Brian,
Your work is absolutely stunning. I LOVE your quiet, minimal aesthetic and seemingly complete control over tonality. However, I wonder how you would react if I were to apply the same aggressive reasoning you've used on de Joode to your own work? Let's take Styrofoam Cup and Spoon, shall we? Okay, we have styrofoam cups (for some reason), but why add the spoon? What is this supposed to be telling us? Are we supposed to admire the styrofoam cup and spoon for their beauty, even though they both choke every landfill? Is it some ironic comment on environmentalism, or is this just a "dodge," some Wii photography perhaps, to avoid creating a photograph with any real meaning?
I actually really like that piece, I'm just pointing out how easy it is to write something off if you're determined... I mean, if you want, I could generate an essay about how the single phallic spoon subjugating the many female vessels (in a soft-focus soft-porn glow, no less), seems to be an affirmation of the patriarchal hegemony of the art world. Of course, that would be ridiculous... but again, if you're really determined, there's almost no end to the ways you can attack a piece.
As for de Joode's work, I'm not sure I need to say much more. Her late 80's/early 90's reference point is not the world of high fashion and cutting-edge design, but the everyday design that actually made its way into her home as a kid. Besides, her work is not at all a comment on the design of that period, but rather a re-digestion of all these fragments from childhood. I think it's quite canny and fearless (as far from a dodge as you can get). But this being art, it's fundamentally subjective, so you are obviously free to dislike it for any number of reasons without having to justify it. You asked why I liked it, I told you.
More troubling is when you get into your diatribe railing against the "gatekeepers in the art world." I'm not sure who this is directed towards (the curators who like de Joode's work? Art critics in general?), but if you really did go to art school, I'm surprised you didn't tire yourself out on this stuff back then. Anti-art-critic sentiment tends to be the kind of thing most people get over by the end of Freshman year, when they start realizing (and utilizing) their value, or when they realize that a huge number of curators, dealers and critics make their own well-regarded work as well. And if they don't, so what? Who are you to judge what these people do for a living? Do you have something against restaurant critics as well because they supposedly don't cook, or interior designers because they don't actually design their own objects?
In any event, it sounds to me like
you're the one with resentment for the "gatekeepers of the art world,"
not the other way around.
Not trying to start a flame war, and again, I love your work Brian... But that's just my perspective.
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