Abused Abstraction - The Artists intent V The investors portfolio.

We've all seen it happen here right? At least those of us who've been here a few years have; A "collector" buys something new, and the artwork/artist is heralded as x or y, the greatest in terms of z, their work "speaks" of the "raw" and "emotional" (the emotion never specified of course). It may not even be an abstract work, it may be some very base imagery, a reinvention of a visual pun or metaphor a 15 year old posted on tumblr in 2012 (ohhhh a pill packet with social media logos on it, what a paradigm shift)

Now I need to be clear this is not an attack on abstraction or those other artworks, nor is it meant as derision of those new to art and the idea of artistic interpretation. Everything was new to each of us at some point, the first time we hear a joke doesn't need to be the first time a joke was told for it to make us laugh. However if you show up to work the next day trying to convince the company of the merits of this joke, and insisting that a great company party would be hiring a venue to host that comedian, you'd hopefully be shot down by someone who knows more about comedy.

The problem we have here in this space, is that all the professional comedians and those who go to comedy shows work on lower floors. The C-suite upstairs actually think its a great joke (or perhaps they just think they can sell it as a great joke to you), they're happy to spend the budget on this, they take a vote and it passes. Of course Bill from accounts just bought a minor share in the club hosting the event, Tims wife is the publicist for the comedian, and Bob & Fred run a booking agency looking for more talent...

So those with wealth and influence tell the rest of the company that the holiday party budget is going towards this joke. They go so far as to say you should check out the club in upcoming weeks in fact, that its a great place and the comedian has loads of great jokes, the entry tickets are super affordable and they're probably going to get more expensive soon so you should go now whilst its cheap. Even better than that is the fact Big Dave and Bill will be there Thursday nights, so its a real opportunity to get some out of office face to face time with the bigwigs. (oh but theyll be in the VIP section so youll need to buy a monthly membership to sit with them, its fine though I hear Bill can get you a discount)

Now tonight's the night, you're sat in the audience nursing the remnants of an overpriced drink, thinking to yourself the warm up act wasnt great, weirdly you're 80% sure you've seen them before, in fact they bare a striking resemblance to the CTO... Light applause and the hosts poorly levelled voice break your revery, its time for the main event. The comedian hits the stage and hits the joke almost immediately (he knows what they're paying for) but.. the joke falls flat, and so does the next one. Sure the comedians trying, you can hear the practice beneath the nerves, and if this were a best mans speech at an open bar wedding you're sure the room would be chuckling along. Unfortunately this is a long running comedy club, and the C-suite only approved a 1 drink per person budget (although this doesn't apply to the clubs regulars, now deep enough in their cups to let their displeasure be known)

But it doesn't matter, the night was a sell out thanks to the company, they spin it as a success, hushing detractors with cries of "they just didn't get it" and "our humours too much for some people". The comedian gets sent on a whirlwind circuit before enough people catch on to the charade, and bless them because the whole time they're trying, but they're barely driving an F3 car and being thrown in to F1, this will torch their career within the year. No one from the C-suite cares of course because they've made their money, whether that be from sales or losses, they hold up their hands and say "we did all we could, gave him every chance, he just failed to make it work"

I know this metaphors imperfect, I probably should have gone with an emperors new clothes style of tale, but in that the tailors career and the reputation of other local tailors isnt damaged by the emperors idiocy. See our metaphorical club used to respected, those who performed there had an implied quality, and whilst not every act was great, no one who was bad was held up as great, they were just given a fair shot at the mic like everyone else. It is the deceit, this misrepresentation that damages the long term perception of a space. It is the overselling that shatters trust or harbours delusion, the inability to accept context and a broader playing field that truly limits growth and innovation beyond a budget sheet.

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To address the title of this thread, the reason i focus on abstraction here is because it is perhaps the most open to interpretation of any broad artistic classification, much like humour it is very easy to assert its quality through the subjective response it elicits, it is therefore difficult to be "wrong" in your reflection and promotion of it (at least on a surface level). This makes it is most vulnerable to this abuse, this co-opting in pursuit of another's profit. It provides a broad space for peoples honest reflection, but in turn this space allows for one to talk a lot without saying anything, to make themselves -and perhaps the work- seem far deeper and smarter through their word salad (an absolute favourite of this space, seriously if you're going to say a work is emotive you have to at least try and expand on what that emotion is, if something is going to be "the greatest" you must have looked at other work to decide which isnt).

Of course the artist isn't always innocent, there are those happy to steal jokes just as there are those happy to fake a laugh to promote a performance. At the end of the day none of this is limited to one medium, ignorance whether performative or actual occurs everywhere, but when you decide to tell 20,000 people something is worth buying or the greatest form of something, I think you have some obligation to confront your ignorance before doing so, especially if you have the absolute temerity to call yourself a professional curator, collector, or artist.

Pop Wall - Mr. Brainwash