Andy Warhol once said, "An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have."
And he is correct; and he could not have been more correct! Look at this video.
I have a well-known hate-love relationship with Andy Warhol, because of his brilliance in selling-out his art, his friends, his fake personality, and then America. I hate him for selling everything and commercializing emotional relationships, yet I love him because it is -- as we all know -- damn hard to sell-out like Warhol did. To sell out and cheapskate his way into the high society and then to become a legend of the times?! Whoa, babe, you gotta chill out. Speaking of this tone on art & the art business....
I meant to blog about this way earlier.
I went to the launch of Textbook Magazine at Gesamtkunstwerk on April 24th. I even dragged along my girlfriend who still had to study for her finals (I think she came because yeah, she's interested, but more because I had asked her and she probably knows that I do not have too many friends to socialize with these days*). This event's highlight, the launch of Textbook Mag, which is quite endearing as it focuses on entrepreneurial minds of Vancouver and taking ownership of the print material, was overshadowed by the awful event place; alas, when the event venue is announcing its greatness and to out-show the highlight, then the energy of the people and the mingling gets all offset. At the end of the dya, it was just so damn cliche... and I was suffocating a bit. So I left quite early (apologizing to my friend for being a terrible accompaniment for the night). I was there about an hour or a little over an hour for the speeches and the high-times of the party (big congratulations to the Textbook crew!).
* I am not a loner. It's just people have left Vancouver and I had found the perfect time to return to Vancouver. I don't know if this is a smart retort to my ordeal or a pronounced denial.
Source: Vancouver Vantage Twitter
Source: Socialettes Twitter
The venue, then, Gesamtkunstwerk... What is wrong with this place? Well, I felt as if this venue is a tool to brainwash all the innocent folks of Vancouver on upcoming city planning and the plan's ridiculous highrises that are only of the architect's self-pleasure on accomplishment. These buildings are supposed to leverage the potential of beautiful Vancouver and enhance Vancouver as a world-class city that appeals to the young people with disposable income. As if these new buildings that boast impressive facades will actually facilitate to the standard of living for a city as a whole--hell, the city's in on building a goddamn ghetto to "improve sustainable housing" and "provide a solution on the drug use." Right. I bet that some suites inside these goddamn buildings are going to be so UN-LIVABLE (meaning super impractical), but the brainwashed buyers & tenants would think they are the new it-suite. Whewf. I finally ranted it out into the public world wide web space. Suck it.
Source: Derek Gaw's Twitter
There was essentially nothing super wrong with the event, except that I have strong, subjective viewpoints on "art" and "culture" and "business." These emotions and ideas of mine that I cannot seem to eloquently put into words for you, but they're along the lines of conflicting sentiments that I have with Andy Warhol. Either way, what I have utterly attempted to convey here is that
- An event as important as a launch needs to be held at a venue which will amplify the product's worth.
- I hate modern marketing fusing art and culture and beautiful cities.
- But I love the fact I can do point made above, because I work in marketing.
- Subsequently, I hate that I am giving it free press by ranting about it online.
- But I love the fact that it had enough potential for me to rant about it online....
And please, can we have less conventional artsy-culture-I-care-white-walls-wine-ahamagawd-I-am-a-professional-hipster events in Vancouver? I don't want to choke on my wine while gulping it down like a no-class-mufucka when I should be networking.
I sound like an angsty teen, eh? Oops.
>> Read more about fancy Gesamtkunstwerk's brainwashing HERE.
>> Because installing a CHANDELIER under a bridge where SOCIAL HOUSING exists is so COOL AND BEFITTING. Read more about this fancy get-up Gesamtkusntwerk's behind HERE.
>> How to pronounce this German mouthful? Get in with it HERE.
On the other hand, if you can grab a copy of Textbook Mag, it's a great great great mag. Loved two articles in it--like LOVE. And make sure to read it in order, as I find the order was impeccably executed. The mag houses a mish-mesh of articles and topics and for them to have an effortless flow from top-down demands acclamation.
Too many words? My Tumblr has none.
Get more personal on IG@rachelchungg.
