I’ve quoted ‘Dennis the Menace’ before, probably my favorite comic graphically -- great economy of line, texture and background, and along with the threadbare gag of embarrassing parents over something said in private, occasionally someone says something interesting. On feb 27, Mr Wilson remarks sideways to his wife while watching Dennis over the fence, ‘I believe he’s a good boy, but I’ve also read a lot of fiction, and it could be affecting my reality.’ Mrs Wilson looks noncommittal, just the slightest squint pondering what her husband’s been smoking, but all in just a few lines, hair and glasses. Well, Mr Wilson, there’s a lot more than the antics of the boy next door at stake, and just reading books isn’t the worst of it these days.
Turns out an army of online trolls has been yanking everybody’s reality toward a dark paranoid pit of tribalism and hostility with short videos featuring staged outrages and false conspiracy narratives. No need for social scientists, we can all see it works. I could stand here and tell you that reality, itself, is like jelly, subject to be squeezed and pushed by all you see and listen to, but no one listens to me. I’m just not as convincing as the digitally-spawned seething dragon of misinformation and chaos distorting the world in front of us, perhaps you’ve noticed. Dealing with dragons is beyond my puny reach, but I will assert that original art in one out of ten houses slowly points us in the right direction, calms us down, and eventually nudges us toward more thoughtful and reasonable conversation, all of us living in a more pleasant universe.
When it comes to influencing reality, paintings have certain advantages over the technical device, long term. Successful art doesn’t habituate, won’t fade into the background -- the image remains fresh each time it's seen. In time bonding takes place, people grow fond of the art they own, and as its contents are incorporated into their point of view, the world alters accordingly. Pretty bold contention, I’ll admit, but stand back from the evening news and consider the current national debate over what’s real and who gets to decide, all of that, and then appreciate how fragile and mutable our reality really is. Art doesn’t change things, but in subtle ways it alters attention, and isn’t that the key? The process will never be more transparent than in this moment, or the issue more thoroughly analyzed and debated. The nature of reality, of truth, of what sort of world we live in, rages in front of us, news network vs network, and could there be a better time to buy a first piece of art?
Turns out an army of online trolls has been yanking everybody’s reality toward a dark paranoid pit of tribalism and hostility with short videos featuring staged outrages and false conspiracy narratives. No need for social scientists, we can all see it works. I could stand here and tell you that reality, itself, is like jelly, subject to be squeezed and pushed by all you see and listen to, but no one listens to me. I’m just not as convincing as the digitally-spawned seething dragon of misinformation and chaos distorting the world in front of us, perhaps you’ve noticed. Dealing with dragons is beyond my puny reach, but I will assert that original art in one out of ten houses slowly points us in the right direction, calms us down, and eventually nudges us toward more thoughtful and reasonable conversation, all of us living in a more pleasant universe.
When it comes to influencing reality, paintings have certain advantages over the technical device, long term. Successful art doesn’t habituate, won’t fade into the background -- the image remains fresh each time it's seen. In time bonding takes place, people grow fond of the art they own, and as its contents are incorporated into their point of view, the world alters accordingly. Pretty bold contention, I’ll admit, but stand back from the evening news and consider the current national debate over what’s real and who gets to decide, all of that, and then appreciate how fragile and mutable our reality really is. Art doesn’t change things, but in subtle ways it alters attention, and isn’t that the key? The process will never be more transparent than in this moment, or the issue more thoroughly analyzed and debated. The nature of reality, of truth, of what sort of world we live in, rages in front of us, news network vs network, and could there be a better time to buy a first piece of art?
No comments:
Post a Comment