Peter Bies: Donald Duck on PCP (1994)Aw… I’m supposed to come up yet with another piece of biased, resentful rant for the sake of simulating some kind of intellectual discourse. I don’t want to! I don’t have to! All I want right now is to be outright anti-intellectual.Because I’m devastated! Germany’s got pounded at the Grand Prix d’Eurovision… Schluchz! Heul!Well, serves her right. Who wants to listen to a couple of stuck-up tarts and their Ibiza disco crap anyway?Right now, my mind is a blank. You see? I’m desperate. And I’m making a complete fool of myself, acting like a whining drama queen. I’m freaking out…!To tell you the truth, I’m just a little disappointed because I haven’t had much of a response to my painting last week. “Olaf & his Electrik Nazis”, remember? The first and only work of art I’ve ever shown on Artdoxa so far… Now that was intended to be some kind of event… I expected at least one or two members to gladly tear my Machwerk to pieces. Yeah… right. I’m so vain. And I’m a glutton for punishment… Well - you probably didn’t take me serious. Or my art. Is that so? Fine. I couldn’t care less. I could resent that ignorance. I could resent that indifference. But I don’t. In fact, art doesn’t mean that much to me. There. I’ve said it.Are you aware that, as a rule, our precious art is an abysmally elitist affair with hardly any intellectual significance and no social impact whatsoever? There’s exceptions to the rule. True. Look at Ana Alvarez-Errecalde’s decidedly radical feminist attitude. But most of us are busily devoting all of our strength and effort to a - to a Minderheitenprogramm. Minority business. A cultural niche for specialists and solipsists, for an educated and highly discriminating bourgeois minority. You see - I feel that art is basically… well… a geek thing. There’s only one thing more obsolete and obscure than art - and that’s poetry…And being an artist sounds just as absurd as being a poet. Oh well… I guess it’s a way of life. I like to sleep late, you know. I suppose my pretensions of being an artist might have something to do with that.But pop music and architecture are so much more important. I need pop music as a reference system to file away my memories.Architecture? You can get a hundred years old and die happily without ever having been to a museum. Or to an art show. You can do without art. But you’re a user of architecture. In any case. Everybody is. And was. Throughout history. Exposed to architecture. That’s what I call significance. That’s what I call impact.To reconcile those who find my attitude offensive or too simplifying, here’s a vintage specimen of my very own variety of l’art brut. You see, I take the highest risks to achieve social significance. So… sue me, Disney Corp.!Anyone of you ready to denounce this? Anybody? No?Oh well… I guess the majority of you is simply too nice to be as mean and revengeful and opinionated as I want you to be.I won’t hold this against you.Alles Liebe,Peter

Peter Bies: “Olaf and his Electric Nazis”, 1980 - wall paint & ball-point on corrugated cardboard

My Private Alphaville©… (#1)

Hi there… our propaganda abteilung wanted to know if I would like to write a few lines for this blog on a regular basis. Well… sure. It’s only that I want you to know that I’m not a professional writer… I am just an active observer. Apart from that I am just… well, full of crap… Do you mind?

My approach to art is basically emotional and biologistic… Does your artwork communicate? Berührt es mich? Does it touch me? Does it affect me? And how does it achieve this?

A matter of glandular response, mostly… Of limbic and cortical interaction. And then there’s the relationship of art and reality. Of reality and its nature… her nature...die Realität (f.) is female, you know. That’s the bottom line. And what about art as objectification of the free will? Oh and then there’s the concept of HYPER-REALITY…

DIGRESSION: Speaking of hyper-reality… I am rather critical of the brave new world of the Internet and I just hate its particular brand of Newspeak… man, it’s unnatural…

The Internet, like TV, video games, cellphones, and the lot, is a means to LOOK AWAY from yourselves in a very efficient manner. So far, it’s in fact the most powerful distraction device known to mankind, with the possible exception of maybe hallucinogenics. Sheer life ersatz… all cortex and no flesh… universally körperfeindlich…

DISCLAIMER: I’d like to point out - as I have done before - that I have no idea what art is…

I am able to carry out merely some kind of positivistic, phenomenological evaluation… at best.

Then there’s always the human drama and the quest for transcendency… much safer grounds… I am oscillating between angst and boredom all the time… How about you? I have suffered from ennui of Baudelairean dimensions. Artdoxa surely is a sweet antidote. As is art in general.

COMING UP: I want to take a close look at what I perceive as the emerging renaissance of Trash Art or whatever you want to call the most recent offspring of Dada, arte povera, Pop Art, nouveau realisme, Heftige Malerei… um… soon… I’m going to feature some of our members arbitrarily… Do some interviews… Take you on a walk through my neighborhood… Aw I wish I was in EuroDisney now… Alphaville… South Park… Kelowna… Tatooine… just take me to any fictitious parallel universe will do…

So these are the things I find of interest. Bear with me - this is going to be a lot of idle chatter. And a lot of stream-of-consciousness, mostly. But I am ready to listen to any suggestions you come up with, liebe members… And you’re welcome to comment on my historic piece shown above… I couldn’t resist to decorate my rant with this impressive vintage chef d’oevre inconnu.

This really takes me back… Painting those haunting eyes was a real challenge. But that’s what Aggressive Retro Iterativism was all about. Challenge. Provocation. Controversy. Based on a sketch by Gilbert Shelton, this is not even original… so… it’s PAYBACK TIME! C’mon! Grill me!

Peace!

Peter