The phrases Samuel Beckett pens in his final piece (Stirrings Still, 1986-9) embody a truly post-modern postulate that still addresses us in a tense present, urging us to consider 'gathering' together. In a song of farewell to fatigued elitist separations of art and real experience, the full text... Read more
The phrases Samuel Beckett pens in his final piece (Stirrings Still, 1986-9) embody a truly post-modern postulate that still addresses us in a tense present, urging us to consider ‘gathering’ together. In a song of farewell to fatigued elitist separations of art and real experience, the full text situates us in a “strange place seeking the way out,” urging return to more essential, common origins. During the dot-com boom in the not-so-distant ’90s, when the prosperous art scene mingled with the design and entertainment industries, artists of all sorts easily found solicitous admirers, fans, and collectors. Now, contemporary art presents as dislocated, colorful and entertaining commodities mediated by remunerated arts professionals into a spectacle gracing blogs, reality television, and the pages of glossy old media. This exhibition simply ponders the question of whether we have arrived-or not-at a moment in time where we need to drop our “heads on hands”-a recurring phrase in Stirrings Still- to thoroughly question the accrued social and cultural value of our incessant production. There is an imperative need for provocative expression in a Now stunned by swift communication, mesmerizing new artificial intelligence discoveries and unending applications extending to the arts.
