#low art

New single

I've been listening to Don't Tap the Glass a lot recently... and I think Tyler the Creator is probably lying when he says its not a Concept Album.

The big important thing here is that theres a Doylist and a Watsonian perspective of looking at the album, and that the Watsonian perspective involves taking Tyler's word that theres no big point to the album.

On the album, Tyler refers to himself as Big Poe and presents hinself as something of a loving homage to older phases of Hip Hop. I don't wanna do too much research here, if onky because I'm kinda just going off of vibes, but the figure on the cover kinda evokes Run DMC to me, and I think the ibfluence of artists like Run DMC, Sir Mixalot, and Big Daddy Kane kinda shiw through. (I'm sure someine with a more encyclopedic knowlege on Hip Hop history coukd point out specific references, and I would definately invite someone to add on to this if they know more.)

Anyways, I'm sure this fictionalized version of Tyler would insist that this album is low art. Its a dance album with some very housey and jungley elements that at different points sounds like an old school Electro song or like Ghost Town Djs or even freakin My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas. The aesthetic of the album is very old school block party.

At the same time... Tyler is also kinda sorta trying to evoke the imagery of contemporary art.

This statue was used at certain pop ups advertising the album, and ignoring the okd school B-Boy imagery I already mentioned... the reference I immediately see is Damien Hirst.

I've badmouthed Damien Hirst multiple times on this blog and I still basically hate the guy, but none of that hate is relevent here, so lets pretend I actually respect him for a moment

The art above is the Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Somebody Living, and its a dead shark preserved in formaldyhyde and presented in a glass box in a museum.

Theres a lot of things I could say about this piece (and a lot of things that specifically make me mad about thisnpiece) but I think the important element here is the imagery of preserving something dead, frozen in time, to voyeurs in the context of what some institutions might call high art.

Its also worth noting that the lyrics to Big Poe begins with instructions, a set of rules thst invoke, at least to me, the rules of good conduct you'd find at the beginning if an audio tour of an art museum.

The phrase Don't tap the glass evokes both the works of Damien Hirst and the glass windows that guard displays in museums.

And so I think the concept lies in the juxtaposition between these two seperate aesthetics. Old School Block Parties, dancing, a form of art that might be classically considered "Low Art" despite demonstrating forms of autheticity the likes if Damien Hirst and company lack, and the museum a place sterotypically associated with High Art.

And so I think Tyle the Creator is lying when he says Don't Tap the Glass isn't a concept album. Big Poe, the fictionalized MC Tyler plays on the album would say that, but the work itself seems to suggest otherwise.

From a Doylist perspective, Tyler is forcing us to view what is essentially an old school mixtape through the lens of High Art. We can watch his album through the glass like a high class voyeur, or we can join him, breaking through the glass and becoming a part of the art. Its an album that is, in part, about itself as a work of art.

I don't make a particular distinction between 'high art' and 'low art.' Music is there for everybody. It's a river we can all put our cups into and drink it and be sustained by it.

- John Williams

Wayne Edson Bryan

https://www.instagram.com/wayneedsonbryan/

For a group of people that like to think of themselves as open minded and liberal, there sure are a lot of art authoritarians that have a blatant bias toward what they deem as preferable and acceptable modes of expression. If you don’t conform to the current trends, whether it be how you make your art, what tools or materials you choose to use, what style you employ, and even how you share it with the public, your commitment, relevance and value as an artist is called into question. 

great tree'd