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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 |
TimesofIndia: "The United States is suddenly faced with the uncomfortable scenario of confronting the very same weapons and military hardware, including F-16 fighter jets, it has armed Pakistan with for decades."
We have seen it before. Saddam Hussein and the Taliban were both armed and supported by the US and Britain. Iraq and Afghanistan have returned with a vengeance and are blowing up in the face of their old friends. 9/11 was a blowback too.
Behind our backs Cheney has been in cahoots with would-be dictators like Saakashvili, probably even going against the advice of the Pentagon and against the wishes of George W. Bush. Cheney is the dangerous man behind Bush. Both Bush and Cheney should be arrested for war crimes and abuse of power.
Let'sTryDemocracy: "The presidential pardon power shall not include the power to self-pardon the president, or to pardon any staff or contractors of the executive branch, including the vice president, of crimes authorized by the president, or to preemptively pardon any individuals of crimes for which they have not yet been convicted."
McCain/Palin could even be a worse clone of Bush/Cheney. Even Rove lambasts McCain.
AmericaBlog: "ROVE: McCain has gone, in some of his ads, similarly gone one step too far in sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100% truth test."
11:36:04 AM 
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Damien Hirst can provide you with pickled animals on formaldehyde for the modest sum of a few millions of Pounds. Never before have pickles been so valuable. Is it like the great tulip bulb mania? It looks like it.
TimesOnline: "Slowly in front of an audience of nearly 700 at Sotheby's New Bond Street headquarters last night, the price started to creep up again as two unseen high-rollers duelled for the dead fish via telephone bidders.
Oliver Barker, the auctioneer, eventually sold The Kingdom for £8.5 million - a record for a Damien Hirst work in formaldehyde - to a burst of spontaneous applause in the sales room and a collective gasp of relief from the nervous art dealers dotted around the building."
One could see Hirst's work as a critique of our modern society: the sharks, the decay, death, money, decadence, are all around us and in his work. But is his work meant as a critique? I don't think so. Duchamp's work was meant as a critique of art but it was eagerly integrated into the big-money art world, and thus was made totally innocuous. It has become ridiculous. The message that everyone can make art, is entirely lost on the art world. Hirst's work has been wrapped in money too. It's all about money, not about the meaning, if any, of his work.
Fact is that a similar shark by Eddie Saunders was put on display two years before Hirst's shark. Was it recognized as art? No, it wasn't. But when Hirst exhibits a pickled shark it is art. So the ultimate work of art that would annihilate all art would be a Damien Hirst in formaldehyde? As a concept it would fit in Hirst's art scheme. I can imagine Damien Hirst's last wish being pickled in formaldehyde and put up for auction at Sotheby's. Disgusting? Pecunia non olet.
Hirst's work belongs in the category 'pompier art', art to stun, art for the rich, art of the fake, art with the sole aim to make big money, art as an 'investment', art as a fraud. The difference with pompier art being that they at least could paint. Hirst has his work made by other people.
At a time when banks are collapsing the super rich are buying art works of millions of pounds. One in five people don't have enough to live on in Great Britain.
Hirst's shark is indeed a symbol of the madness of our times. Or is Hirst secretly laughing his head off? Is there a real meaning in his shark? The Kingdom sold for £8.5 million; is that the price the art world is paying to suck the very marrow out of this work of art and rob it of all meaning? Something has been made clear, though, in all this.
If there is a 'deeper' meaning to Hirst's work, he wouldn't tell us. It would ruin his income.
11:16:59 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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