A couple of weeks ago I was thinking of one of Nick Drakes stanzas from his song 'Hazey Jane II', which goes like this "If songs were lines in a conversation the situation would be fine." It's a line that has been haunting me for days. The simplicity of that line seems to say that if art and our lifestyles could coincide with one another, there would be less misunderstanding.
Yet the difficulty in all this is that ironically Nick Drake's music did not garner the sort of attention he was hoping for. The album in which he released this song 'Bryter Layter' was his second attempt at making an album that he hoped would gain appreciation. When you listen to it, there is no way one could argue that it is an amazing work, but for some reason, sales for the album went really bad. From then on Nick Drake's romanticism was shattered. The mood in his follow up album has a different tone, it's less hopeful, bleak in its vision. I feel that this story is a wake up call for all artists, that if they aspire for recognition through their work, the truth is that it may never happen. For me, there has to be a better reason for making art other than money or recognition.
Still, those lyrics echo a consideration of mine, that one of the areas I've been interested in my own work is this irreconcilable relationship between art and everyday life. I feel that one big reason that the quality of a lot of Art in galleries are getting weaker and weaker is that it's distant from that deeper connection between the viewer and the artwork. For instance, I've seen a lot of work that relies on interviews which probably would work if not for the fact that the person interviewed is probably putting up a front. So where is the truth in any of that? It's not a problem for me when I read my books or comics, or when I listen to one or two good albums, or occasionally, a good movie, but in most exhibitions something always feels lacking. It's not that I'm against conceptual art or abstraction, but what's missing isn't an idea or a technique it's... well...it's...it's... (not existentialism either) I couldn't put it in any simpler way than to say that it's... heart!
- Fatcrumb
