The Blog of Benjamin de Brousse

The Other Source of Global Imbalances : China

2011-12-19T23:50:00.001+01:00

In this blog, I have written extensively (here, here and here) about the economic crisis we are experiencing, focusing on the financial crisis, the western world and the way capitalism has been denatured from its original characteristics by an oligarchy of corporate interests.

In this post, I would like to write about the other crisis, the industrial crisis, and about the other major source of global imbalances : China.
Or more precisely, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
I am emphasizing the difference from start because :
1- Talking about China is sometimes awkward and can easily be caricatured as an opposition between the east and the west or even racism.
2- In addition, the CCP would actually like to make each and everyone think that China is the CCP and that the CCP is China, implying that if the CCP collapses, China would also be doomed, which is obviously false. It is just the kind of basic propaganda all the dictatorships use to frighten their own citizens and foreign countries.
3- Finally, the CCP is very good at using nationalism to its profit.

The CCP is the Party-State. It is above everything. Above the laws, above the government and of course above the people. Even if the CCP has shifted from marxist communism to "socialist market economy" in the 80's, it has kept the culture, organization and ways of doing of communism. Actually China and the chinese people are right now experiencing the "worst of both worlds" : the worst of communism, with the repression of opponents (or so-called opponents, the CCP is literally creating "enemies" regularly to infuse fear), torture, labor camps, censorship, propaganda, no free press, state control of the economy etc etc. And the worst of the most extreme capitalism, with deregulation, consumerism and the worship of money.

Actually it is very interesting to note here, why the CCP feels so comfortable with this "extreme capitalism" : capitalism pushed to its unregulated extreme, promotes the emergence of an oligarchy that is controlling most of the system = The corporate oligarchy that is, in my opinion, poisoning our democracies. A nebulous oligarchy that is above the system and cannot basically be held accountable of anything.
And that is actually what the CCP is : an oligarchy, which is ruling the country (but which is not the government) and is never held accountable of anything => the CCP wipes out its own members regularly rewriting history, blaming them of all the possible sins, but the structure itself is actually never guilty or held accountable of anything.

The goal of an oligarchy is not really power. Power is just a tool to reach their ultimate goal : make as much money as possible.
In order to do so, the CCP has launched a race to the bottom, which is now a sprint...! Even mexican maquilladoras are now suffering from the unfair competition of China, which proves, if necessary, that we are not anymore in an "adjustment period" between high and low wages areas. This is a race that is destroying the industries of the world, including the industries of the other emerging countries.

What happened at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit a few weeks ago was quite revealing about the state of mind of most countries of the region (latin america and asia) who are now realizing what is happening. How do you want to compete with a country were there is no will to promote social protection or to improve working conditions? Where there is no environmental consciousness? Where a lot of goods are actually manufactured in forced labor camps (the "laogai" system) where political prisoners or prisoners of conscience are enslaved?
The answer is clear : you cannot, and you MUST not.

It has been 10 years since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).
A lot of people are now questioning China so-called progresses, realizing that since then, there has been no real intention to implement free markets and play by the rules of the WTO. The Office of United States Trade Representatives (USTR) published a report making clear that "China has not fully complied with the WTO’s basic principles, and that over the last 5 years, Chinese leaders have gone backward in terms of market reform".
Here are some excerpt of an interesting article :
"When China joined the WTO on Dec. 11, 2001 (after trying for 15 years), it was widely felt that a market economy had not been established in China, that there was a need to open its markets to foreign investment and trade, and to establish and nurture a free and fair competitive system within China.
But things haven’t gone to plan, according to Chen Zhifei, a New York-based economist affiliated with the City University of New York. He said that the benefits of China’s entering the WTO over the last 10 years have been receding, while the problems have become more pronounced. This is most obvious in the CCP’s ramping up of state capitalism, which involves massive bank loans that often don’t get repaid, land transfers, and myriad other subsidies. Foreign businesses have no way to compete against them."

Western countries agreed to let China join the WTO (and greatly benefit from it) thinking that in the end, they would have free access to a potential 1,3 billion consumers market.
It is obviously not what happened. The CCP has created, backed and favored huge State Owned Enterprises so that no foreign company could have a chance to succeed in China. In the meantime their economic model has had a huge negative impact on the other economies of the world.
On the other hand, I guess the idea was that "free trade" would favor the emergence of democracy. Instead, the CCP has promoted "state controlled trade" and tightened its dictatorship thanks to the huge profits they made by exporting goods to the US and Europe.
The failure is complete.

Anyway, there would be many other things to write about China and the CCP...
Actually I strongly suggest you read this outstanding presentation from Greg Autry. This is a really impressive summary of the situation where the author is analyzing the issue from various angles (economics, military, human rights, geopolitics etc), successfully drawing a clear picture of what China is in 2011.
He correctly states that "even China’s critics in particular areas, such as trade and human rights, fail to place their own concerns into context with the other issues", and that's why his presentation is so interesting.

To know more about the CCP and modern history of China, I also suggest : The 9 commentaries about the Communist Party and Facts and Details about China

Corporate dictatorship?

2011-12-17T23:26:00.013+01:00

We are almost in 2012, and Mayan prophecy or not, with so many elections (US, France), changes of leaders (CCP) and the debt crisis going on, it will obviously be a decisive year for the world.

Here I would like to sum up some thoughts about the crisis the world is experiencing in order to complete 2 other posts I had wrote in 2010, "The American Corporate Communism" and in 2009, "This is not capitalism Anymore".

Basically, when thinking about the crisis, it has become more and more obvious to me that the origin of the problems we are experiencing now is due to the excessive influence of the lobbies (especially the Financial Lobby).

For more than 30 years, they have spread their ideas (propaganda is like tea, it infuses slowly) in the mind of the politicians (and average people) through campaign funding (and through the media they control). They have the money and the time (president passes, they are the White House lodgers, lobbies remain). They have torn down the US financial regulation (the Glass-Steagall Act), little by little, piece by piece, president after president, convincing each and everyone that it was in the interest of the nation to do so. It is now clear that it was not in the interest of anyone but them. They were just pleading for their own particular interest, which is actually quite normal for a lobby, the real problem being that the politicians could not say "no". Could not realize that those lobbies who were (and are) claiming they are patriots, pro free markets, pro freedom and everything, were (and are) actually just pushing their own agenda, and that this agenda would lead us where we are now : experiencing some kind of Corporate dictatorship, where a fuzzy oligarchy (a part of the 1% Occupy Wall Street is talking about) is running our lives without being held accountable for anything they are responsible for...

After 30 years of brainwashing, both the elites and the average American, believe that "public is bad, private is good". "Paying taxes is bad, it is socialism". "There is too much Federal State, too much government, government is socialism" and so on...

Forgetting that the private sector is just pursuing profits and not the interest of the people (the whole health care debate has been appalling in this regard). Forgetting that without taxes, there would be no Internet, there is no infrastructures, roads, airports, bridges (which are falling apart in the US), there is no decent education (which means no future) and that without all those things, the economy cannot grow. Not realizing that without regulation, corporations just grew bigger and bigger to an extent where they cannot be regulated anymore (they are worldwide, if you regulate in one country they will just move their headquarter to a more "friendly" country), to an extent where there is no real competition, just oligopolistic markets barely trying to look like free markets...

Bottom line, the US are now facing a huge ideology crisis (the mother of all crisis actually), too many people just thinking upside down. A lot of Americans are now convinced that the problem is that there is "too much government" (reducing the power of the government/State being the ultimate goal of the lobbies so that they can do whatever they want to make more money), when the problem is actually that the government (elected) is under the influence of a corporate oligarchy who, by definition, cannot be held accountable.

Getting rid of this influence (and of some of the elite who have been too brainwashed) would solve most of the problems we are facing (not in the short run, but in the mid/long run). To be clear, if there is one measure that should be taken for the sake of America (and the world, because what happens there impacts the whole world) is to implement a real Campaign Finance Reform = Public (and capped) funding, period.
But of course if someone dares to propose such a thing, the establishment / lobbies will get apoplectic and will immediately launch a campaign to label this person as a "dangerous socialist"... when it is actually the exact opposite.
"Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people". If you let private interests fund politicians (to such an extent and for such a long period of time), those private interests, little by little will take the power over.
And that's exactly what happened.

The lobbies have poisoned capitalism to a point it is not capitalism anymore. Capitalism without regulation (hence without real competition) is not capitalism, it is an authoritarian economy.
The lobbies have poisoned democracy to an extent it is almost not democracy anymore. Let's face it, a democracy where the oligarchy's interests outweigh to that extent the average citizen's interests is not a democracy, it is an authoritarian regime.
In 1792, James Madison, 4th president of the United States and one of the main writer of the American Constitution wrote : "A government operating by corrupt influence; substituting the motive of private interest in place of public duty; converting its pecuniary dispensations into bounties to favorites or bribes to opponents; accommodating its measures to the avidity of a part of the nation instead of the benefit of the whole (...) Such a government, wherever to be found, is an impostor."
It seems like we live in a world of "impostors"...

The oligarchy is now trying to rewrite history by using a basic propaganda trick : repeat a lie over and over again until it becomes a truth.
Apparently, according to them, the Subprime crisis was... the Congress fault (see this link to have some clear ideas about this issue).
Didn't I tell you that they are never held accountable of anything?

Some prints available on Society6.com

2010-08-12T22:15:00.007+02:00

You can find the following pieces available as fine art prints at some VERY affordable prices on society6.com :

Reach for the Stars

Solidarity

Stretched canvas, iPhone/iPod and Laptop skins are also available. :)

Feature Artist Interview on GalleryLeft.com

2010-04-08T17:23:00.006+02:00

Check out this Q&A interview published on Gallery Left's website, with a specific focus on my photographic body of work.

QUESTION: What is your educational background?
ANSWER: I am self taught. I have actually started painting and doing photographs in 1998 when I was studying economics and finance at the university. This strange - for an artist - background has actually helped me a lot recently, providing me the conceptual keys and tools to understand what is going on in this world. It has been a window to the world and a great source of inspiration. Since then I have never stopped painting and I am a full-time struggling artist since 2004-2005.

QUESTION: Tell us about your exhibitions and showing?
ANSWER: I am a french artist currently living in Paris, I have shown in Paris, London and the US. In the future I hope I will continue to have some exciting opportunities to show my work both in the US and Europe.

QUESTION: So tell us about your techniques and styles?
ANSWER: I use oil painting. After having worked essentially on canvas for a decade, I currently paint on wood and oil painting paper. As I exhibit regularly in the US, paper is actually very interesting as it is way easier and cheaper to ship than wood panels or stretched canvas! In the past couple of years my style has evolved from cartoon-like-post-apocalyptic-fairy landscapes to a figurative-current-apocalyptic-floating-in-abstraction universe. After having focusing on very colorful landscapes I have recently been working on plain white background because I assume it is very graphic (for instance I love the works of Josh Keyes) and I like the sort of 3D rendering it gives to the painting. In addition, as I started working on paper, it was easier for me that way, but now I feel my craft has improved on this medium and as I kind of miss colors I think I am going to work on both colorful and plain white backgrounds. As for the elements surrounding my recent works (clouds, rainbows, lotus flowers, various shapes), I enjoy mixing pop shapes with a figurative central element. I have always liked both abstract and figurative / pop art, and even if those floating elements are not pure abstraction (as they represent something), they refer to some abstract works I enjoy (such as Mars-1 and Oliver Vernon), so I try to mix those influences together. Moreover, these scattered fragments aggregating around a body or a piece of land is, I think, a representation of what I feel about nowadays' world, which is literally falling apart. Ok, it sounds trite, but I am really concerned by the daily spectacle of ordinary violence, the deterioration of basic moral values, not to mention the ecological decay... At some point it feels like the world as we know it is soon going to implode, and those abstract bits, although colorful, materialize this oblivion threat that surrounds us. They represent the few seconds before and after the implosion, a blank space filled with bits of past, present and future. In a nutshell, a kind of "Pop Big Bang".
As for my photographs, it has actually always been very closely related to my painted works. I don't consider myself a photograph, more like an image builder, using various medias to express something. And as a matter of fact my photographs are a variation of my paintings. For instance the "underground" serie I have been developing for years is a project on Paris, the urbanity and our relation to the passing time. The idea is that layer after layer the current urban landscape reveals its history and brings us back to our roots. Originally this layering idea was a painting concept, but at that time I was not satisfied with the resulting paintings and it just stroke me that it would be easily doable and better using photographs and that's how I started working on this serie which requires nothing but the urban landscape and some computer skills. I would love to develop further my photographic body of work in the future... I'll see, but the thing is the main differences between painting and photographs is that, first you often need a set, models, costumes, accessories and so forth. Hence the second point : you need some money to make high quality photographs. You depend much on others, you need to confront more with the solid reality, which is good... but painter and photographer are definitely two distinct jobs, with distinct markets, buyers, galleries...

QUESTION: Who or what influences you and your work?
ANSWER: I assume that, as every nowadays artist, I am a mass media child. I consider that we have all been raised by the communication flow and I believe that, in the end, a strong continuous communication flow becomes an ideology in itself. As far as I see it we live in a world where the information flow has become unbearable. I have read a study stating that due to new technologies, our brains have changed in the past decades : indeed, we are getting more and more efficient at dealing with multiple tasks and very fast stimuli but less able to concentrate and focus over a long period of time. From this perspective, my works try to deal with this accumulation of information, an accumulation until meaningless. When everything becomes equivalent, insignificant. Otherwise, to quote names, my favorite current artists are Jeff Soto, Josh Keyes, Yosuke Ueno, Amy Sol, Banksy, Ron English, Camille Rose Garcia, Kris Kuksi, Mars-1... and many more. QUESTION: Who or what inspires you and your work? ANSWER: Inspiration is a mystery. I strongly believe it is beyond each and everyone of us, beyond us but reachable to some extent. In my work I have been focusing a lot on what is wrong in this world : war, injustice, ecological decay and so forth... Being upset is generally a good source of inspiration! But recently I have tried to work on myself, started a kind of spiritual journey if you will and I have realized that there is always two sides of a coin : One can argue that the world has been shaped by many wars and injustices which is actually true, but you can also realize that the world as we know it has been shaped by more positive values such as solidarity, compassion or love which is true too. It may sound new age though I am not, I am just trying to balance myself a bit!

QUESTION: Do you have any personal thoughts about today’s art world?
ANSWER: Well the thing is, as far as I see it, there is not just one single homogeneous art world. I think the art world is multiple, so there is an art world I don't like much and don't relate to at all (what people see as "The Art World") and an other one I do like and feel I belong to (the alternative / lowbrow market if you will). I don't see myself much like an "artist" actually, I think I am a craftsman, an "artisan" as we call that in french. I do what I have to do, I try to do it right and professionally, period. I don't think The Art World (TAW) as I defined it before, has actually a lot to do with art, it has mainly to do with finance (art is a financial commodity at that point) and vanity. I am ok with that, it is certainly necessary to have this aloof financial art market but I think I don't and won't ever pertain to this world and I am totally fine with it!! For me most of the energy within the art market is actually out this fancy market and has nothing to do with it. This being said I think there is definitely a struggle between TAW and the Alternative Art Market (TAAM). The fact is that for the past decade TAAM has gained power : Juxtapoz is now the first art magazine in the US, pop surrealists artists are art stars (Mark Ryden, Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Todd Schorr, Ron English etc) and young art lovers / collectors are supporting this trend. As far as I am concerned this is where the future stands. However, even if I assume TAW is nothing but an empty shell where some insiders trade few multi million pieces, it is still alive. Living dead but alive. It is a kind of zombie, but as we all know a zombie can sucks life out. ;o) To be clearer I hope that the galleries who have been truthful to the alternative art since the beginning will achieve to keep their more successful artists and level up.

Père Lachaise
Numeric Photomontage
23,6" x 34,2"

Pigalle
Numeric Photomontage
20,9" x 35,4"

Des Pieds et des Mains
Numeric Photomontage
23,6" x 28,3"

Facade
Numeric Photomontage
23,6" x 36,6"

The American Corporate Communism

2010-03-15T17:30:00.009+01:00

I am currently reading the latest book of Joseph E. Stiglitz, "Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy". As usual it is a masterpiece of economic wisdom and intellectual clarity... and the truth hurts. What he is describing is simply appalling, I am not going to sum up his book, so, buy it, borrow it, download it, but please READ IT.

What strikes me the most in this book is the way Joseph Stiglitz describes the ideological battles that are still underway in the US between the free - self regulated - markets economists and let say the Keynesian ones. Stiglitz is a Keynesian economist, meaning he believes in the markets but also thinks the government has to regulate those markets in order to make them work properly and efficiently. He also believes that the government must sometimes, when necessary as in recession periods, spend money in order to amortize the shocks and help the economy rebound quicker. Indeed, it is not wasting money as conservatives argue, but it is investing, protecting the jobs, and helping the weaker (because if you let people down it is not good for the economy and the society at all. If you spend $1 for the unemployed, they will consume it, it will grant them more time to find a job and in the end you will get $1.5). On the other hand, free markets economists believe the market can and must self regulate itself, hence the rhetoric "the less government, the better". For them the state, the government, the policy makers (which are elected, meaning they represent the people, the citizens actually!!) must not meddle in the market and the business. Their view has proven utterly wrong recently and from an historical perspective, but they are unfortunately still in charge at the white house. By "they" I mean, Robert Rubin, Tim Geithner or Larry Summers for instance. People who were already in charge before the crisis and who cannot have the necessary distance to take the right decisions to rebuild something fairer and more efficient now the system has collapsed.

What bugs me in these ideological controversies is that those free, unregulated markets freaks do not realize that what they are promoting and defending tooth and nail has nothing to do with Capitalism. The current system is actually way closer to a kind of "Corporate Communism" than to Capitalism!!! What is communism? A system where the state controls the economic system, the corporations and regulates almost everything. What a "Corporate Communism" would look like? It would be a system where big Corporations would control the economic system, and could dictate their law to the executive power and the policy makers. Doesn't it look like the system we are living in??

As I argued in a previous post called "this is not Capitalism anymore", capitalism is about entrepreneurship, about rewarding the risk, about competition. How do you name a system where companies are too big to fail, where profits are privatized but losses nationalized, where most sectors of the economy are highly concentrated (meaning there is no real competition but cartels) and where corporate lobbies can dictate their will to the the executive power and the policy makers? And what I am saying is no fantasy, this is happening now.

I do not know if this idea of "Corporate Communism" is already a widespread formalized concept but I found this article by Dylan Ratigan from MSNBC. I guess he wrote this article and used this expression because he was as pissed off as I was when hearing some republicans saying the health care reform was socialism, arguing that the state should not meddle in this issue and let the private insurance companies do their job!! Well I am sorry but I don't understand that. The state definitely has its word to say!!! As I mentioned earlier the state is an emanation of the people, the people elect politicians to do the right things, its essence is doing what citizens need, protecting people when necessary! And on this specific issue it is necessary! If you let an open field to corporations they won't protect consumers and act for the greater good, they don't care, their nature is not to care, their nature is to make profits. I am ok with that fact, but once you acknowledge that, it is obvious they need to be regulated and that you cannot leave an entire population with no solution because the private sector does not want to provide a decent low cost option. And when I mention "an entire population", I am not necessarily pointing out the weaker actually, knowing the people who really need this health care reform are in their vast majority, middle class people who are working full time but in small companies that cannot provide high salaries and health care insurances.

Recently I have seen on TV a report showing that many Americans living close to the mexican border, actually crossed the border in order to get medical cares. The richest country in the world cannot provide a decent social security system and literally forces its citizens to get this support in the developing country next door!! Honestly I call that a disgrace.

Who could be arrogant enough to argue that the system works? That it is efficient? That the richest country in the world cannot do better? Perhaps the free, unregulated markets partisans...

The Fantastic 7 (deadly Sins)

2010-03-13T15:25:00.011+01:00

I have submitted this painting to this art contest : 7 Sins Contest

7 Sins Contest is an international competition that will take place through the website aimed at artists of all disciplines (graffiti, painting, graphic design, photography, etc..) with the main objective of capturing these old clichés in a visual way and therefore exposing the mentality changes that have taken place over the last twenty centuries of history.

I have chosen to depict the 7 sins in one single painting, each character embodying a specific sin :
LUST, GLUTTONY, GREED, SLOTH, WRATH, ENVY and PRIDE.
I have self-portrayed myself as WRATH, which sounds logical as this painting is a kind of guerrilla artwork made by a pissed off artist! ;)

The artwork in progress : drawing stage

The finished work : The Fantastic 7 (deadly Sins)
Oil on canvas
70 cm x 100 cm (27.55" x 39.37")
2010

Plastic oceans, bisphenol A, phthalates... What goes around, comes around

2010-01-24T14:01:00.006+01:00

Here is an excellent article about the appalling problematic of plastic.

In a nutshell, our society is addicted to plastic - by the way plastic derives from oil which leads us to the addiction, waste and depletion of worldwide oil resources, anyway -, almost everything we buy is made partly or entirely of plastic. The problem is plastic goods are not biodegradable and barely 3 to 5% of them are recycled. The 97 to 95% remaining is either buried in the soil, burnt or thrown in the sea. For the record, the annual worldwide plastic production is above 260 millions tons.

Once in the sea, the plastic starts a trip following the oceanic streams (depending on which ocean we are talking about, see here), sailing clockwise from coast to coast, such as the hawaiian's where birds are dying from ingesting plastic or fishes who have previously ingested plastic themselves...

... up to garbage patches also called trash islands.

Once there we are not talking about bottles or big pieces of plastic but literally tiny grains of plastic, grains that are easily swallowed by the whole food chain... Up to human beings.

Plastic is made of chemicals components such as bisphenol A and phthalates. Allegedly, the concentration of those components, taken one by one, is too weak to induce any health disfunction. The problem is that 1) those components are mixed up together, 2) we are litterally surrounded by them in our everyday life and 3) we are eventually ingesting them.

Scientists have just started few years ago to study the effects of those components, and especially their endocrine disruptive effects. It has been proven on frogs and snails that those chemicals components have serious effects on their endocrine system. To sum up briefly, scientists have put snails in a regular plastic bottle of water, and after several months, a "superfeminization" has been observed (additional female organs, enlarged accessory sex glands etc). Even more concerning, this "superfeminization" has also been observed on wild frogs in Florida (meaning not in a lab but in the wildlife!). Doctors have also studied pregnant woman with various bisphenol A concentration in the blood (again, as we are surrounded by them, we all have bisphenol A and phthalates in our organism) and they found out that the higher the concentration was, the bigger the risks for genital malformations were.

Some scientists even suggest that the worldwide decrease of fertility rate they have been observing for decades, could be linked with those endocrine disruptors.

This is not capitalism anymore...

2009-12-20T15:00:00.016+01:00

Each and everyone of us tend to take for granted some facts. For instance, in our western societies, "Progress" is considered as a basic law of nature. As argued in a previous post this is not true and mankind has already experienced centuries of what historian call "dark times" characterized by a steep regression followed by strictly no improvements or new achievements for centuries.

I have recently seen on TV the interview of a french economist named Daniel Cohen. In his new book titled "The prosperity of Vice, a worried introduction to economy" he is brilliantly explaining how our western culture has prevailed, why, and where we are heading to. In the interview he was stating something stunning : in the early 1900's a Papuan and a western blue collar were eating as much calories per day. The only difference is the Papuan was working 1 or 2 hours a days, just the time to hunt and cook, when the blue collar was working 8 to 10 hours in very hard conditions. What a progress... I am not saying the industrial revolution has not been a leap forward, but it is sometimes interesting to put the concept of "progress" in perspective. And to say the least the industrial revolution has been a very costly move forward.

We all have a limited rationality and it is very hard to encompass history (especially from an economic and social perspective) as a whole. As a human being our time frame is at best a life span.

Twenty years ago Communism collapsed. Capitalism and freedom have prevailed. Since then this economic system has dragged out from poverty millions of people. No question about this.
Does it mean we should not question the evolutions of the system? I don't think so.

Originally Capitalism is about entrepreneurship, about having an idea, developing it, succeeding or failing. It is about being proportionally rewarded for the risk taken. Capitalism is about rewarding risks.

Is it still the case today?
Francis Ford Coppola recently regretted the good old time in an interview arguing that back in the days Entertainment moguls certainly wanted to make money, but were also willing to take risks. Maybe because they knew that you must risk to profit...

When the financial institutions have created Securitization (the financial tool behind the Subprime crisis) were they aiming at rewarding risks? Of course not. In a nutshell the idea behind Securitization is to extract the credit risk from the banks' balance sheets. Banks wanted to enjoy the profits, not carrying the attached risks anymore. They did not want to make their job anymore.

Along the same line many sectors of the economy are facing a huge crisis of innovation. For instance pharmaceuticals companies are issuing pills such as Plavix when it has basically the same benefits as Aspirin (see here in french) but is sold 24 times higher... They are not innovating anymore so they overuse the make up of marketing and advertising to keep their profits high.

In many sectors there is not enough competition. In France the three mobile phone companies have been sentenced to a record penalty for cartel. But the situation is even worse in the US!! The country of capitalism, the country where competition is glorified... As a french I have always been shocked by the fares US consumers are paying and the fact that they pay for incoming calls. Sorry guys but in France you only pay for outgoing calls and no doubt if there was more competition US consumers would be way better off (and not only in Telecommunications, but also in banking services for instance)!

"Dirty business" is spreading in almost every sector of the economy :
In some industries it is about lying to the consumer (if not conning) => Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications, Insurance, Banking...
In other ones it is about pressuring your own employees with terrible work conditions => Department Stores, Manufacturing Companies, Call Centers...
In others it is about bribing and destroying the environment => Agribusiness, Mining, Oil and Chemical Industries...

Companies are so big they can influence governments and policy making. If they are not big enough they group together to lobby...

And we are talking here about powerful free market economies. Countries who are supposed to have the capacity to regulate abuses.
Do you think a developing country can repress abuses when fighting a company who is earning more profits a year than its GDP... On this, Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, former economic adviser of Bill Clinton and former VP of the world bank, lists terrible examples of corporate misconducts in his books and interviews. Examples where we are not talking about economics anymore but just about basic ethic.

The current economic system is poor on innovation and competition, the financial sphere is risk averse and focused on the very short term, global giants have emerged and have reached the critical size to impose their views to policy makers.

Globalization has completely changed the game. Company have perfectly adapted to it. Countries and regulators have not. The goal of a company is to make profits, ok no problem about that, but when they are that big and that unregulated they begin to be a threat to democracy and humanity.

I am not anti-capitalist at all but I don't think this is capitalism anymore.

On Copenhagen and the climate change

2009-12-19T14:53:00.004+01:00

It is almost the end of 2009. This year ends on a murky note with the disaster of Copenhagen Climate Conference.

I am upset, but honestly not very surprised. Every country has been fighting for its own little interest, nobody has wanted to make a significant move forward, egos have been bumping into each other for two weeks and some scientists (or so-called scientists) are interfering in the debate arguing (lobbying?) the IPCC conclusions are wrong...

On this specific point I would like to say I don't quite understand those scientists :
- Some are claiming there is no global warming => of course we can observe small periods of global "coldening", it is basic statistics, no trend is perfectly linear! Those people are saying "we cannot foresee tomorrow's weather how could we predict it at long period?". Well stupid, it is exactly as if I told you that the stock markets remain the best investment over a long period of time (with a 20-30 years investment you are sure to get the best return possible) but I cannot tell you where the DOW JONES will be tomorrow or in a year! Doh!
- Some agree that there is a global warming... which is not due to human activity => Ok maybe the climate change is not entirely due to human activity, of course we should study the impact of the solar activity, the clouds and everything, but based on what I have seen, read and thought this is definitely not what I believe, of course the activity of more than 6 billions people has an impact.

Anyway, why not, let's assume they are right. Hummm ok but can you tell me what does it change??? Indeed, in the end those scientists (at least the serious ones, not those who are nothing but lobbyists) agree that we must reduce CO2 emissions for multiple reasons : CO2 increase oceans' acidity, pollution (CO2 and other gases) in urban areas is a really serious health concern (and anyway, for god sake who wants to live in a polluted foggy area??!!), fossil resources are on rapid depletion...

So what? Is it just a ridiculous scientific rumble to know who is closer to truth?
I mean give us a break we are discussing about serious things here, the way we, our kids and grand kids will live in the near future!!
So the real questions are : Do we want to live in a polluted world? No. Do we want to waste in less than a century most of the fossil resources nature took millions of year to create? Of course not! Do we want to eradicate dozen of species just for money (and I am not only referring to polar bear but to red tuna for instance)? NO! Are we ok with the fact that they are seas of plastic gyrating in every ocean of the globe? NO NO AND NO!
And I could keep going like this.

For me everything is linked and living in a less polluting, less polluted environment, while economizing fossil resources (which is actually the way to reduce CO2 emissions) is not only good but necessary.

Of course we must also put a strong focus on other issues such as water (access and cleanness) which will be a major issue in the decades to come, we must do everything we can to control natality by educating people (especially women. It is proven if you send little girls to school you dramatically lower natality in medium term), we must study every scientific possibility such as carbon capture and storage but we must also act now and change now. Event if change is not always comfortable.

The problem is man is incapable of assessing his actions, putting them in perspective and acknowledging his own mortality. Human being is a short-sighted creature with a very weak memory.

FRESH PRODUCE 09 @ Anno Domini, San Jose CA USA

2009-11-05T14:21:00.007+01:00

Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design presents:

FRESH PRODUCE
9th Annual Invitational Group Exhibit and Art Sale!

50 artists from all over the world have created hundreds of works of art for this highly anticipated annual exhibition and sale. These artists were invited based on their unique artistic vision and contribution to urban/contemporary arts and culture. Each artist has submitted up to 10 works of original art, all affordably priced at $250 or less.

Opening reception and sale start: First Friday, December 4, 2009, 8pm 'til late

Exhibit on view through January 9, 2010

1911, Rimini,Italy
Aitch, Berlin, Germany
Alexandre Anjo, Santo André, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Miguel Arias (Argumentativa), San Francisco, CA
Christine Benjamin, San Jose, CA
Benjamin de Brousse, Paris, France
Cake, New York, NY
Mia Christopher, San Francisco, CA
Kimberly Cook, San Jose, CA
Scott Cook, Toronto, Canada
Don John, Aarhus, Denmark
Dimitri Drjuchin, New York City, NY
Danielle Duer, Nashville TN
Bill Dunlap, Cumberland, MD
Mike Egan, Pittsburgh, PA
Kiersten Essenpreis, Brooklyn, NY
Lia Fenix - Sao Paulo, Brazil
Katelan Foisy, Astoria, NY
Foma<3, Tel Aviv, Israel
Curro Gómez, Mexico City, Mexico
Andy Gouveia, San Francisco, CA
Alvin P. Gregorio, Boulder, CO
Keith Greiman, Philadelphia, PA
Know Hope, Tel Aviv, Israel
Jean Spezial Collective, Paris, France
Mitchell Kehe, Brooklyn, NY
Julian Kimmings, Chester, Cheshire UK
KLONE, Tel Aviv, Israel
Daniel Jesse Lewis, Oakland, CA
Jeremiah Maddock, New York, NY
Devin McGrath, New York, NY
Wendell McShine, Mexico City, Mexico
Ginger Markley, Berkeley, CA
Binho Martins - Americana/Sao Paulo
Crystal Morey, Oakland, CA
Gabby Nathan, Tel Aviv, Israel
Virgilio Neto, Brasilia, Brazil
Rodrigo Obranco, Sao Paulo, Brazil
OZI - Sao Paulo, Brazil
Kyle Pellet, San Jose, CA
Pjota, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Pulpo Corporate, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Roseau, Lorient, France
Saddo, Berlin, Germany
Mario Scorzelli, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Amanda Spicer, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Various & Gould, Berlin, Germany
Porous Walker, Owltooth, CA
Jerry Waese, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jake Watling, Oakland, CA, USA
Derek Weisberg, Oakland, CA
Paola Zakimi, Villa Giardino, Cordoba, Argentina
Zero Cents, Tel Aviv, Israel

Anno Domini // the second coming of Art & Design
366 South First Street, San Jose, CA 95113
galleryAD.com

gallery hours:
Tuesday thru Friday, Noon - 7pm
Saturday, Noon - 5pm
First Fridays 8pm 'til late.

POSTCARDS FROM DYSTOPIA @ Nolias Gallery, London UK

2009-11-05T14:07:00.007+01:00

From December 3rd - December 21st 2009 I'll be exhibiting in London, in a goup show curated by Tutte Newall called "Postcards from Dystopia".
Dystopia is defined here as "the vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and characterized by poverty, oppression, war, violence, disease, pollution, nuclear fallout and/or the abridgement of human rights, resulting in widespread unhappiness, suffering, and other kinds of pain". Pretty cool right? ;)

Postcards from Dystopia
“A futuristic or imagined territory where a universal menace prevails”

An international exhibition of thirty artists presenting visions of a menacing universe with a collection of postcard sized works. This is in conjunction with a showcase of larger paintings of ominous dystopian territories by Tutte Newall and Andrew Hladky.

Our present culture holds a fascination with the concept of our own ordered civilization's collapse into chaos. 'Postcards from dystopia' explores this idea by delving into the realms of the imaginary and issuing visions from a dystopian and desolate environment.

With artists : Jessamyn Bailey, Nick Barratt, Anna Beam, Maria Colom, Giles Corby, Benjamin de Brousse, Ian Gamache, Linda Griffiths, Takayuki Hara, Joseph Hartley, Andrew Hladky, Gareth A Hopkins, HRLCK, Isabel Howlett, Julia Iwasz, Fiona Leighton-Crawford, Kate MacDonald, Ruth Martindale, Nick McLeod, Tutte Newall, Raksha Patel, Federico Penteado, Maria Theresa Santos, Satch, Fred Schimmelschmidt, Angela Smith, Carly Troncale, Lisa Vuerich, David Willis, Esther Yuan.

Nolias Gallery
December 3rd - December 21st 2009
Opening Reception December 3rd
60 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0BL, London, UK (5mins from Tate modern)
Gallery open: Tues - Sun 11 am - 6 pm and Mon 21st 11 am - 5 pm

Statement's Update

2009-09-19T17:23:00.008+02:00

Recently, a new body of work has emerged in my art and I think an update of my artist statement is necessary.
Indeed, I have been working for several years on post-apocalyptic landscapes where cartoon-like creatures were struggling for their lives. In the past couple of months I have started to work on abstract characters, such as death or the universe, while Earth was shrinking to a tiny piece of rock. I have always found quite healthy to remember that Earth is just a small rock floating into the infinite universe. It is definitely something we should all keep in mind so that our gigantic egos / problems could deflate a bit.

Anyway, I was working on that while abstract shapes emerged, and today, I turned back and asked myself : What do those shapes stand for? What do they mean?

Maybe it is not something to reveal but, sometimes, an artist does not know what he is doing or why! He does not know where an evolution of his work will lead and what are the respective underlying concepts. The artist just does what he does because he likes it and feel compelled doing it.

So, what could be the meaning of those colorful and more or less abstract shapes, clouds, balloons and rainbows?
I think there are three main answers :

First, I enjoy mixing those pop shapes with a more figurative central element. I have always liked both abstract and figurative / pop art, and now I try to mix these influences together.

Mrs. Dream Catcher
Oil on Paper
11.8'' x 14.6'' (30 cm x 37 cm)

Second, we live in a world where the information flow has become unbearable. I have read a study stating that due to new technologies, our brains have changed in the past decades : indeed, we are getting more and more efficient at dealing with multiple tasks and very fast stimuli but less able to concentrate and focus over a long period of time. From this perspective, those aggregating shapes symbolize the accumulation of information, an accumulation until meaningless. When everything becomes equivalent, insignificant.

Precarious Generation
Oil on wood panel
27.2'' x 19.7'' (69 cm x 50 cm)

Third, those scattered fragments aggregating around a body or a piece of land is a representation of what I feel about nowadays' world, which is literally falling apart. Ok, it sounds trite, but I am really scared by the daily spectacle of violence. And I am not talking about war, but ordinary violence. Just watching the traffic in a big city is overwhelming. The way people behave when they are behind the steering wheel speaks for itself. There is also the deterioration of basic moral values (it seems the new trend is to pay homeless people to fight each other and post the video on internet... Just one example out of many others), not to mention the ecological decay and so forth. At some point it feels like the world as we know it is soon going to implode, and those abstract bits, although cheerful, materialize this oblivion threat that surrounds us. They represent the few seconds before and after the implosion, a blank space filled with bits of past, present and future. In a nutshell, a kind of "Pop Big Bang".

Sacred Heart
Oil on Paper
12'' x 14'' (30 cm x 40 cm)

Take Death as an Advisor

2009-07-23T11:10:00.006+02:00

Just a short post about the background of this painting called "Take Death as an Advisor". In the past couple of years I have read extensively Carlos Castaneda's books on his journey as the apprentice of a Mexican shaman called Don Juan Matus. There has been a lot of questioning about his testimony : did Castaneda, freshly graduated anthropologist, lived supernatural experiences (as he claimed) or was he "just" a literature genius with a great imagination? It is up to everyone to make its own opinion...

Anyway the fact is the books are great, and you can find a lot of interesting similarities between the spiritual principles set in those books and other spiritual path such as Buddhism. One of the similarity is the fact that in order to live a full, inspiring life and make the most of it you must keep in mind that death is the final outcome of every life.

Take Death as an Advisor
Oil on wood panel
18.1" x 26" (46 cm x 66 cm)

Some new works

2009-04-30T18:40:00.006+02:00

Here are a couple of pics of my latest works.

My studio

Philosophy Course : Just do it

Some new works.

I am currently developing a more abstract / spiritual body of work with plain white backgrounds. I look forward to seeing where it will lead me... :)

Two Upcoming Events in the US

2009-02-13T10:56:00.010+01:00

In February and March I am scheduled in two very cool group shows :

INAUGURAL EXHIBITION @ ART RAW GALLERY
For my first show in NYC I will be part of this massive inaugural exhibit featuring 100's of artworks by emerging international artists. Opening night will stream live on several websites. Check out youtube.com/artraw for archives.

February 19 to March 21, 2009
Opening Reception February 19th from 6 to 8pm

Art:Raw Gallery
210 11th Avenue, 905
New York, NY 10001, USA
artrawgallery.com

UNDER THE INFLUENCE II @ C. EMERSON FINE ARTS
I am very excited of being part of the 2nd C. Emerson Fine Arts' Annual Group show "Under the Influence II". I will be exhibiting 2 medium pieces along with great artists such as Kristen Margiotta, Josh Taylor, Rocky Grimes, Patrick Fatica, Johnny Vitale, Jennifer Lewis, Patrick Francisco, Clayton Chandler and Isabel Czerwenka-Wenkstetten. I am really honored to exhibit with this bunch of amazing artists and I think it is going to be a fantastic show. :)

March 6th - April 4th 2009
Opening Reception March 6th from 7 to 10pm

C. Emerson Fine Arts
909 Central Avenue
St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
c-emersonfinearts.com

Spontaneous Generation - Just do it

2009-01-16T19:09:00.008+01:00

Sometimes I like to edit videos based on my paintings, here is my latest one.

It is part of a set of videos entitled "Spontaneous Generation". The basic idea of those videos is to observe the self-creation of a painting and give a new angle of understanding by adding music and sometimes quotes (I am not as good as RX -see my previous post - but I do my best!)...

This one is called "Philosophy Course : Just Do It".
It deals with the way our society is educating and formatting people, and especially kids an teenagers, to be good and docile consumers. As usual I have pushed the reasoning to an extreme (did I?) by depicting a classroom studying the hedonist quote of the well known great philosopher (and secondarily sneaker maker) Nike.

"Just do it" might be one of the underpinning of the modern consumerist philosophy and who knows, maybe one day we will consider this kind of marketing motto as the pinnacle of knowledge and wisdom...

By the way, few days ago I have read that a teenager from California has sent more than 14.000 SMS in a month. Nothing to do with this post right?
Update 1: a teenager in Florida claims more than 35.000 in a month.
Update 2: an Indian holds the record, reaching almost 183.000 SMS in a month.
This is a spreading disease...

PS: The song is from Dolly Parton (the bargain store) and I think it blends perfectly with both the theme / atmosphere of the painting and the slow motion of the video.

Goodbye W

2009-01-15T15:40:00.007+01:00

Just a tribute to RX (from ThePartyParty.com) who has done the most amazing viral videos/songs in the last couple of years.
I hope that even with W back in Texas he will continue to create gem pieces such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" or "Imagine" (see below). This is brilliant and so disturbing.
True masterpieces of Art to me.

Opening FRESH PRODUCE

2008-12-07T11:55:00.005+01:00

Here are some pics of the opening reception I found on Village Savant's flickr account.
Its seemed like a pretty cool opening... Too bad I couldn't be there. :<

Click HERE to see the whole slide show.

And you can access the backroom (Selected Art Availability) HERE.

FRESH PRODUCE 08 @ Anno Domini, San Jose CA USA

2008-11-22T12:10:00.010+01:00

I am very proud and excited of being part of the 8th Anno Domini's Annual Invitational Group Exhibit!
There will be a lot of great lowbrow and street artists such as AJ Fosik, Armsrock, Bruno 9Li, Know Hope, Ryan Bubnis, Derek Weisberg, Jose Guinto, Maxwell Holyoke Hirsh, Rodrigo Obranco, Michael Alan, Crystal Morey, Betsy Walton, Rafael Prakrti, Alison O'Donoghue, and Fernando Chamarelli.

It starts on Friday December 5th through January 10th 2009.
I will be showing 8 small pieces such as:

The End of Innocence
Oil on Wood Panel
11,8" x 9,8"

Lil' Sumotori
Oil on Wood Panel
9" x 11,8"

If you are in the Silicon Valley area please stop by! :)

366 So. First Street, San Jose, California 95113
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Opening EAT ME, DRINK ME

2008-10-12T11:39:00.007+02:00

Here are some pics of EAT ME, DRINK ME @ Galerie l'Art de Rien. It's a group show based on "Alice in Wonderland". Each artist received a small part of the book and had to create an artwork based on it. The idea is to re-edit a new version of "Alice in Wonderland", illustrated with all those different visions. That's quite cool. :)

The official flyer, by Alessandra Fusi.

Ores, Sergio Mora, Anaïs Goldemberg, Anne-Julie Aubry

Sergio Mora, Stoul, Ores

Sunny Buick, Madmeg, Benjamin Lacombe, Ectropion, Miette, Me

My 2 paintings, Marc da Cunha Lopes, Aurélio, Bleuz, Hélène Pé, Alessandra Fusi

Lostfish, El Gato Chimney, Barbara D’Antuono

Natalie Shau, Luluberlu, Hélène Pé, Alyz Tale

Julien Lesur, Madmeg, Paul Toupet...

Alessandra Fusi, Bleuz, my paintings...

Mllzfannib, Natalie Shau

Wonderland for Sale

The Subprime crisis and the similarities with the Art market

2008-09-25T17:50:00.020+02:00

It has been a while I wanted to blog about the Subprime / Credit Crisis, however, in an Art blog, I did not know if it would have been relevant... In addition it would have obviously been too technique and boring and even though I believe this crisis is very interesting because it tells A LOT on our today's world (and that is exactly what I enjoy to blog and paint about) up to now I have decided to spare that to the poor hypothetical reader...

But recently, I was discussing with an artist friend of mine about this blog, the lowbrow / Pop Surrealism trend, the art world and so on... And something stroke me. There are some similarities between the art market, the way it is (not) working and the way the financial and banking system is working and what this credit crisis has emphasized dramatically.

To sum up, the financial / banking system has been trying for the past 15 years (and again this crisis has shown it dramatically) to split the risks, or even better to get rid of it. So they were issuing loans, ok, that is the basic function of a bank : support the corporate and personal investments by providing the funding. But these loans were a risk for them in their balance sheet as there is always a probability that the borrower cannot pay back in the end. That was a problem...

So they have had the genius idea to get rid of it. How? By building up a package of loans (literally a "pile" of slices of various loans, from the better less risky one to the worse one) and issuing it on the market (it is a process called securitization). This package was sold on the market as a security to the investors and was providing an added return thanks to a junk "slice", in many case the famous "Subprime" thingy. The added return also came from the fact that, by structuring these products, the banks were artificially creating what is called an "information asymmetry". Which means that it was harder for the client, the investor to understand the product and assess the risk attached to it. In every business when you complexify the things, when you make them more nebulous you can raise your margin. In this world most of the margins are actually made thanks to information asymmetries, and when there is no more asymmetry (such as this is the case on the bond or stock markets which are very efficient for instance) you create one.

The whole trick of this crisis is that the banks got rid out of the risk by securitizing the loans, but were stupid enough to buy their own (or some other banks) products...

Instead of doing their job, which is funding the investments and thus assuming some calculated risk, the banks and financial institutions got rid of this risky (though elemental I repeat it!) part of their business to make more money on the markets and speculate. They thought that they were not carrying any risk anymore when in fact they were actually carrying more than they could by investing "blindly" on the securitization market.

Here I just would like to add that some friends of mine are "Securitization Analysts" and when I use the term "blindly" I am not trying to say that it was impossible or too complicated to assess the risk, as some traders and asset managers try to make people believe now. I know for sure that if you want to know what is in the product you invest on, it is totally possible. It just requires some work. And on the market a lot of investors are either incompetent (or at least way too remunerated in comparison to their skills) or just negligent : you can regularly hear in those firms that "analysts are not profitable, they are just a cost". No comment.

My friends have told me amazing stories about all that and the general idea is that as long as the market is rising, nobody wants to know why there is an added return, even though that's a basic of finance : if there is a good return, watch out! It means there is some risk behind. No risk, no return. No return, no risk.
Not taking that simple fact into account, I call that incompetence; even if we can argue for ages about that... In the end I agree that the problem is mainly not a skills problem but the fact that there is something wrong in the system (which means each and everyone) demanding too much return to the companies, the pensions funds etc... But that's a larger debate...

Anyway, what does it have to do with the Art market would you say? Well nothing and everything.
Maybe it is not the case everywhere but for the moment I live in France and it just stroke me that the french Art market is working the same way. Nobody wants to risk anything. Exactly as banks and financial institutions, galleries have forgotten what is the core of their business : discovering and promoting artists.

Nowadays in the Art market, it is not about believing in something, trying to find artists that are connected to their times, that are representatives of their times, it is not about taking risks, trying to convince, no no no. It is about dealing, making money, about business and only business, about seeking respectability (in regard to the highbrow world)...

Why investing on a young local artist? It is way too risky, it is safer to exhibit established foreign artists! No wonder no major french artist has made a breakthrough in the Art world for the past 25 years... At that point, one can argue that this is the same issue as who comes first? The chicken or the egg? In this case, what comes first? The fact that there is no local artist promoted or that the local market is in decline?
But anyway, in the end the result is the same. There is almost no more "real" gallery in France just some famous Art dealers, dealing some famous foreign established artists. But my point is this : exactly as being a bank and being a hedge fund is not the same, being a gallery and being an Art dealer are two completely different things.

And I assume this is more or less the same on a global basis. Very few galleries are still taking risks and supporting artists. Even though this should be the elemental part of their business, the core of it! But it is easier to follow the market. On the way to profitability most galleries have forgotten and lost the "nobility" of their task. I can understand that. I know that owning a gallery is one of the hardest job in the world, I assume it is almost as risky and difficult as being an artist... So I can understand that exhibiting established (I mean expensive) artists is some kind of a prerequisite and as long as you cannot build the career of an artist by yourself, taking advantage of the success of already successful artists is quite wise. However I think it is always possible to support the local scene and some young artists once you have reached a certain degree of success and profitability. But this is not the case. I am not going to quote gallery names but nowadays the more profitable you are, the more respectable you want to be and therefore the less risks you want to take.

I don't want to quote names because it is useless and I prefer to focus on people and galleries that are striving to influence the market, to impulse some fresh air, people that have taken risks and are committed.
Very few people really "make" the market, influence it, whether it is on the financial or the art markets, most institutions, most people just follow the trend, maybe because nowadays :
a- the market is too strong (you cannot go against the market even if you are right...)
b- risk taking is not well rewarded or not rewarded enough.

I don't know, I guess that's just the way our society works in 2008, but I would like to salute here every "real" gallery owners, people who still believe in what they are doing and literally devote their life to it.

Opening 4 FACES OF FOOFARAW

2008-09-08T19:13:00.012+02:00

Here are some pics of the opening reception of "4 Faces of Foofaraw" an exhibition with Femke Hiemstra, Anthony Pontius, Fred Stonehouse and Heiko Müller @ Feinkunst Krüger in Hamburg.

It was my first time in Germany and I enjoyed it a lot. The Art was awesome, the city is very cute and the people were quite nice. :)

Me in front of the Gallery.

Some paintings by Heiko Müller.

Some paintings by Anthony Pontius.

Some works by Femke Hiemstra.

With Femke who is very nice.

Some paintings by Fred Stonehouse.

An outside view of the opening reception.

You can see some other pics here on Feinkunst Krüger website.

An interview

2008-06-23T19:10:00.009+02:00

Here is an interview I have recently done with an Italian artist/journalist named Claudio Parentela. You can read this interview, among many others, on Claudio's Art blog.

q)What is your name?
Benjamin de Brousse.

q) Where do you live and work?
For the moment, I live in Paris, France.

q) What is your creative process like?
My “creative process” is the following: I have an idea and then I draw; or I draw and then I have an idea. After that I choose one drawing and I paint it. That easy!

q) What is your favorite medium?
I am used to painting with oil. In fact, I have started with oil paint because my grandaunt and grandfather, who painted as a hobby, gave me their tools as a present on their old age. And I just got used to it… That’s the reason why I am not painting with acrylic which is by far the favorite medium of most young artist.
For 10 years, I have painted on canvas, but recently (since the beginning of 2008) I have started to paint on wood panel, and I actually love it!

q) What is your current favorite subject?
My work describes a post-apocalyptic world, with joyful colors and humor. A kind of science-fiction-funny-horror-vision of our future, based on what strikes me, freaks me out or annoys me: ecology (pollution, waste), over-consumption (food, medicine), violence etc...

In a nutshell, my universe aims at being a sort of mix between Alice in wonderland and Mad Max…

I think that science fiction, for instance in literature or cinema, is the most efficient narrative way of expressing an idea, an opinion about our nowadays world and the way it is spinning; and I try to apply this narrative way to express myself in my paintings.

On a general basis, I believe that we are living in a world that is dramatically changing. The balance of the world is quickly moving in favor of some eastern developing countries, which is actually fair, as the western countries have mismanaged the globalization to their almost unique profit for the last 30 years, when it should have been at the very least, a win-win deal for poorer countries. (For those interested in this issue, I recommend to read the books and interviews of Joseph Stiglitz, an American Nobel Prize in Economics).

In other words, from a political and financial standpoint, people in western countries start to feel and understand that they won’t be the leaders of tomorrow.

Ecologically, we are facing a tremendous challenge that is going to change our everyday life forever. As a matter of fact, the stake is simple: whether we dramatically change our way of living, driving, eating and consuming, or we will be in some big troubles.

Sociologically, I think that the landscape is quite regressive, childish. Sociologist have discussed extensively about the no-kids phenomena, the 40 year old teenagers, the way cell phones turned into a transitional object for many grown ups…

The bottom line of all this, is that, for me, as an artist, I work on our (western) world’s decline, with a zest of childish references and humor.

Actually, I think that most of nowadays artists work on this (especially lowbrow / pop surrealists artists). If you see the works of Mark Ryden, Anthony Ausgang, Takashi Murakami, Gary Baseman and a lot of other younger less renowned artists, you’d see the reflection of our world’s childishness. If you look at the works of Camille Rose Garcia, Jeff Soto or Travis Louie, I assume that you’d look at our generation’s concerns about our own decline and alienation.

And that’s what I am also trying to do.

q) How long does it take for you to finish a piece?
It takes me about 2 weeks. Knowing that, as I use oil paint and it dries slowly, I work on two paintings at a time. I focus on one in the morning session, and on the other one in the afternoon. Depending on the format, I paint 4 to 5 pieces a month.

q) What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?
That’s a tough question. I would say that my biggest accomplishment has been to live my life listening to my own inner voice.

I don’t want to sound too much like a Buddhist guru, but life is a journey. Once you have achieved something, you soon realize that it is already part of the past, of your personal history.

I feel that you can now set outstanding goals to reach, goals that might seem out of sight at this specific moment. But as you keep on working, keep on evolving, the goal that seems today as unreachable as the Holy Grail, little by little becomes more real, more reachable. And once you finally reach this goal, obviously you have already set and focused on new goals… I think that’s the way most people work. That’s how mankind keeps on moving forward, and that’s maybe why it is so hard to feel satisfied and accomplish in the long run.

More practically, I think that my biggest accomplishment is still to come, it may be when I will make a living of my art (even if it obviously depends on one’s standard of living!).

q) Are there any contemporary artists that you love?
Camille Rose Garcia, Jeff Soto, Greg Simkins, Travis Louie, Ray Caesar, Heiko Müller, Victor Castillo, Brandt Peters, Paul Barnes, Amy Sol etc…

q) Can we buy your art anywhere?
The best way to buy my art is to drop me a line via my website. If you live in Paris, you can also get in touch with galerie l’Art de Rien.

q) Anything that people should know about that we don’t??
Not especially.

q) What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
I would quote what a fellow artist once told me: “Let it flow”.

And I would add: “keep on working”.

Most people tend to think that being an artist is an attitude, a kind of state of mind. They “feel artist”, so they think that they are one. That’s wrong. To be an artist, you need to practice and work on your art, on a daily basis if possible. It takes work and time to become an artist.

So my advice would be “Let it flow and keep on working”.

q) What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
I think that the question is more like: “what keeps you going?”-period-. When you seriously think about it, being an artist is a suicidal choice!! There is a motto that says: “Waste your life, be an artist”… And from a rational modern perspective, that’s kind of a true statement. However, strangely I don’t feel that I am wasting my life, and I am sure that I will succeed. Maybe not to the extent of a Mark Ryden or a Takashi Murakami, but I am convinced that I am going to do well.

Being an artist is sometimes hard. You need to have a lot of energy to practice, improve your skills, create, have ideas, find inspiration, judge your own work, show your work which means being your own salesman, dealing with public relations, coping with critics, rejection or indifference. Yes, that’s sometimes tough and frustrating.

That’s why you need faith. Being an artist is an act of faith. I am obviously not talking about religious faith. Just the faith in yourself and the fact that you are here for one good reason: create. It is all about listening to that little voice that has been commanding you, from the very beginning, to create.

And apart from these spiritual considerations, in general, a good night’s sleep is an efficient remedy to get rid of frustration and bad feelings.

q) How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?
That’s always very hard. The problem is that most people who ask this, generally don’t know much about art, which makes the trick even more difficult. In general, I start by saying that I paint, and that my work is figurative and colorful. I say that it has social and political content too. Then, I dare to say that I do Lowbrow / Pop Surrealism art. After that, I try to define Lowbrow / Pop Surrealism. If I see that the person stares at me with two-rounded-wide-opened-dull-eyes, full of incredulity, which is often the case, I ask if they have ever heard about Mark Ryden (who isn’t especially my favorite artist but one of the most renowned), or if they remind the CD cover of Michael Jackson’s album “Dangerous” (which is one of Ryden’s work). And frequently, I end up giving a business card saying that on my website they could find my work, but also a “link” page to get more familiar with Lowbrow and Pop Surrealism.

Now, I will tell them to check out this interview!

q) What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I am self-taught, so my only training is my life and the support of my wife, family and friends.

q) Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
My computer with a broadband Internet connection.

Internet has revolutionized the way everyone works and socializes and I cannot imagine how difficult it would be for me to meet people, other artists, and galleries without it…

q) Who are your influences?
I will shamefully quote my own self on this: I am a mass media child.

Which means I have a lot of references, most of them unconscious. We are so overflowed by images on the TV, in the streets, everywhere, everyday, that in the end, it obviously has an influence on you. To that extent I think my generation has been greatly influenced by cartoons, mangas, ads and reality TV.

I guess I have been influenced as well by some trips I have done, especially Mexico where I have lived for a while and met my wife.

If you want me to quote other artists, I would say that I have had different periods. I have been influenced by Dali, Picasso, Bacon, Miro, Turner… And now my favorite artist, the one I feel the closest and look up to, is Camille Rose Garcia, who has a political fucked up universe I love.

q) What inspires you to create?
I think the way the world is not exactly going well today is quite a hell of a source of inspiration to me.

q)…your contacts…
http://www.benjamindebrousse.com
http://www.myspace.com/benjaminoffroy
http://bendebrousse.blogspot.com

Some facts

2008-06-11T11:24:00.003+02:00

Continuing my post "The 50 years to come", I have recently read an interesting article about the food crisis we are facing. I will just list some stunning facts :

1- There are 1.4 billion cows on earth
2- Since the 50's, the worldwide meat production has been multiplied by 5. It is forecasted that this production will double in the next 20 years.
3- A vegetarian consume 180 kgs (396 lbs) of cereals per year. A meat consumer 930 kgs (2,050 lbs) / year.
4- To produce 100 grams (3 1/2 ounces) of beef, 7,000 liters of water are necessary.
5- China's meat consumption is now more than 50 kgs (160 lbs) / person / year. It was 20 kgs (45 lbs) few decades ago.
6- In western countries an average consumer eats 100 kgs (220 lbs) of meat per year against 30 kgs (66 lbs) in 1919. This is 3 times more than the recommended quantity.
7- Livestock (beef, pork etc) are responsible of 18% of greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide. More than the whole transportation industry.

Opening FREAKS CLUB

2008-05-08T15:45:00.013+02:00

Here are some pics of the group show "Freaks Club" @ Galerie l'Art de Rien in Paris.

My three paintings among pieces by Fabesko, Sunny Buick, Nicoz Balboa, Sergio Mora, Mateo, Miette and others...

Some works by Lost Fish, Miette, Juan and Benjamin Lacombe

One of my painting and some works by Sergio Mora, Mateo, Miette, Sunny Buick and Nicoz Balboa

Some monsters by Johan Potma, a black and white drawing by Amadine Urruty and a painting by Ciou

A close up on Johan Potma's monster

A close up on a digital work by Lost Fish

A freaky drawing by Madmeg

Two other drawings by Madmeg

A close up on one of Benjamin Lacombe's painting

A nice digital work by Isabelle Création

A painting by Ores

Mateo and Miette

Sergio Mora

My wife and I in front of my paintings :)

The 50 years to come...

2008-04-26T17:57:00.003+02:00

In my previous post "What is our Time made of?" I had started to share my feeling about the way our world was spinning and how it was affecting Alternative artists' works.

Now I would like to make some Nostradamus predictions about the 50 years to come.
Why 50 years?
1- Well because it corresponds more or less to one's person life. I mean in 50 years I will be almost 80 years old, by then other people will be in charge of making this kind of prospective exercise. ;)
2- Because I assume that it will take 50 years to make the necessary technical and social changes.
3- And because most demographers argue that 2050 will be approximately the global demographic climax with 9 billion people on Earth (6.7 billion in 2008).

As I already said in a previous post, the world is now facing tension in both energy resources and foodstuffs.

Concerning the energy resources, it is not a novelty. We have already been through a couple of wars for oil. A lot of conflicts, in one way or another, have hidden purposes, generally linked to energy resources. We are depending on oil or gas-producing states, which are, to say the least, not the greatest democracies on Earth.
This dependency is a problem, from an ecological, political and moral point of view.
Ecologically, we are wasting non renewable resources, jeopardizing our ecosystem and the future of our children.
Politically and morally, this dependency weakens us as it leads us to knuckle under dictatorships desiderata, or in better cases accept diplomatic cynical compromises.

We can already see that Russia is using its energy power to tame Ukraine and threaten western European countries. Along the same lines, no need to discuss the embarrassing links between Saudi Arabia and the United States...

In the years to come, I believe that these tensions will continue to grow with the risk of setting up a new global order, dominated by energy producers. I don't actually think this scenario will occur (even if the balance will continue to shift in their favor for some decades) but, in order to avoid or at least reduce ecological and political crisis, we will need to change.
I would add that knowing the emergency to fight the global warming effect, the quicker the better...

Which means :
1- Developing and spreading "green technologies" in almost every part of the economy, starting by the automotive industry and, technically more difficult, in the aeronautics industry. It will require a lot of political will, knowing the power of the lobbies involved. Actually, without those lobbies, no doubt we would already be driving clean cars for decades.
2- In the meantime it also means that we change our way of living and consuming. We cannot always rely on technical progresses only.

I am a bit pessimistic about this second point.
First because it requires a lot of time and education. Actually I assume that this kind of changes can only be achieved by educating young kids who will be tomorrow's consumers.
The second reason why I am pessimistic is that emerging countries are nowadays developing themselves using US standards. They want to consume and enjoy life and this is totally natural. There is no argument about that. What I mean is that while China for instance, should build "green cities", they are building "Los Angeles style" massive cities scarred by dozen of 4 tracks highways : Cities that are designed to make you buy and use cars...
For the record a European citizen living in a city (like Amsterdam or Paris) consumes 4 times less motor fuel than an American towny, not because Europeans are better and greener citizens, but because most of Europe's Cities have been conceived before the advent of automobile, with a dense network of small streets. There is a direct link between density and pollution.
Chinese cities used to have this same kind of dense network of small streets. Surely it needed to be modernized, public transit needed to be developed, but instead they have completely erased entire districts, rebuilding everything up and compelling the citizens to move away into huge suburban areas... From an ecological point of view, this is frightening.

Along the same lines, emerging countries are now consuming the same foodstuffs as western countries (forgetting little by little their local customs), which leads us to the pressure on foodstuffs prices.

Contrary to energy resources, this is kind of a new issue. We used to live with excess foodstuffs stocks for ages and we are now facing shortages. We have recently observed riots in poorer countries (Haiti, Bangladesh, Egypt, Morocco...) because the populations are experimenting great difficulties to afford basic food such as bread or rice... And I am afraid that this kind of tensions could spread in richer emerging countries. Even Mexico, one of the richest emerging countries (behind China, India and Brazil), has recently had to subsidize corn to lower the prices of tortilla and calm down the population's anger.

This foodstuffs price rise is due to multiple reasons :
1- The way World Bank has recently mismanaged globalization, forcing poorer emerging countries to neglect basic diversified farming to specialized farming or merely no farming at all.
2- The fact that globalization, even if mismanaged to some extent, has taken out of poverty hundreds of millions of people in few decades. And these new consumers want to consume more and the same way we do in western societies. As a consequence, Chinese for instance, are eating more and more beef. And to raise 1kg of beef, it requires 1 liters of oil, 20.000 liters of water and 20 kilos of cereals... Knowing that this kilo of beef offers 12 times less meals than its equivalent in cereals. I am not vegetarian but it makes me think that this trend won't be sustainable in the long run.
3- The emergence of Biofuels issued from wheat, corn, colza or beets, which is triggering a buying pressure on the markets. Biofuels cannot be the only solution to replace oil. The solution will be multiple : a mix between biofuels, electricity, solar energy, hydrogen etc.

Again we will need to change :
1- Increase (some experts say double) our global farming production with the same surface (to preserve biodiversity).
2- And eat a bit differently.

I assume that in the 50 years to come we will assist to the multiplication of local conflicts for energy resources, farming lands, water, and not only in the poorer regions (where we are more or less used to see this kind of conflicts). I assume that those conflicts could lead to political destabilization and even revolutions in some countries.

I also believe that the most drastic changes will have to take place in western developed countries. I have already written in a previous post about the feeling of decline we were experiencing, and I think this trend will continue (until the world finds a new balance) arousing difficulties and contests of all sorts.

In the 50 years to come, we are going to face a major evolution of the world, a tremendous challenge for the entire mankind.
In the 50 years to come, if we want a safer, fairer, cleaner world, each and everyone of us will need to change... and it won't be easy.

Fairview Asylum
Oil on Wood Panel
2008

What is our Time made of?

2008-04-22T18:59:00.006+02:00

(Continuing my previous posts "Is Lowbrow an anti-Art movement?")

The real question here is : Is Lowbrow representative of its time? Are Alternative artists correctly catching up the "air of the time"?

Every artistic movement is representative of its epoch, its questionings, its political and sociological changes, its philosophical and scientific evolutions. See the link between Cubism and Reimann's geometric theories or between Surrealism and Psychoanalysis for instance.

It is memorable that Andy Warhol, the Art symbol of 60-70's, the era of post-war mass consumption was a former publicist or that Jeff Koons, the representative of 80-90's, the finance-raider-easy-money-with-miami-vice-pastel-jackets era, used to be a Wall Street commodity broker for 7 years...
Artists are always the representatives of their time. Nothing less, nothing more.

So, what are nowadays stakes and rebellions? What are our ideals? What do we believe in? What fights do we have to lead?

We live in a capitalist, globalized, consumerist world, where everything is moving, everything is fashion, everything is assimilated and re-formated, re-shaped (even rebellions and revolutions).

Our time is about intertwinement between entertainment, ads, TV, marketing, fashion, Art. Our time is about images and news overdoses, about computers, TV or cell phones' screens, about virtuality.

We are part of a mass culture world, which is as violently individualist as concerned about rehabilitating tribes, networks and citizen actions. A world where you must be profitable, where artistic calling sounds more than ever like a suicidal fantasy ("waste your life be an artist"). A both rigid and merrily regressive world. A world where everything begets its contrary.

In western countries, we live within regressive, childish societies, that's a fact. Sociologist have broadly discussed about the "no kid's" phenomenon, about "cartoon parties" or about the transitional-teddy-bear-like-reinsuring component of cell phones. This trend is particularly strong in Japan where 18 to 30 year-old people dress themselves like their favorite manga or cartoon hero on Friday nights. Others lock themselves into online virtual gaming communities. Kawaii Art obviously derives from those sociological phenomena.

This childish, regressive part of our contemporary society is one of the underpinning of Pop Surrealism. When you see Mark Ryden's, Takashi Murakami's, Anthony Ausgang's, Gary Baseman's, Kathie Olivas' or Amy Sol's works you are contemplating our society. Art is just a mirror.

Beyond that, our western societies are experiencing a very strong feeling of decline. Indeed the world is changing, the balances between western and emerging countries is evolving, shifting in favor of emerging countries. It is actually fair, as for decades globalization has been managed in favor of the richest countries while it should have helped the poorer ones (I invite you to read and see Joseph Stiglitz's books and interviews about this issue. It is just shocking). But the point is that the changes we are experiencing now and going to experience in the future leave us with a bad taste of decline in our mouths.

If you add to this picture the fact that energy resources such as oil and gas are on the edge of depletion, creating tensions for years (we have already had a couple of wars due to these tensions), that foodstuff such as rice, wheat, corn or milk are now under jeopardy and that water will be one of the major stakes of 21st century in most countries, on a global basis you have some kind of a dark outlook...

I assume that when you are looking at Camille Rose Garcia's, Jeff Soto's, Liz McGrath's, Shepard Fairey's, Heiko Müller's, Travis Louie's or Jessica Joslin's works, whether they have conceptualized it or not that way, you are facing this feeling of decline and alienation, those fears and concerns.

Artists are the representatives of their time.
Lowbrow / Alternative Art is the Art of our time.

Advertising Campaign : Prozanax
Oil on Wood Panel
2008

Is Lowbrow an anti-Art movement?

2008-04-20T14:36:00.007+02:00

(continuing the post "The 3 sins of Lowbrow")

People often compare Lowbrow / Alternative / Pop Surrealist Art to early 20th century anti-Art movements such as Dada. I don't quite agree with that. Actually I believe that this is exactly the contrary.

Indeed, Lowbrow Art is originally an underground counter-reaction to the excess and vacuity of Highbrow Art, but being underground doesn't mean that you are anti-Art, it just means that you are challenging the standards of the established Art of your time...

The abstract painters and conceptual artists of the second part of 20th century referred to their work as "an enterprise of demolition of Art".

For more than one century Art has been moving forward by fighting and symbolically destroying what its predecessor had built.

For me, Lowbrow / Street / Alternative Art is a pro-Art movement coming in reaction to this demolition.
How do you destroy a field of ruin? How do you challenge nothingness?
By rebuilding something.

When there is nothing left to destroy, when demolition has become a commonplace, then the real avant-garde attitude is to rebuild.

In this sense Alternative Art is a pro-Art movement just doing what every Art movement has done along the centuries : challenging its predecessors.

The 3 sins of Lowbrow Art : Highbrow Vs Lowbrow

2008-04-16T02:01:00.004+02:00

As a preliminary I would like to say that I don't particularly like the expression "Lowbrow".

First because I am French and that it is untranslatable! ;)
Second of all because Lowbrow is definitely an American cultural thing. It is referring to a counter culture movement that has emerged on the west coast in the 60's, with Robert Williams, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, the hotrods, tattoos and stuff.
Thirdly because since then it has evolved a lot and I don't think that it is a proper expression to define artists such as Mark Ryden, Liz MacGrath, Camille Rose Garcia, Jeff Soto, Greg Simkins, Dalek, Miss Van, Mars-1, Amy Sol and so on...
And the last reason why I am not a fan of this expression is that it has been used from the very beginning in opposition to highbrow. No surprise there is an antagonism with the rest of the Art market...
Actually even Robert Williams, who invented this expression apparently feels that it is inappropriate (see wikipedia).

For me, Lowbrow is a generic expression that encompasses Pop Surrealism and Street Art. I therefore tend to prefer the term "Alternative Art" because it refers to every part of the movement (including Japanese Kawaii Art which is for me the Asian side of lowbrow) and because it is an alternative to "highbrow contemporary Art".

Anyway, this being said I will try to define the key faltering oppositions that are undermining the assimilation of Lowbrow as (an important) part of nowadays fine Art.

Contemporary highbrow Art is based on 3 key ideological presuppositions :
Elitism, historicism and individualism

1. Elitism refers to what we can call the theory of "the lonely isolated genius". This concept has been popularized by Kandinsky at the beginning of 20th century in his book "Concerning the Spiritual in Art". The idea is that the genius (Artist, scientist, whoever) stands alone on the top of a pyramid. He is alone, and as he is a genius, he is right against everyone. As the time passes, the pyramid moves upward, allowing a broader base to reach the point where the genius was before and therefore understand his point of view. And so on, so that after 75 years Picasso is a classic and not a fool who was denigrated by Art critics and the establishment. I like this theory, Kandinsky was a great artist and philosopher and I assume he was right in his diagnosis (at least at the time it was written).

Elitism is the underpinning of the highbrow establishment's ideology. An artist needs to be alone, misunderstood and as a consequence create controversy.

The problem is that in the long run, the assimilation of this theory by the Art world has lead to a vicious circle :
- An inversion of Kandinsky's initial proposition : "if I create controversy therefore I make avant-garde Art" which is nonsense.
- Then, the massive development of so-called Art which is nothing more than controversy for controversy.
- Hence, the desertion of galleries and the Art market by younger generations who feel that this elitism, those controversies are nothing more than postures (I mean bullshit). But who cares, if I am alone in my gallery, I guess it means I am genius right?! Yeapahh!! ;)

Highbrow establishment (galleries, Art critics, some collectors...) does not realize (or want to acknowledge) that when Kandinsky was writing his theory he was spiting on the establishment and that the establishment is now using his theory to dictate what is avant-garde or not, what is Art or junk...

How ironical.

Kandinsky's subversive theory has been so well assimilated that it has finally lead to the flattening of subversion. The establishment has digested the theory and is now vomiting it at us.

Anyway, to go back to the opposition between Lowbrow and Highbrow, it is obvious that Lowbrow is a generational counter reaction to this elitism. Lowbrow artists want to be accessible. They use well-known pop references. They create images (and not concepts, huge installations or videos) that can be bought and hanged on in anyones living room. Most of them have a very narrative universe. Even if it is not always that simple to understand what those artists want to say you can easily grab the essence of it or at least just say if you like it or not.

Not trying, not wanting to be elitist is the first sin of Lowbrow.

2. Historicism refers to the theory of "permanent revolution", the "tabula rasa", the fact that an artist must destroy, deny or neglect what has been created before him. If he does not he is nothing but a follower, a copycat. Of course this tabula rasa is a selective one... You must erase painting but you can keep Duchamp, some Warhol and copy as much as you want Bruce Nauman. Basically this is the application in the Art of the very popular but sometimes a bit empty contemporary concept of "modernity". In this world you must be modern, you must have a facebook page and the latest iPhone or else you are an has been (no offense I have a facebook page)...

In the Art, it has led to the preeminence of the media (videos, installations with neon and optic fiber or nothing) over the aesthetics. But it has also led to void. What do you want to do after "white on white"? Stop painting of course. The problem is that in the end, it leads to pure concepts and philosophers like Hegel have demonstrated that if Art was reduced to ideas, concepts, then Art was dead because philosophy and mathematics (science in general) are way superior.

This is the second sin of Lowbrow : aesthetics matters.

3. Individualism is a consequence of elitism (the genius is alone), historicism (the artist must erase most references of the past) and capitalism. What matters is your inner-natural-born-no-connected-to-any-reference-originality. No need to argue much about that.

This is the third sin of Lowbrow : Lowbrow is an Art movement (a "family" to some extent), with heterogeneous artists, with diverse universes but common references, supported by young fans / collectors, "black sheep" galleries and magazines. And the highbrow establishment does not like that. Nobody likes to feel surpassed...

Just for the record, as far as I know Juxtapoz, the historical Lowbrow Art magazine, has recently become the first Art magazine in the US. Something is undoubtedly happening...

To conclude I will quote LA Weekly writer Doug Harvey :

"Indeed, The Art World (TAW)'s ignore-it-and-maybe-it-will-just-go-away strategy, having failed, has modulated into pretend-we-thought-of-it-first, and resulted in a recent bicoastal gallery glut of illustration-based painting riddled with Lowbrow references."

"TAW has managed to find or manufacture its own stars, unencumbered by the us-vs-them mentality of the Lowbrow set, adroitly avoiding having to concede to — or even acknowledge — Lowbrow's implicit charges of elitism and hypocrisy."

Ready-Made highbrow comfort in a Lowbrow world
Oil and Collage on Wood Panel
2008

Ruins

2008-04-11T12:43:00.002+02:00

I like to use ruins in my paintings. That's part of my post-apocalyptic imaginary world.

Wether you are watching a picture of Dresden after World War 2 bombings or standing in an antic theater, ruins tell something to us, tell something about us, our humanity and history.

Contrary to what most people think ruins are not due to the passing time.

Of course a brand new building won't fall apart before a certain period of time, so time is indeed a variable and has obviously an impact. What I mean is that the ruins we can enjoy when we tour in Greece or Italy for instance are not the result of time.

If ruins were the result of time, Notre-Dame in Paris, most of the Castles and Cathedrals of old Europe would already be nothing but mound of dust and rubble.

Ruins of the Coliseum is the result of the downfall of the roman empire during the fifth century of our era. Those ruins are the breathtaking evidence of the dramatic fall that this great civilization has endured.

Romans have ruled the world (at this time Europe and especially Mediterranean Europe was the world) for centuries. My point is not to explain this fall, the political system was not working efficiently anymore, the civilization was declining and barbarians took advantage of this to invade the whole empire. Okay, historians can write about this way better than me.

My point is that we do not realize in our modern comfort that this downfall and the invasions that followed have been the most dramatic regression of history. Rome was invading countries, it was a very brutal society (nevertheless maybe the less brutal and cruel alternative at that time, we always judge with our modern standards which are not always relevant) but they were providing modernity : water, thanks to aqueduct, safe and secure roads, new farming techniques, culture and so on. This has actually been the key of their success and their ability to rule other civilizations with very few troops. This sort of win-win deal for both invader and conquered societies has allowed stability for ages (that's something folks from the Bush's administration should have thought and planned more carefully before they invade Irak).

With the barbarian invasions, the civilization has just collapsed, like a card castle. There was no more security, if you were traveling or just going to the nearer village, you had many chances to be robbed and in most cases killed. There was no education anymore and for more than 5 centuries (until middle ages, around 1000 AD) no more progress.

This is something hard to imagine for us.
Since then the world has always been progressing, and the progression seems to be faster and faster. But for centuries, there had been no progress. No important building was built, no important discovery was made, no nothing. This is what historians call on purpose "Dark Age".

Ruins are the fossil evidence of this dark age, this state of chaos and void.

A working, progressing, evolving civilization build new structures and maintain older monuments. That's what we are doing nowadays, maintaining great structures of the past. Again, without constant maintenance Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty would be nothing but memories.

We must be aware of that and keep in mind that in history nothing is permanent.

Nowadays it seems natural to take a plane to go to Mexico (I will do that in few weeks, yeapahh!) but maybe it won't be the case for our children's children. With the rise of oil prices, maybe one day it will become so expensive to travel that it won't be possible for most people (until we find an alternative to oil for planes, but it is not for tomorrow).
Maybe that, after a period of frantic globalization, we will be reduced to autarchy.

Progress and evolution is not always natural, we have to fight for it.

Memories Hunters
Oil and Collage on Wood Panel
2008

My websites

2008-04-09T15:03:00.001+02:00

Please check out my website :
http://www.benjamindebrousse.com

And let's be friend on myspace :
http://www.myspace.com/benjaminoffroy

Cheers.
Ben.