“What is the blank generation, broken screens glow manic magic that touches with hallucinations but we are not really touching. All kings predicted with garland crowns made of hyperspace worthy to sheer illusions but “art imitates life” virtual panic disruption like white noise, white fear, black flag surreal.” -V
Do people remember the documentaries that Penelope Spheeris made?
I remember The Decline of Western Civilization III about punk rock culture.
Where the line between homelessness and punk rock is blurred, the aesthetic
of the movie is the loneliness and survival it shows the unforgiving side of society. Now, I don’t think people should not do anything to earn a living yet there is this side of culture which we need to look at the situations that follow many of these lives which include sexual abuse, abandonment, addictions, and mental illnesses. It is not just about the documentary but when we look at Los Angeles right now just this one place. From Hollywood to Skid Row to Santa Ana there’s a huge epidemic and the sad thing is people discard the feelings of outsiders. Many of the people whom fell into these situations come from backgrounds of sexual abuse, and drug-ridden lives.
The question is how do we fix what birth has created to be disowned? How do we help people who have issues that are not murders, that are not a real threat but are angry and hurt? Sure we idolize lifestyles that are damaging, we make books, we make movies, but what is done to help our society heal… What is done to get children off the streets? What is done with bad parents? What is done with what seems a
threat from the wrong hairstyle, wrong clothes, and being different. Perhaps
the association to punk rock has nothing to do with it, but the movement of
being different and being cast out just because of that and that is PUNK.
The world is in constant fear, we push each other, we don’t try to fix things.
There’s issues we can’t even fix alone, we need so much more to protect
youth and to help the homeless, to help the emotionally unstable, mentally ill,
and so forth. All I see is clenched fists from all sides, we don’t have the time
to look after ourselves, we talk about self care so often but we are running
around half blinded by what is trend, how much money we can make, how
many events can we attend, how many friends we will make, and it is all
relevant but we must think of the outsiders, we must try to find the heart to
have time for helping one another, helping our society, mending our youth,
and protecting our future. The next thing I want to talk about is artists and
freedom, I use to live in Berlin for two years and the city is filled with hopes
of the better… Much due to more affordable living or flexible.
“We are told not to give away our art for free but we are minority artists at times not of wealthy cause, and before we can put it anywhere we might be dead. And the world might be dust, and we might never know if we touched someone from a distance, art is to make love with a stranger. How do we create this love if we are suppressed by gallery and its friends? They say make your art bigger and sell, bigger canvas, bigger photo, bigger poetry. Yet just because something is magnificent in size does not make it magnificent in its nature. “ Until next time!
A text by Vanessa Matic