... + pollock + twombly + tapies + schnabel + kiefer + ...
toward abstraction -
how else can we decipher:
‘something ain’t right’
or ‘something is ...’
when these labyrinths of complexity,
causes and effects
have morphed simplicity
to the limits
of elastic instability -
maybe its only a matter of adaptability,
like i’ve been saying for years ...
the mind has got to learn to process and understand data in this ‘age of information’ differently - simultaneously - similar to a multi level chess game - in the same way our mind and eyes learned to see depth in two dimensional formats - we must learn to process data in a multidimensional syntax with all its implication and meaning - not only because of the immediacy of global intake, but also because of the multiplicity of paradigms, language, and context - not to mention meaning, intention, and motive - pollock didn’t happen into history by accident - consciousness required a vehicle to understand some of the implications of that time in history - and it was allowed to happen because of a tradition of acceptance in the development of the arts up until that time - but what happened to that newly imported tradition of intelligentsia when it landed on the shores of america where it needed money and freedom to flourish after the devastation of europe during the second world war - it quickly became relegated to a form of entertainment and commerce rather than a language of the soul [as the french would say], and soon after that in this puritanical pseudo monarchy it required control: ie, mcCarthy, nixon, reagan, and bush ... lawyers - cum - ceo's and politicians became the harbingers of taste and the gatekeepers to the ‘top’ one percent ...
no wonder the last real ‘movements’ demise coincided with nixon’s resignation and pardon - the stage was set - after that its merely a matter of placating the masses - paralyzing them with details, fear, spin, and skullduggery .. and for those who ‘emerge’ - they’re either bought off or blistered by oz - or as nichelson said in ‘chinatown’; “i’m the leper with the most fingers” ...
any premeditated idea of ‘essence’
is almost nostalgic
with today's’ convolutions -
everything is always
not what it appears to be. ...
the right hand doesn’t know [or see]
what the left hand is doing,
or know its desire, motivation,
will or intent ...
a tree is no longer a tree without being fodder for consumption, material for heating, or lumber for building, or an activists’ contention, or a developer’s nightmare in the line of progress, or the same’s material for expansion, or profit for indulgence, dollars for lobbys, or political gain, controlling other countries, raping rain forests, global warming, the last vestige of medicine’s hope, childhood memories, or depictions of romantic idealism, [ad infinitum] ...
a tree, most importantly, is an expendable commodity - regardless of why it evolved or what it was meant to do or be, or hold together, simply -
a means to an end ...
something grown to be ‘used’ -
and that casual - jaded cognition
has permeated every aspect of our lives to the extent that [depending upon where you sit in the class structure]
everything and everybody is commodity or waste ...
that’s not progress,
that’s ravenous, gluttonous cannibalism -
where scavengers like me -
and generations that might follow,
are left to pick at the bones -
with wild abandon ...
so much to be seen in a painting ...
