religion on campus -- the art cult

Religion is a sacred subject, and must be respected no matter how convoluted or bizarre. It’s a deal we’ve made with each other, a clause in the social contract, and it means we don’t have to justify our choices when we ‘believe’ something. It works more or less. Keeping belief and knowledge separate can be a challenge, but we do our best for the sake of civic functioning, all of us living together. It’s a simple formula. We don’t spend public money on any one religion, don’t endorse a particular point of view, ideally, and allow each person to decide on their own. It’s like written down somewhere.

Religions with state support have a history, and as soon as the checks roll in they’re passing out official titles with privileges, inventing handshakes, and concocting a doctrine so serpentine the logical mind could never follow. They burrow into the treasury and insulate themselves from criticism and scrutiny with secret knowledge. For some reason this is easier to recognize from a couple of hundred years away than it ever seems at the time. I don’t know what goes on over on campus, but I’m sure it has great consequence. At a recent gallery talk, the functioning high priest intoned that the art, itself, couldn’t be assessed or even looked at without already being so deep in the woodpile no sunlight enters. We’ve heard all this before, the tendency to mark territory by bureaucracy at any level, run wild. 

I’m not afraid of the culture even though support has been spotty so far. I understand it. Schools teach that art with enough general appeal and common accessibility to possibly earn a living out in the general population is not worth bringing to class. It’s bound to be confusing for the students, in training, actually, for a life of institutional dependency, the so-called ‘lucky’ ones, and even more baffling for the average citizen who chips in. Instead of all of that socially significant puzzle-box stuff, just put up two paintings in a public place and ask which is better. Fame doesn’t matter, a long resume doesn’t matter, and it won’t even matter what the ballots say. Just asking the question sets off a cascade of thoughts the average citizen doesn’t normally hear in conversation, and before long they’ll be talking to each other. Just go crazy, put up paintings on the sides of buildings, install original art in offices and restaurants, and don’t forget salons, customers like it. Visual art doesn’t really require a ton of homework or an advanced degree. Art goes straight into the noggin, advanced degree or no degree, and by the way, all those crazy things are happening now.