return to worldwidereview.com,
the home of critical reviews
From: Clem
Category: Art
Date: 11 June 2008
Time: 04:26 AM
Review:
Dear blip,
Please dont take it personally. Ive obviously hurt your real feelings, but I was simply trying to
establish the utter contempt with which I hold your views. Perhaps its a bit rich to ask me to be nicer (
and falsely quoting the great philosopher Deleuze, or were you being ironic?) given that in a recent
article in world wide review you described a large sector of the voting public as f***k**g c**nt*s.But is
this just normal bourgeouis hypocrisy?
Its not that I dont understand what your saying- its that you dont. Your appeal to" real feelings" is a
kind of woolly half baked knee jerk reaction to a work of art you find completely "other" and
impossible to assimilate into your narrow world view. "Real feelings " is simply the straw you are
grasping at to dismiss something you would prefer not to think about.It doesnt mean anything and
has no formal or intellectual basis- unless you would be kind enough to back up your argument with an
example in art of an expression of "real feelings". That at least would allow me to see where you
stand.
Even then it is hard to take seriously any criticism that applies criteria that are completely
extraneous to the intentions of the artists. There is as much violence in Rodin as The Chapmans ,but
the focus is different and they've deliberately channeled the language to prevent the kind of
bourgeious sublimation that you require in order to look at art.The effects of violence and evil are
numbing, but you perhaps have difficulties dealing with this threat to your "real feelings", and the end
result are your views on the Chapmans, which are a classic example of repression in the Freudian
sense.
Pardon me for getting off on the horror! Is this news ? Have you not considered the entire history of
gothic literature, of film,of Western Culture?.Why wouldnt anyone want to explore the " darkly sexy", as
opposed to your missionary position political correctness?Artists are not around to be "good", theyre
around to be interesting.Presumably you just look in art for confirmation of what you already
know,which, from what I can see is not very much.
I am not a bastard and stop making assumptions about The Chapmans audience. You have no
idea what you are talking about. See You in Hell,
Clem