Blogging realized.

I have to draw attention to an exchange between Deborah Fisher and Eric Larsen as the model for how and why blogging works.

The idea that a blog conversation is "virtual" has got to be outmoded at this point. It is just another form of communication now. (Who is to say that a face to face conversation is ever any more "real" anyway?) Granted the internet social scene has it's perils... MySpace being the biggest exercise in narcissism maybe of all time. But the energy of the dialogue going on now between real artists around the world just continues to blow my mind daily.

It also lends a hand to solving one of the great issues (in the US especially)... thinking before (and while) we speak. This is what a revolution looks like.

As to the discussion at HLIB and DF about blogging versus and in conjunction with artist statements, i imagine a show with a blog created just for that show, where the artist can talk about each piece in the show, and show references and link to images and texts and talk about process, and what is personal and what is universal in principle. Where viewers can read, perhaps on a laptop set up at the show, all of these things... and not just a simple paragraph. And even better, where the viewer can ask questions (even later when they get home) and the artist can actually respond. Then a discussion could form, the work can really work, and artist and participant can actually grow (and in the words of Bill Hicks, "we can learn, evolve and eventually get the fuck off this planet.")

I mean, am i nuts, or wasn't this the idea before it turned into the sterile environment art has become... where a gallery works as an adoption agency... separating artists from their work and the participant. Where the artist is "somewhere out there" and the work just "shows up" and the exchange goes as easy as possible for all parties involved. Maybe it was never any other way, but it's time to change that.

This exchange between Deborah and Eric is the key. It is beautiful not only for what is being said, but in its grace. A true connection between artist and participant, in which we are lucky enough to witness and particpate as well.