cereal robots ario's ubercoolisch blog

Viva absurdism!

I can't believe I'm taking something the guy in the Pink Floyd boxer shorts said seriously, but here goes...

"I'm only interested in the art that children make, that retarded people make and that criminals make. You see you have a subconscious function and a conscious function and between these two mental functions is a filter.

In a child the filter is undeveloped and the stream of consciousness is unrestricted between the subconscious and the conscious. In a mental person the filter is either retarded or damaged. In a criminal that filter is not fully functional, so there's an unrestricted flow of information from the subconscious to the conscious. The most exciting thing in my life is to make art based on these ideas." (source)

He's described something I've had a hard time articulating about the sillier things I enjoy.   Here are some examples...

Tim & Eric:

John Maus:

Negativland:

Miguel Soares, Negativland's Time Zones from migso on Vimeo.

Wesley Willis:

These are all artists that have been able to tap into illogical, childish, dream-logic worlds... but there's a fine balance here. Like banging all the keys on a piano or drawing wild lines on paper with crayons, it's easy to make something abstract... anyone can do that.  The skill is in marrying the abstract with the real.  How can the artist take the crazy ideas we all get while standing in line or that come to us in dreams and manifest them into art. David Lynch would probably describe this as "catching the big fish"... the ability to get at the ideas buried way down deep in the subconscious.  Whether it be through meditation, drugs, schizophrenia, or just silencing internal filters from time to time... there are lots of ways to tap into this wacky world and it doesn't happen nearly as often as it should.

I also find it interesting how the more abstract forms of art quickly becoming polarizing... creating a "you either love it or hate it" dichotomy.   Anything that creates legions of fans and haters alike must've touched a nerve somewhere.  In a world with so many clones and soporific artists (yes, I used the s-word), kudos I say to anyone who is able to take the wacked out contents of their brain and put them on display for others to ponder.