Art is not seasonal

Art is not seasonal. Real art cannot be age restricted. Real art never really belongs to an art movement. Real art transcends its own market. And that’s the art of extreme optimism. I want to live in that world.

I remember going to exhibition openings (in the hedonistic 90s) where marginal characters were the centre of attention. It’s dreadful how the amount of alcohol consumed became a deciding factor in the value of people’s art experiences. The price of art skyrocketed as drink and drugs got more expensive. Thank God those days are over.

After that, there was a time when rehab centres and twelve step programmes were as common as calls to roving dealers. People went from one experience to the other, and the art scene was like a revolving door. You never asked where people were, or where they had been if they went missing. They were either too trashed, or too sober to attend art events.

The unbelievable truth is that, through it all, no one ever made an artwork about the tough lives, and tough loves, they were having. It was all ideological.

I had flu for about a week about a week ago. And yeah, I didn’t really feel like making art about whether or not my meds were working. #fringetheartist