panapp

Good review, unfortunately an unknown album.

Great review of an album with a beautiful cover that is really very delicate despite (or perhaps precisely because of) the subject.

At this point, I want to see this interview on YouTube too! Link it!

@sexyajax: bearer of negativity? Contest of the wise?? Was Van Gogh treated like I treat you back then??? Huh.

Two corrections: one for MIDISUN, who in comment #119 attributes to me words that actually belong to saab (comment #110), and for The Punisher, who in comment #121 mistakes me for MIDISUN (but then rightly corrects himself ;D).

@MIDISUN: I quote saab, your accusations are exactly the same as those the academics of the Salon leveled against the Impressionists. The very same ones, read the documents to believe it. Now: you may like or dislike the artist and the work, but saying these things reveals a lack of attention to the subject matter.

@the Punisher: let’s not generalize, contemporary art doesn’t only deal with provocation, it’s not based solely on the signature, it’s not manipulated only by merchants, and so on. Surely a work by Cattelan would sell even if it were just a spit on a tile (and who knows, maybe he will do that in the future) because what sells now is his signature, but it is precisely to denounce this phenomenon that his works are needed. It’s not contemporary art that "is ONLY an excuse, what matters is ONLY the signature," it's the market that operates in that way.

@The Punisher: the answer to comment #40 is ABSOLUTELY AND CERTAINLY YES.

It's a complicated discussion, and I apologize in advance if I come off as convoluted. Maurizio Cattelan thrives on provocation: the fact that we are here talking about him is proof that his works are effective. He produces works with this in mind: the more shocking they are, the more they'll be talked about, and the more they'll be discussed, the more people will realize they're engaging in conversations about emptiness. Cattelan's art lies in his life: not so much in the work itself, but in his gesture, which is artistic in the sense that it has the power to reveal the ugliness of the world. Let me give you an example: you may have heard of the artist Guillermo Vargas who let a dog die; it's certainly a horrific thing, but his goal was less about shocking the viewer, and more about showing them that for every dog that dies and causes worldwide outrage, there are thousands of dogs, men, women, children, soldiers, workers, and countless other categories who die every day and no one does anything. Why such outrage for one dog when there are 1,000 dying every day in the favelas and no protests erupt for them? We can say that Vargas and Cattelan are post-conceptual artists who produce a sort of esoarte (forgive me for coining this neologism), meaning art that has value not necessarily within itself, but rather for its external significance; it’s an art that exists to provoke the viewer to look, understand that it refers exactly to the opposite of what is being shown, turn around, and act accordingly. The mental work is NOT the following: “Oh my God, is that a statue of Hitler praying like a child!” “Yes, it’s shameful.” Rather, it should be, “Oh my God, is that a statue of Hitler praying like a child!” “Yes, it’s shameful that there are merchants selling these things, but due to a morbid mechanism, the art market operates solely based on collectors who, by sponsoring artists, allow them to sell anything, even a praying Hitler.” The hanging children are not talking about hanging children: the viewer, upon seeing it, must manage to understand (if they can, of course) that the discourse should shift to the fact that these things really happen, so the work should trigger a virtuous cycle where the viewer informs themselves, discovers that Chinese children are exploited to death, that children in Africa are sent to war until death, and so on; it's the same discussion as with the dog: why get outraged over puppets when these things are genuinely happening, yet we live happily? That said, Cattelan is an artist that interests me only to a limited extent because he works solely on external provocation, leaving little to no actual content.

Excellent review for a stunning album, certainly my favorite from Elton's recent period (I don't like the '90s at all): the single "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore" is a manifesto and "American Triangle" is beautiful. I really like the almost surrealist cover, and the booklet too.