Our society demands that we always be younger.
The media is invaded by miracle diets, workouts, fantastic surgeries, and anti-aging medicine. And you must do everything quickly because the 24 hours of your day and night must be enough for your beauty care, physical activity, work, family, rest, and all the social media updates, updating the rest of humanity on what you’re doing.
And here I come to the point: As a human being and as an artist, I enter this vortex. I realize that the new ART must constantly updating everything you do, quickly, fleetingly. The artist doesn’t have time to be inspired, to observe, to gather memories, to patiently develop a technique, to acquire mastery and enjoy the process of creating a work without having to take photos, making videos, publishing reels, stories, posts, live broadcasts, updates, search for followers, analyze audiences, become an influencer, etc.
And so new media and technologies come to the rescue of this new profile of artist. It doesn’t matter if the material is perennial or of poor quality; the important thing is that it’s fast. There’s no time to create. Digital prints arrive, making everything easier in the blink of an eye; the 3D printing, the inkjet printing, industrial materials that are water-resistant, fire-resistant and almost self-modeling, artificial intelligence, and new apps that solve everything in seconds.
Since there’s no technique and nothing to tell, it’s enough to pile up a bit of material or scraps from works that didn’t come to fruition, compress everything —preferably mechanically with some new technological invention, perhaps spraying it with fluorescent acrylic glue—and there you have it: THE MASTERPIECE. This work will always be supported by the fact that it is an investigation, a contemporary challenge, an experimentation or conceptualization of matter.
If this masterpiece falls apart or is destroyed quickly, it doesn’t matter; that was the artist’s intention.
So, the rest of the new humanity who isn’t an artist, who frantically seeks longevity, doesn’t have time to delight in a painting, dedicating their mind and senses solely to it. They don’t have time to appreciate the details in a sculpture, look at a photograph and imagine the story behind it, read a book calmly and unhurriedly, feeling the texture of the paper, listen to a song with intention, not as background noise, in a comfortable and relaxing place.
Conclusion: Ephemeral works that don’t survive time, for a humanity that wants to live a long time.
Note: For my consolation, I still enjoy modeling, drawing, paper cutting, painting… I know that in these times it’s almost a sin to use a pencil or a paintbrush…
This reflection was inspired by Avelina Lesper, Mexican art critic and writer. www.avelinalesper.com @avelina.lesper
