Day 187: Why is Art so Expensive?

In one of the Afrikaans newspapers was an article on "Now everyone wants to have a Tretchi".

In the article, the author asks questions regarding the price of art - and why some art pieces are suddenly more expensive (though he's more talking about one artist in contrast to other artists - while from my perspective the same questions can apply to ALL Art).

The first thing that comes up when you ask people why Art is so expensive is the principle of Supply and Demand. There's only the one art piece which is unique in itself, only one person can have it and so in order to compete and exclude others from gaining access to it the price goes up.

But then the question of demand is not answered. Where does this demand come from? Where is this high willingness to pay for a physical object which may or may not even be aesthetically pleasant. I mean, Piero Manzoni canned his shit and it's called art.

It's all just based on consensus. A bunch of people agree that something is Art and now it's Art and now apparently it is 'valuable'. And if you want to be 'in' and you want to be part of this alternate reality called 'the art world' -- you want that painting/art piece that everyone agrees one is more worthy than other art pieces. I mean how ridiculous is that -- it's completely subjective. It's based on what other people agreed before them 'is art' and filter/interpret art through what they think they know about art. So they're not even looking at the actual piece for what it is, it first has to be filtered through someone's entire art knowledge before they have something to say about it.

Yes, art can be cool. I did art at some point and it's a fun medium to explore to express yourself and communicate in a different language where the art world has its own established 'symbolism' that you can use to convey a message.

But selling a painting like The card Players from Paul Cezanne for $267 million dollars? That's not what arts about, that's just a mind game. Especially if you consider that Paul Cezanne is looong dead and is never going to see any of the money -- so it's not supporting him in any way whatsover. If you look at Van Gogh, he had a terrible life -- what's in it for him when Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for $147.8 million. Surely, there's more important things you can do with your money? The person who actually deserved to get some money for the labour he put into the piece is long gone and you have a world where half of the population lives in misery -- so deciding to spend that amount of money on a piece of canvas with paint which together forms a picture over deciding to use your money to change the world for the better = it sounds kind of psychopathic to me.

The documentary "Exist through the Giftshop" by Banksy shows the whole Art scam quite clearly. In it, they follow around Thierry Guetta whose really into street art and basically a street art-wannabe and he ends up with his own exhibition selling pieces. And it's not like he put tons of work in the pieces because he mostly hired people to do the work for him and there's also not really a profound meaning behind any of his work. But because he's able to simulate art and 'make it look like art' = people believe it's art and make it art in their head. People come to his show and ask him questions and give their insight into what they are seeing and they're just making profound shit up and he just agrees with whatever they say = now it's art.

So art is all in the mind of the beholder and really has no other value than the time spent working on it and the money spent on acquiring the materials.

In Equal Money Capitalism Art will be valued as an expression -- not as an object to create an obsession about which leads to mental disorder like throwing tons of money away to get a piece while millions suffer.

You will also no longer be limited by people having to buy your art so you can survive and make more art -- your will be supported within developing and exploring your expression.

Expression and Creative Licensing

This will be more a ‘hobby’ point. For those people whose only income is derived from such activities, they’d have to be part of a greater collective like a Cultural Centre where many points of expression are explored and presented, where the general public can come and check it out and participate in community projects. It will be a place of coming together, having fun events, meeting people – socialising, which are all things people really enjoy.

In essence it’s about self-expression. You want the freedom to express. You will have the freedom to express and you will have the support that will give you the freedom to express. The concept of ‘ownership’ is only relevant to those points that are necessary to make your life function, like a house, a car – things like that. The other things are not really an ownership, because there’s nothing new. You’re simply expressing something that already exists. You are using notes in a particular sequence -- which forms a melody. The melody already existed - it’s just a coincidence that you’re the one that came up with that particular melody. The same goes for the lyrics of a song: the words you use for a song already exist, it’s just coincidence that you come up with it or another person comes up with it – it’s equally possible.

So it’s not about ownership there, or about having a copyright, or controlling it. That’s exactly the point we want to move away from – control. So that people can express themselves, if they like it.

http://economistjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2013/01/day-171-life-force-and-expression-in.html

This will allow a lot more people to enjoy and explore art as a point of Expression without the money constraints being in place -- while more people will also be able to enjoy appreciate one another's art. This will allow for Art to take on a whole new dimensions as there will be actual freedom to express.

Related articles

• Day 171: Life-Force and Expression in Equal Money Capitalism
• Day 180: The Word 'Capitalism' in 'Equal Money Capitalism'
• Day 173: Supply, Demand, Business and Scarcity in Equal Money Capitalism

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Day 79: Monetary Policy - Part 2

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to think that it is normal that banks are able to lend out money they don't have and, on top of that, charge an interest fee - which means that, when the bank wants to collect money owed to it - it will receive funds from various different individuals plus interest - and as such sucking all the funds towards itself, out of people's wallets.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to think that the story of the money supply is really as simple as it is as how it is presented in economic textbooks - while, in actual fact - money doesn't just 'get created'. Because when a loan is given and some positive number is written in a person's account - at the same time a negative number is created: as debt - and thus, even though it seems that money was created, it did not, because the debt must be paid - and the debt must be paid to those who created the money out of thin air: the banks.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to see and realise that the apparent 'generosity' of banks in 'wanting to help you out' with buying a new house or a new car, is attached to a day of reckoning, where outstanding funds are collected and if the moneys can't be paid - the bank will take everything you own and you are left with nothing - and herein there is no mercy or generosity - only the actual reality of the situation: Greed.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to question a world where each one apparently has the right to a decent life, but where, if one is unfortunate or has made a bad decision in life - one can end up in a situation where one's house, car and all valuable assets are taken away, becaues the bank is trying to mitigate its losses and what that means to you is really irrelevant as you are just one little player in their big money-making scheme.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise the absolute abhorrence of the nature of the human race if we think it is okay and acceptable and normal that wealth and money come before each one's basic human rights - and where we don't even stop to think what it means if banks have the ability to take away people's houses just because a person doesn't have enough money - instead of realising: who the fuck cares how much money a person has - each person needs a house to live in - as a human being, it is a simple common sensical point to take care of one another and make sure each one has a fucking roof over there head - who the fuck are we if we can't even fulfil such a simple, basic point?

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to define a person's worth according to the number in their bank accounts, instead of realising that a number is just that: a number - it doesn't even refer to anything real, it is just a digital picture - instead of realising the value of the person as a physical human being and treating each person as such - an equal - because we all breathe, we all shit, we all eat, we all piss - and therefore no-one can say that they are better than another from a physical stand-point - we are all the same - and therefore, any value system must consider our actual physical reality and recognise the equality of reality - instead of entertaining the inequalities of all the fictional parts that we perceive to form part of reality, such as money, opinions, thoughts, beliefs, etc. - because if our value system only considers fiction, then we disregard the physical reality - and this can be measured in fact, as we see the status of the physical world deteriorating each day, with more species going extict, with more air and water being polluted, with more land becoming unarable, with weatherconditions increasingly becoming more erratic, with natural habitats being destroyed each day.

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