| | 9/11 WICKED BUT A WORK OF ART, SAYS DAMIEN HIRST
One year after the tragic event one of the leading and most famous postmodern artists, Damien Hirst, of dissected cow fame, has said 9/11 was art.
Cutting courtesy of The Arts Journal:
http://www.artsjournal.com/Arts%20beat.htm#people
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HIRST - 9/11 WAS "ART": Controversial artist Damien Hirst told
the BBC yesterday that the attacks on the Pentagon and the World
Trade Center were a work of art. "The thing about 9/11 is that
it's kind of an artwork in its own right. It was wicked, but it
was devised in this way for this kind of impact. It was devised
visually." Describing the image of the hijacked planes crashing
into the twin towers as "visually stunning", he added: "You've
got to hand it to them on some level because they've achieved
something which nobody would have ever have thought possible,
especially to a country as big as America." The Guardian (UK)
09/11/02 http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,790058,00.html
If one understands the foundations of postmodern art to be destruction as means (painting and sculpture) and "shock" for ends then one can understand how 9/11 can be viewed as postmodern art. Prophetically, I saw the connection immediately after the event.
In December 200, issue #49, of the Free Radical, I state: " It is a sick irony of massive proportions that America, through its network of museums, dealers, intelligentsia, and funding, is the world's leading exponent of postmodern art...The symbol for this aspect of her culture and equally well for the terrorists is the bloody formless waste that was the World Trade Center and its people. A symbolic and literal marking of the decline of a civilization." Terrorism and Postmodern Art
In a follow up essay in June 2002, also in the Free Radical, I go on to state: "The destruction of the World Trade Center is the most brilliant example of the furthest reaches of what is possible to a postmodernist…Beyond obliteration the consequential absence of the Twin Towers is the crowning glory of postmodern art." Pandora's Box Part I
I am hoping that society and its cultural leaders can remove the veil that disguises the nature of postmodern art and that they will begin to see that post-modern art does not lead to a flourishing and vital culture.
Michael Newberry
Director Foundation for the Advancement of Art: http://www.ArtAdvancement.org/
www.MichaelNewberry.com
Available Works: www.RomanticRealism.net
|
|
