I was going to write something here entitled, “art is shit,” but that’s just so shocking and punk rock that I can’t do it. besides, everyone knows that most art is shit.
Speaking of punk rock though, in Kristine McKenna’s book Talk to Her, the late, great Joe Strummer said, “Punk rock isn’t something you grow out of, Punk rock is like the Mafia, and once you’re made, you’re made. Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of the attitude is ‘give us some truth.'”
I like that quote, because the people I know who were really punks in the late 70s still have some fire, and are still pissed off and unsatisfied and ready to turn some shit over. And what Joe said there really sums that up. It’s truth.
Now on to art – or more accurately, the “Art World” out there, and the complete and utter lack of truth therein. Is there a more frightened and clueless group of mole rats stumbling blindly around the face of the earth?
Case in point, Terry Richardson’s “Terryworld,” and this picture of hilariously bedecked hipsters milling around a wall full of poorly shot porn! Yeah! It must be an art show! Is it an opening? A book party? An Oxycontin recovery group? Who knows. There is a book to promote, and there’s no time for questions.
Dude – come on – what is that, one of those joke shop hats with fake yarn dreadlocks sewn into it?
Really now, if Terry Richardson’s “Terryworld” pictures are art, I’ll (let you) eat his dirty underpants. The Taschen site (publishers of the Terryworld book – “Get your Terryworld mouse pads, panties and shot glasses!”) has this to say about the book:
Who took 1970’s porn esthetic and made it fashion chic? Terry Richardson. Who made the trailer park trendy and the tractor hat de rigueur? Richardson again. Who’s equally at home in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Purple and Vice? Our boy Terry. Who uses his fashion money to fund an X-rated website? Yes, Richardson. And who can’t resist getting his clothes off and jumping in front of his own lens? Well, that would be Terry Richardson as well.
Ooh, how risque! You know, this might have been shocking in, oh, I don’t know…1955?
Don’t get me wrong, Terry Richardson is a good photographer (you Google him, I’m too lazy to find links). But the stuff in this book isn’t good photography. It looks like Instamatic shots from an old Hustler magazine Beaver Hunt page.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, if Picasso pissed on a toilet seat someone’s got it hanging on their wall…if an artist does it, it’s art!” Yeah, maybe. But if Picasso had a penchant for snapping pictures of women sucking his dick, I don’t think you would be lining up to stare at them on the wall of a fabulous SoHo gallery.
Or maybe you would. If they wrote about it in the Village Voice and served free booze.
But as always, when I say anything about art, I like to qualify it with; but what do I know? Indeed! Or for that matter, what do any of us know?
(And yes I know this show was last year, but I’m typing about it now, so get over it. This ain’t a news site.)