Love is the feeling

FringeFringe of sharing pretty much anything with someone you need in your life. Last month on 6 October Instagram turned 15 years old, and I had a feeling of terrible nostalgia for the early days of Instagram, when the whole point of the experience was to let your friends know where you were and not what you saw.

Now the point of rambling with your friends has gone out of fashion, and there’s something exclusive about showing everyone something that only you think you witnessed. Art is a weapon in the arsenal of good ideas.

I remember thinking that pictures could have a soundtrack embedded in them, and these days your Instagram images can show your good taste in music as well as your good taste in fine art.

I was ahead of the pack. I thought that if each picture could project sound, then art could appeal to our most basic instincts. I was wrong. Pictures must stay silent and still. The cheap seats are actually Instagram pictures where people upload their favourite holiday snapshots along with their favourite pop song. It’s the epitome of kitsch.

There is a point at which movies become banal, when too much of a good thing isn’t good enough. I was never convinced by cinema seats that vibrate in cinemas, in order to give you what’s called a premium experience. That’s the feeling you have when you’re getting more than your money’s worth.

Art should not have to prove its worth. It should be worth having because it opens a little window on the infinite depth of the soul.#fringetheartist