Page 223 - Museum

world, man struts forth as a grand actor
representing himself, a manipulator of his
own, and therefore others’, image, a hoaxer
who loves (even though in the end he is
forced to do it) to continually represent
himself within dif ferent scenarios.
A chameleon, a manqué protagonist who
has lost all trace of behavioural innocence,
even though he fully intends not to forego
an attempt to retrieve an improbable and
indefinable naturalness of action and
production: a standard-bearer, in other
words, of constant contradiction. This is a
behavioural trait that is obviously induced
and dictated by artificial needs. But this
is the historical condition of current man;
this is his new nature, and these are the
mechanisms of his cultural production. Not
to accept this given would imply the onset
of incalculable risks, not the least of which
is that of offering the current territories
of society’s imaginary constructs, and
therefore art, an other, a different territory.
Perhaps this territory might appear to be
purer, more just, but it is imaginary none
the less. In art, which in any case has to
remain faithful to its time if it is to maintain
any sense, past meaning must be made
to resound, as the qualities of any work
are determined more and more often
by singular choices. Man stands on the
verge of the 21st century as an extremely
hyper-individual being; he is exasperated
and continually wrong-footed by reality, by
his own and others’ misleading, artificial
appearance. The problem of artifice is
none the less a serious and complex
problem that offers vast opportunity for
replies and reactions. The only possibility
of saving the naturalness of being and
producing, as a means of guaranteeing the
survival of human quality, is to lead artifice
to its extreme consequences, and that is
further, beyond.

AFTERNOON IN MELBOURNE, 2008 MIXED MEDIA ON
HANDMADE PAPER 17X21 IN. | 42X52 CM. 
COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE, 2006 MIXED MEDIA ON
HANDMADE PAPER 22X30 IN. | 56X76 CM. 

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