Hirst vs. Barbieri

I'm not going to spend too much time defending Hirst - although his work
makes me nostalgic for the time when the last of conceptual impact that
could be rung from the drying rag of the white cube was realized. A case
can be made here that both are examples of the kinds of identity
construction made possible by late-oil era prosperity, but while one is
highly derivative of aesthetics that were fully developed by the 1980s
(MTV), the other is consciously suspicious production, however obscure
and lacking mass culture impact (or mass culture compliance). Some kind
of consciousness, however turgid, critical, unhappy and darkly cliche in
Hirst's case, is still a lot more interesting to me than Wayne and Garth
rocking out to received cliches that are at best minimally aware of
their origin.

Eric Dymond wrote:
> So in this newly found world isnn't Tommas Barbieri
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkjQB1MU9P0
> more interesting than Damien Hirst.
> Can a kid from California have a greater impact on culture than an indemnified brit-pack salesman?
> What does the Hirst Diamond encrusted thingy tell me about our culture , ourselves, that the kid from California can't?
> It's a more serious question than it appears.
> The kneejerk reaction is high falutin' art theory shit. On second take, the kid tells me all about the mindset of the new century, and as I think about it— Hirst falls back into the last century without a splash.
> Why was the 20th century so pathetic, so lame.., so…, last century?
> Gimme kids from the corner and R. Kelly, and bury Hirst at Wounded Knee.
> Go with the gut, and pour some good scotch on the brain.
>
> Eric
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–
Brett Stalbaum, Lecturer, LSOE
Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts Major (ICAM)
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
Department of Visual Arts
9500 GILMAN DR. # 0084
La Jolla CA 92093-0084
http://www.c5corp.com
http://www.paintersflat.net