ART LIVE 2011

Art Live's premise is to address current world concerns through Art. By annually exposing the global consciousness through the universal language of Art from all factions regardless of race, creed or color Art Live's goal of self-realization that we are not so different after all can be achieved. By showing the commonality of thought through the pervasive creative force we can come to understand Man's shared common goals in real time. The exhibition, curated over a period of nine months, develops organically as common threads are revealed through exposure to varied formats of creativity. As a result, each year's message is unique and issues of previous years never prove strong enough to have successive majority appeal.

Last year's Art Live proved a brutal time, still writhing from the aftermath of 2008. In a world of third party observers and blindsighted egotistical artists we approached the end of another decade. The state of Man, bordering on revolution and cataclysmic change, took self obsession and the greed of self, and perpetuated its mantra under the guise of altruistic goals, failing to mask its self-indulgent origins. The selfproclaimed arrogance under the premise of faux spiritualism marred the pureness of the creative drive and at the same time propelled the importance of that very self expression. Spirituality was eclipsed by the ever present pop culture of live fast/ die young and its drug-frenzying appeal to "feel" life.

Art Live 2011 has not lost its acerbic bite as the world still recovers from the insults of 2008. The most surprising discovery is the will of an inexperienced generation's desire for things unknown to themselves; desires only perpetuated by an almost fabled recollection of history.

This year's creative drive is likened to beating a dead horse, on the one hand the intensity of the conviction is admirable, while on the other there exists an element of blindsidedness. Such determination is valiant, but is mired by its own conflictive nature.

The question of culture and its survival in a world brought too close too quickly has come to surface. The assimilation into a new referential culture, losing distinction in stride with the loss of physical boundaries and borders, has the purity of differences sacrificed at the hands of technological overkill. A modern reflective now exists and the cry to return and hold on to cultural truths is persistent. Reliance on mythos and the retelling of olde seems to preoccupy youth. The revalidation of historical lines of thought are sought after and the unsequestered purity of ancient simplicity desired.

Displacement, loyalty and home, all questioned by the newly exiled, are under scrutiny. The emigrant struggle and reclamation of place in both country and society runs prevalent in a world where the powerful still attempt to suppress artistic expression and ignore the precedence of such ill conceived notions.

An assemblage of like minds are in unison and their voices against complacency and the habitualization of Man can be heard. The struggle to awaken society and help it come to terms with value and purpose in the face of perpetual distraction is a fight not easily won. Paralleled to this desire to shake society from its copacetic sleep is the direct contradiction of a persistent escapist movement. The desire to transport and redirect society to a more personalized introverted reality weakens the promise of intellectual evolution. The allure of respite is strong; the reemergence of fantastic landscapes offers solace as contemplative future ventures.

Presently the world is lacking and seeking renewal of its relationship with nature along with a renewed sense of discovery. Reining in the intangible through analytical trial has brought the discussion of the natural world into play. It is a misguided attempt to rationalize and tame the shrew of free will. Through cheap mimicry, from the frivolous to the near fanatical, attempts to recreate and better natural beauty by unnatural means are at odds. The overeducated and overintellectualized battle through the creative process blind to its wildness. As language is changed to suit contemporary needs the discourse and redefinition of "natural" is falsely balanced alongside urban integrity.

Expanding on escapist virtues alternative realities to suit a generation longing for past glories have been created only to be realized as hollow relics. As the aesthetic ideal is turned inside out, as re-imaging and re-imagining diminishes humanity's ugliness to the point of comedic gesture, history obsessed youth question the repetitiveness of Man's foibles.