The Art of Today

The Art of 2010/Today:

Below are three images that I think define the last decade and foreshadow what is to come.

Damien Hirst, For the Love of God, 2007

Lacey Jane Roberts, We couldn’t get in, We couldn’t get out, 2006-2007.

Marcel Wanders, Airborne Snotty Vases, 2001.

As for naming this time period, perhaps we are in the Post-Post-Modernist Era, I’m not sure. It seems in some aspects we’re attempting to discard or smooth out the discombobulation of Post-Modernism, from the past thirty years and try to make sense of it. It is not so much a strive to discard the Post-Modern, as to see if any clues may have been left behind as to what direction Art may delve into next. As digitally fabricated art and computer generation become a large play in our everyday practice, we must all stop to consider how will traditional skill sets fit into this new medium/aesthetic that is emerging? In terms of craft, Glenn Adamson has attempted to revoke the validity of our historically immersed, hand-based skill set. He believes that we no longer need to lean against this history or knowledge and should view craft not as a field but a genre. I do not agree with him, however as this decade and century progresses I believe it is just that argument that will be tested.

The aesthetics are part commercialism, audacity, shock, and play: Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst. Part grass roots, DIY, slow movement tendencies to counter our ever-increasing fast paced life and reliance on the global economy: Lacey Jane Roberts. And part immersion into CAD, RHINO and other digital fabrication techniques that are still being discovered: Marcel Wanders. I agree with Dave Hickey, that we will see an immergence or grasp to reclaim beauty in its simplicity rather than its charged political and social stance that has represented it for the last thirty plus years.

	Arists:

Karl Fritsch

Marcel Wanders

Damien Hirst

Jeff Koons

Lacey Jane Roberts

Arthur Hash

Ted Noten