The Fallacy of Hope
13 November 2008
10 CommentsThey want others involved. They want to organize a community of contributors, writers, artists, whatever the social spectrum might be, not because they want anything out of it personally, but because they want to improve their community. And as one commentator stated, they believe that this always happens with the ebb and flow of any blog. And I say, “Especially one targeted at any specific community, be it in the arts, or urban development, or well….anything”.
So with all of that said, I’m cool with it. Cool as a three dollar bill (is that cool?). I’ll go to art shows and document them by photography and video interviews. When on vacation I’ll make an event of it. Try and bring back as much culture as I can back to Jacksonville. I’ll do interviews through Q&A via email with folks all over the world. I’ll write about my life, and put it all on the line. All of it. No dirty secret untold here. And I’ll do it because that’s what I wanted all of you to do. Not because I was ordering or expecting more out of you, but because I thought that was the only way we could really grow this art community. By sharing, documenting, and developing each other’s voices. By honestly being interested. By listening. By caring. By giving a shit.
Now since this all began I have met some very interesting cats along the way. I mean we really do spread out all colors of a very vibrant rainbow here among us artist folk. We have and contain all personality types. We make all kinds of work. Covering abstraction, to installation, tons of painting and drawing, photography, to a smudge of performance although mostly through experimental sound/music. We are a force to be reckoned with. Or should I say…We could be a force to be reckoned with. But we aren’t. And I don’t think we every will be. I do no think we will ever have any viable contemporary art scene in Jacksonville, Florida. Not for decades. Not until there is an arts district established with with support from the city.
Because…………………WE………………..are………………too………….spread……………..out! This city is growing and and killing all natural resources for what? So it’s citizens can be more distanced. More alienated. More against each other. More unsupportive of each other. And more. more. more. And it will continue to grow. Jacksonville is the largest city in the United States, and we are proud, proud, proud, to rattle off that statistic to anyone visiting from out of town. I mean what else do we have really?
And this brings us to my summation, we will never achieve any solidarity until we have a core. Core over there or a Core over here. But a Core. Not a Core defined through a location but through a people. A Core of artists who are willing to put the work in. Who are willing to not only focus on themselves but are vested in each other. Who will regardless of obligations or time constraints realize that unless we support each other, ask each other the important questions, help document each other’s work, help each other grow conceptually and personally, we will never have anything but the typical Florida art that is symbolic of the place we no longer live, because we are killing it with our own urban sprawl and in return with our own apathy.
Now who among you is not too busy? Who among you does not have personal and political baggage to deal with? Who among you has more on your plate than the next? I would like to compete with who’s more busy. We should turn that into an art project itself because it seems everyone in this community has turned that into an excuse why they are not putting in the work or returning emails, phone calls, etc. that it takes to build a community.
With my sudden bout of awareness I have come to this conclusion….all we have is NOW. We contest it as if it’s a moving object or target that we can shoot at a carnival and win a prize. Mortality is inevitable. If you are here NOW, be a part of it NOW. Don’t wait for the correct amount of dealers, collectors, or cultural council dollars to land in you lap. It will never happen. Not here. Not now. Not unless the artists are mobilized and nearly combative to make it happen. Not until the artists wake up and realize that without supporting each other we have nothing. That regardless of your personal responsibility you have two hours on a Saturday, or two hours on another day, where you can give back, create, document, and conversate. If we don’t realize that, and my money is on that you will never.
We………………will……………always…………….be……………too………..spread………………..out.
and
Wewillnevercometogether. Wewillneverevercometogether.
Because…………………….we……………………..are……………too………………lazy.
totally agree, i have no idea what it is. what is everyone waiting for? why is the same people always the ones involved? i personally couldn’t live my life waiting for others to put things together i don’t know how so many people do it. i think it’s either crabs in a bucket or laziness, yeah maybe the sprawl. jacksonville been like this for so long i don’t care anymore, if i want to do something i do and expect nothing. good post.
Hey Tom, I just found your Jaxscene Museum site. What a great idea! I can’t wait to see more old Einstein’s flyers.
And to the topic - I think it’s neat how disillusionment is happening among several blogs all at roughly the same time. When enough people are chipping away at similar problems long enough - the most efficient solution tends to shake out. In this case, the problem of creating community leads to disillusionment. Disillusionment leads to coming to terms with our results, which leads to rethinking our goals and methods. Or something like that.
And finally - I think one missing element in the local online community is a well moderated forum. jaxscene.blogspot.com/forum ?
coffee cigarettes tasty on this friday morning
there is no meltdown in the plastic that we artists share as a mirror on this site or any other, expectations kill the messenger complacent are we the addicts of attention
fuck it the idea of hope is dead 97 million children die every year around the world from the simplest diseases and we bicker for glamour someone should start knocking off failed artists and balance out the equation of time versus death
I definitely don’t believe hope is dead. Look at Obama.
I just put too many expectations on this site. Always have and for that I apologize to everyone.
The Globatron contributors have contributed a ton of great content to the site and for that I really am sorry I wrote this post. Once again I’m having bloggers remorse about this post this morning. I wasn’t really trying to target this to the contributors, but to more or less the whole art community.
I don’t think enough people are doing their part. It always seems to be the same folks that are doing anything and that’s what I was trying to get at.
I have just come to a realization after working really hard meeting everyone the past couple of years, interviewing them, documenting folks shows, that the Jax art scene is going to fail in cycles for decades. I don’t think there is any magic pill or any moment of awareness that will begin the work that needs to be done to build a real art scene. And I’m okay with that.
Because I love what Globatron is. I really do. And I’m going to continue it wherever I go, be it here, or there.
And I hope the contributors do also, but if not, that’s okay too. That’s another thing I was trying to get at. It’s okay if you don’t want to contribute. No worries.
I think the wrong question might be being asked. It’s not “what is wrong with Jacksonville?” –I think we could all go on for pages about that– but, “what does a healthy/vibrant/engaged/etc… art community look like, and how does it function?” And I’d hasten to point out what a friend said to me last night: “It’s unfair to use NYC as a marker or example, it is really its own entity.”
I mean, are we focusing too hard on art as a stand alone, and not enough on those things that could create a larger sense of community? Or should those of us involved quietly go about making our work, look for exhibition opportunities elsewhere and enjoy the city for what it has to offer: the beach and decent winter weather?
Perhaps we should stop seeing sales as a marker of success and work on our own projects and try to interconnect them as a web, not a wall?
Just a few thoughts.
i am all for keeping hope alive, turn around is coming this has been a long drawn out decade and we need to believe again that hope is out there in ourselves and the community as a whole. proud to be a part of this site,we cover more than the other papers combined, need to work out art basel, great honor for you to be showing some work…
Madeleine… very good points.
Definitely comparing NY arts to Jax would be a disappointing experiment. And maybe I was subconsciously doing that since my return from NY. I’ll have to think about that.
And your question is dead on. What does a healthy/vibrant/engaged/etc… art community look like, and how does it function?
I’m not sure Jacksonville has the structure put in place to accommodate whatever the answer is. I do think a lot of it has to do with the shear size of the city.
And I guess I’m okay with that. Maybe Jacksonville will never have a healthy/vibrant/engaged art scene. But it’s where I was born, where my family lives, and where I will always have an affinity for mainly for those very reasons.
So in a sense, Jacksonville can be where an artist lives and produces work. Possibly shows occasionally merely to share one’s work with the art community. Trys to get out and support others when they show, and then leaves it at that. That’s basically what I see here, and I’m guessing that’s all it will ever be for an artist or as an art scene.
And life goes on.
Thanks Morrison. I appreciate all your help. Your coverage of the music scene I usually can’t get out to because of personal obligations has been outstanding. That Jax Film Fest coverage rocked too.
We’re going to kill it in Art Basel this year. Can’t wait to see what type of coverage we get. Anyone else get any coverage please forward it on and I’ll be happy to post it.
I think if Jacksonville artists managed to get the larger Jacksonville community involved with their art, there would be more of a scene that you hope for. Even if you aren’t a performance artist, there is a way to involve the city in some part of your work. You just have to find it, and make it yours. People will come out to see a thing they helped create, even if in the smallest way. There is pride. Or, we hope there is pride.
We need more exhibition space competition. Bogda and Opaq and Burrito Gallery (and others I might not be aware of) are great. Absolutely. But we need more. More experiment with the spaces. I visited a place in Chicago called Mess Hall, a space that is owned by a man in the community, for the community. It’s only open for events, and all events must be free. You can exhibit there or you could do yoga or listen to your neighbors be interviewed.
One of the first things I experienced here was the first of its kind, held on a train that circled the Loop, rather than going out to the suburbs. It was called Art on Track. There were about 7 cars. Basically, you bought a wristband for 5 bucks (I think that was the student ID kicking in), and hosts of the event would tell you when the train was coming (”Do not board this train unless you have a wrist band”). You would ride and look at art, and then at the next stop, run and switch cars. There was photography in the advertisement spaces, there was an installation, there was a guy playing music, there was a RIDICULOUS performance art car (”The Crazy Train”) with people in costume and with characters, with semi-scripted events and lots of improvisation. That one was as if a sort-of-scary kids show had come alive and you were in the middle of it. It was awesome.
I’d also love it if Jacksonville artists were working more with other creative folks from Jax. Musicians, actors, poets. We’ve got them, why not collaborate? Maybe my first week of classes, I went to see Sanford Biggers give a talk at my school. He shared with us this project, The Somethin’ Suite. Saul Williams, just off the top of my head, was involved, wearing a piece made by Biggers. There was performance, there was music, there was story-telling. Let’s get some interdisciplinary community projects going. Something to write home blog about.
It’s really frustrating to see a city like Jacksonville, with all it’s potential, continue to struggle when it comes to it’s art scene. A lot of the pieces of the formula are there, but the glue needed to hold it all together is still missing.
I meet people on a regular basis who are shocked to find out that Jacksonville has artists let alone an art scene. Though all of those involved in the scene are very aware that there are hundreds of us and the number grows on a daily basis and many of us are very actively involved but our efforts go unnoticed by the general public. Jacksonville does not have a shortage of artists, whether we are working artists, good artists, bad artists, conceptual artists, craft artists, musical artists, literary artists, whatever…. there’s a variety and a ton of us.
Maybe it is the size of Jax. You can blame people who stick to their side of town & don’t want to venture away from what’s familiar, maybe it’s the lack of good public transportation, maybe it’s too many small shows spread out over a huge city…???.
Now, we have come a long way, in the over 20 years that I’ve been here. It’s sad that a lot of our natural environment is gone, we need to build up instead of out, like it’s been noted by Byron, we’re destroying one of the very things that makes Jax great. Besides that, the growth of our scene has been a fairly slow and painful one to watch.
Maybe it’s the lack of mainstream media coverage. It seems like majority of people who read the blogs, the Folio, Arbus, etc are already involved in the art scene. It seems like sometimes we’re preaching to the choir. If it’s not a hurricane, a bloody murder, or a preacher in trouble, it doesn’t seem like it gets on the 6 o’clock news or in the Times Union and if it does, you miss it because you blinked.
Maybe it’s the egos of some of our artists. Some artists come through, whose ego’s are so big that their head won’t fit through the door. They want all the glory but they don’t want to do anything to make it happen, they’re expecting someone else to do it for them. Even at the Art Center, we on average have about 30 members, but there’s really only about 10 of us who are continually trying make things better, whether it’s through grant research, putting on artists workshops, painting community murals, fund raisers, begging the COJ for funding, etc….
Maybe it’s the lack of support from the COJ. I’ve been working with the Art Center for a couple of years and we’re trying to do all those things that everyone is talking about they want to see in Jacksonville: build a strong community of artists, run by artists, to educate & expose the public to art, have artists studios, art opportunities, and most importantly building a respect for Jacksonville art/artists that seems to be lacking.
I wonder what would happen if we boycotted one of the Art Walks and had absolutely no participating artists showing any work, all the art would come off the walls and there would be no music, no socializing, no dancing, just silence. Would we be appreciated then? Honestly, it’s the hard work of the artists who make ArtWalk a success, without the artists, there would be no ArtWalk.
Madeleine is right about trying to compare ourselves to NYC. I always thought that was pretty unreasonable, there is no other place like NYC, I don’t want Jacksonville to be like NYC, i want us to have our own identity and have artists who work, live, create, and thrive here and be proud of it instead always comparing us to what we’re not, we make it what it can be.
i’m going to stop rambling now. Byron, as always, thanks for the dialogue, the brainstorming, the motivation, and for the fuel you add to this fire, it’s way passed my bed time. I’m sleep deprived, overworked, and hungry, who knows if any of what i wrote makes any sense to anyone else but me…
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The alter ego of contemporary art.Chief Contributors Include:
Father Mapple Moab Adzu III | Morrison Pierce | Akbar Lightning | Patricia O'Brien | Byron King (Founder) | Logocentric
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