Strawberries are technically nuts, tomatoes are fruits, and bananas are berries. Statistically it is more likely that you get killed on your way to buy a lottery ticket, than your chance to actually win the lottery. The majority of power outages in the US are caused by squirrels, and domesticated cats are responsible for dozens of species going extinct.
The list is long, but this article is going to be short, compared to past Fridays.
If you’ve been listening to my podcasts, you’ll know that I often ask artists about whether they put work into explaining their art or not. Do captions work? Is it worth the effort? Does anybody even read anymore?? Sometimes it’s just not worth the effort.
Universally, I find that the majority of artists want to express their intentions with their work in one way or another. Those that have been doing it for a long time, are familiar with the futility of it all. I always think about how it must be for mathematicians trying to explain why something is the way it is, and having to resort to using basic laymen’s terms to explain applications. Google this: “A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer walk into a bar…”
When there is an underlying narrative that is esoteric it becomes increasingly difficult to communicate it clearly. People will perceive what their mind tells them they want to perceive. I believe the disconnect is due in part to social programming, and also in part to societal circumstance. Some of it is taught and engrained in who we grow up to be, and some of it is simply a product of our social and economic realities.
When it comes to pain and fear, these are two of the core concepts that society teaches us are bad. Avoid them at all costs! And so it becomes an automated mental process to immediately find ways to replace the pain and fear folks are confronted with. Take this pill. Watch this movie. Watch others suffer in the comfort that it’s not happening to you. Turn off the movie and the pain when you want, how you want.
Avoid facing discomfort, by simply moving on to something that is easy to consume, and you won’t be haunted by later. Irony: those things haunting you, are things that will allow you to heal and overcome trauma, if you just stay and face them. You’re so much stronger than society tells you you are.
And so, I continue making art that is hard to consume by the masses. Subsequently, those who stay, are the ones I consider part of my community. They are few in number, but very high in value to me. That’s the real scarcity that nobody wants to talk about; thousands of folks will support a project (pump), and dip as soon as their attention wanes, or their monetary value diminishes (dump). Imagine how this affects the mental health of artists that build communities around their creations. That’s a different kind of pain. The folks who stick around are an actual pleasure to engage with.
To wrap this up, here’s a breakdown of how suspension is perceived, and what is actually happening during the facilitation and creation of these singular moments.
What I create:
What folks think about when they realize it’s real:
What our process actually looks like in the moment:
I’m pretty damn tired from trying to explain my work. I have been for a long time, even prior to sharing it regularly online. It’s not a question of Twitter engagement, or trying to sell my art - it’s the hope that those that ask about it are potentially one of those folks that will understand it, and become one of our community members.
What have you learned from facing your pain, your fears, and discomforts?