be made and what cannot be made. Who are these people? How sway-able are they? Do they understand art? Do they speak artist at all? Or is getting funding about sucking the right d#@* in the right way? Is it like the sports commissioner bungle we witnessed in 2020 with nepotism and favouritism playing a huge roll in who wins the funding lottery? And then there’s the big question- if your art is really that vital to Australian culture- why does it need funding at all? Shouldn’t it pay for itself? Shouldn’t audiences be clamouring to see what you do? It draws the question- what role do performative art forms play in Australian culture. How do our fellow Australian’s view art? Is art really just the palatable wall paper of our country, there to distract, but not too much, to add texture but not take over the room- to work in harmony with all the other elements carefully selected by our government to be in that neatly considered room called culture; rather than a shock of red splatter from where we’ve blown our brains out on their nice, much deliberated, beige feature wall? Many people, including artists themselves, parrot the mantra that we are there to distract people from their stressful lives as they work in unfulfilling, pointless jobs, raising thankless, screen-addicted children, staving off their innate nihilism with alcoholism and a pinch of art on the side playing its role as ‘a bit of colour’ in the bleak skid-mark of their lives? Its not a great mantra for artists nor their patrons.

If this is what you have been telling yourself for years- ask yourself- Is this all you really do? Is this what you tell yourself to “validate” your existence as an artist? (Because, after all, in middle class Australia, artistic endeavours must have social validity, especially if you are applying for funding.) Is this how you have been made to see yourself and your art? As a distraction…? Or are we a dangerous hive who walk that fine line between madness and genius? Are we shaman bringing information from some other place and anchoring it in the physical realm? Is that why non-artist control of our product comes into play?

Is this why so many people without an artistic bone in their body- like Hitler- wish they were artists, and when they realise they do not have that thread of shamanistic gold woven through their souls, they turn into something entirely the opposite of creation… and try to control what is art and destroy what is not; all the while telling themselves they are providing both artists and society with a much-needed filter?

Because that is exactly what Hitler did, and I think it was driving force for The Fuhrer- which is entirely disturbing and amazingly empowering too. There is a very good reason artists are feared and Hitler knew it. Those phoneys I’ve mentioned know it. The Liberal Party knows it too.

Do you really want to let funding bodies decide our position as wallpaper, or do you want to be that splatter of bright red blood on the wall reminding people of the cost of their social comfort?

Because if all artists do is save society from the mass suicide of depressed bourgeois ant-farmers, overdosing on frappuccino barbiturates whilst doing ashtanga yoga in three-piece business attire… then perhaps we should all just stop creating and let them jump.

Or is art something completely different? When it comes to our patrons are we really an ‘US’ and ‘THEM’? Do they need us- do we need them? Do we need anything to make art at all? Do we need to make art? Is our relationship symbiotic or are they parasites? Are they the voyeur to our existential exhibitionism. If a tree falls in the woods and no-one is there to hear it, does it make any noise? What is the sound of one hand clapping? Do you eat yourself each morning, and shit yourselves back out at night? Or are we just all speaking over thetop of each other, shouting into space, howling at the moon, breathing the same air, writing scribbles on the permanent wall of social media, and hoping our thoughts survive our life times- like the Egyptians used chisels on rocks- hoping that some small part of your existence survives your existence... I WAZ 'ERE... Its all an illusion.

Break free.

If you are waiting for funding bodies to validate your artistic existence, you will be waiting for a long time. In the meantime your art will shrivel and your potency will fade. Make art now. Make it with no money. Make art that doesn't have to please the funding bodies. Make it like you’re making a weapon designed to give life to the broken.