subversive art -- slamming the world order

Cold hard fact is about a fifth of the US lives in the third world. What would the difference be if restaurant and service workers started out at fifteen dollars an hour? With average CEO pay hovering right around ten million dollars a year we’re really not going to consider negative effects -- three cents more for a cup of coffee, a quarter on a hamburger. We already know the economy would improve for these people and for everyone else as well, so it isn’t necessary to debate the point here. It’s a given.

What would art be like if these people had more money? It wouldn’t be all cool and with it, that’s for sure. The people lower down aren’t as interested in urban tribalism and group-think conformity, and are therefore more likely to actually look at and think about art. They tend to respect artists and art itself. They’d decide how much art was worth to them and buy some. This is because life experience has led them to an understanding of the broader human condition, effort and strain with only a slim chance of success, and they see these things expressed in art.

Sheet glass with a silver backing yields a faithful visual rendition of physical space while art reflects concerns and values in a human. Art closest to the daily experience, the strategies and execution that represents the individual’s own confrontation with the world, has a way of earning the affection of the people who live it. Right now they can only look and might not even do that. They don’t have the money to buy and the art they’re likely to see isn’t meant for them anyway. Works of art in galleries and contemporary museums seem to be only analogue artifacts of the career status of the artist and who gives a shit, really? It sure doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not they’re good.

Common people can express themselves through art by what they buy and live with, and that’s its function in a truly progressive society, wherever that might be. Now I’m going to say something interesting. We could wait for politics to evolve and there’d be the art, or we could choose self-affirming, perception-challenging art and bend society from the back side. So far it’s only a theory, but it’s at least a change we can make for ourselves and it's time to do something. An income disparity approaching that of the middle ages has collateral aspects few acknowledge, and the reduction of the aspiration and self-awareness of the majority to brand-identification is a big problem. Art is the answer. Game on.