Wow, this will be a long one—but suppressed truths require time and thorough research to unpack. Strap in, because for those interested, this will be a (nuanced) nail-biter.
As the prominent enfant terrible extraordinaire of crypto art, this would have been my other
@SuperRare
entry for the competition, but will respect their rules.
First, watch this video on how the CIA entered the culture wars. This isn’t conspiracy theory—it’s conspiracy fact. It’s also worth noting that the term “conspiracy theorist” was invented by the CIA as a derogatory label to discredit those questioning their activities, a tactic that gained traction after the JFK assassination. This will be relevant later when discussing how
@RobertKennedyJr
has now been elected as part of the new U.S. cabinet.
We know Pollock was a darling of the alphabet agencies, with the CIA entering the art world as far back as the 1940s to combat the rise of communism. Leftist artists were propped up to showcase American exceptionalism. Selling the idea of a cocaine-laced drink and “do what you feel like” freedom to American youth and elites wasn’t a hard pitch compared to glorifying Soviet despots who demanded hard work to elevate themselves to Godlike status.
Some of you might also be familiar with the famous interviews of Yuri Bezmenov, the defected KGB spy, who outlined how demoralization was part of their plan to take down the U.S. government. If you ask me, the demoralization he described has only ramped up since the 1980s, fueled by postmodern values and the fiat-funded war on conservative ideals and God—or whatever God represents as a symbol of natural order to be discovered rather than manipulated into existence.
You could argue that Duchamp’s urinal did far more damage over 100 years ago than Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana ever could. It is at best, a Gen Y lame duck version. So, what’s the big deal about The Comedian? I was in Miami when it sold at Art Basel, and at the time—naive me—I was giving a lecture at the Miami Blockchain Center on how NFTs were going to bring transparency to the art world. Man, was I wrong in those early days.
The U.S. art market has become a convoluted mix of manipulated market capitalism and deep socialist ideology working hand in hand—arguably even a psyop in some respects. While the art world tries to skate over the fallout of the recent election, some of us have fully broken free from our Stockholm syndrome with the status quo.
Since Duchamp, the art world has waged a 100-year war on conservative values—and, increasingly, on anything resembling common sense. The war on God has reached a point where being a rebel without a cause is now considered visionary. For new readers, that’s a reference to the James Dean movie from the mid-1950s. At the time, it was rebellious, but entire generations have lived, died, and fought bigger rebellions since. From the spiritual perspective, if you are in the know about the rather nasty details on how the French Revolution and “enlightenment” was achieved, you might even feel that the word progress got inverted to actual regress since.
However, the message to the majority of the world is clear: it’s time for conservatives, centrists, classic liberals, and the religious to build their own galleries and stop pandering to ideologically possessed lunatics. The fact that this hasn’t happened already is mind-boggling. There’s no “fixing” this divided sea anytime soon, and art is far too important to be left to a narrow, ideologically driven few. Art should be the free marketplace of creative ideas for the world. Tampering with it has consequences. Proof? Look around.
Long ago, the statue of David represented the art the artist made commenting on out infinate potential. Then it became the experimental populace at large—everyone their own art piece for 15 minutes. Today, David is the trans man competing in women’s sports, twerking in front of children to collect dollar bills while encouraging them to sterilize themselves through gender changes. Tattoos, ironically, are considered “too permanent.” by many supporting this. Not even a dystopian sci-fi film could have predicted this alternate timeline, let alone that people in general would accept it without too much noise for years.
As for the critique part: the more absurd the postmodern paradigm got, the fewer worthwhile critics stuck around. Those worthy of their salt left the space altogether. Now you see otherwise dignified figures like
@HUObrist
attending visual porn shows like Beeple’s to “be in the scene”, while Sotheby’s digital assets head Michael Bouhanna calls The Comedian “the most significant work of the 21st century.” We’ve been in a clown car from God’s perspective for so long that a biblical flood is all any conservative can hope for to reset this madness.
As someone who has studied NLP and cult psychology, I’ve been a terrible inductee. While I agree on some points, I’m a solid fuck you to dumb shit. Who knows what’s really happening behind the scenes, but the new U.S. cabinet, including RFK, might finally start digging into the shadow players pulling the strings. The next four years will be a popcorn fest with the
@DonaldTrump
X-Men crew in that regard.
With conspiracy discussions popularized by
@joeroganhq
and the internet, perhaps the most profound takeaway here is that The Comedian invites the art world to realize: the internet happened over 20 years ago. The bubble time is over.
You’ll know The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, of course. With everything said, here’s my version of The Kiss. I’m not sure if it’s entirely accurate, but we can only guess—and it just might be.
Of course, as the whole scene continues shutting me out of the conversation, they still win the material game.
There is more profound and avant-garde substance in my parody art than the cultural elite can muster with their million-dollar auctions.
Ceci n'est pas une pipe, but smoke it.
Jackson Pollock & The CIA link (not part of the mint obviously but just as indication of substance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCeM4NOoegs
And same thing for the Yuri Bezmenov interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnpCqsXE8g&feature=youtu.be
The piece includes a physical print, painted on top, that launches an AR animation.
