#ericdyer

Copenhagen Cycles, #EricDyer at the #MovingImageFair 🚲🚲🚲 | #ArmoryWeek #Chelsea #VideoArt (at Waterfront New York Tunnel)

I don’t think trying to become part of the next avant-garde is all that interesting, which is funny because when I began making work, when I was really young, I thought being completely unique was the pinnacle of an artistic practice. Over time I’ve come to realize that nothing is ever completely unique, as each new thing is a compilation of our experiences and past learning. I think the way that individuals regard history (especially art critics in my view) Michael Darling takes into account in Painting in Tongues (2006) that “What is surprising is how deeply entrenched our ideas of unity, singularity, and genius are in our society when there has been a considerable amount of theoretical work to dismantle them over the past several decades.” Darling argues, “History seems most comfortably articulated through well-defined narratives, steady advances in plot, and regularly occurring flashes of clarity or resolution. Its linear cause-and-effect relationships are most persuasive when they can exist in and be nurtured by these conditions. Murky, complicated, backtracking storylines distract those attempting to forge master narratives but in reality they are essential to push culture forward.” I think this goes so far to re-contextualize the way we read art in general and who we look to as an “authority” on art. History is really in a non-linear relationship to itself, when looking back on it. Take Borges Kafka and his Precursors for example: Those writers that came before, and those that came after, are all still changed based on our idea of what Kafkian ideas are. His writing may have commonalities between the writers that came after him, and the writers that came before him, but they do not have commonality within each other. We only find this through Kafka.