Drink This Cola!: animation

1. Means and Ends

What does it take to be my favorite episode of Tom & Jerry? Something situational--like company or inside jokes, shared laughter. It's just funny--a russian blue in a zoot suit sweet talking a prissy pussy. Tom & Jerry successfully communicated to me and my sister--eliciting a certain response (in this case laughter) usually reserved for real life experience. Gee, I thought, this is one smooth cat. My uncle wore a zoot suit to his prom some 60 years post-hoc. I'm not sure what to make of it--I thought it was cool when I saw the cut. But I doubt he got laid.

Is this art? Sure. Where does it place the artist? It is, after all,

A Metro Goldwyn Mayer cartoon

I wonder if modern art has become Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst. Both have effectively robbed Duchamp of his ready-made power. These are two "artists" who've effectively paid to make their product. The argument is that the concept is their own, regardless of the methodology.

They, as "artists", embody the mordant commodity/consumer relationship. So empowered by the idea of their idea that they no longer need invest a personal energy. Hirst did not personally fish the shark for his "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" and Jeff Koons is proudly photographed over his sweatshop of painters and metalworkers.

Without a doubt, they are artists--brilliant conceptualists. But they push the collective notion of art (driven by those willing to purchase and/or admire the individual pieces) into a state of moratorium. By now we should know--the process is just as important as the concept. Assuming time as a linear concept, imagine the Caves of Altamira as the original embodiment of the process and imagine Duchamp as having freed the concept. Now, as we begin to commonly associate time and space as a singular entity, we can see the process and the concept as one.

I imagine Koons employs some hundreds to complete his pieces and thats a lovely idea in times of recession, but has it come down to business? Is the modern artist also a maven of marketing and business savvy? Jay-Z would certainly have you believe so. I enjoyed staring at Hirst's piscine opus--but in my mind I thought "this guy is such a fucking hack". You can lump Warhol in with this class of pop artist; even Dali (Koons was a big fan) who designed the Chupa Chups logo. These are artists who enjoy the dollar.

Media has made commodity of public persona. Artist, chef, musician, designer--you can always expect a posthumous movie or anthology. Their concepts are purely aesthetic--Are they making art or commercials promoting themselves? Before you make a judgment look up the works of Jeff Koons, Mona Hatoum, Jay-Z (yes...) Hirst, Warhol, etc. Try to find, view or listen to their "work" firsthand. Is it art or cult of personality? Can it be both?

2. Moratorium

As something of a post-script, we often muse on a label for contemporary art. If all things promoted as art are in fact considered art--then there is no need for label. It is emblematic of the world we live in. The lines have been blurred in the supposedly post-racial world. Art is art and it's now.