Erik Plambeck

I’m mad…in love. I love you . I don’t. I love you. Pretend, and always will. I love you. Stop. How many times did I write it, never said it, cause you’re never. Can’t imagine. Already, I love you. Done. Another life. Sleep. I’ve got mine. I miss you. I do. You were always the reason I stayed. I left and wrote and never. Right. I’m going. Sea….

In regards to new aesthetic movements in art, lately I have been thinking about the influence of the post-modern movement and how it has influenced aesthetics for the past thirty years. The post conceptualism movement in art has failed to create a definable aesthetic and on the contrary has created a declassified aesthetic by placing the focus of the individual. The argument that everything has already been said dramatically shifted the importance and progression of aesthetic movements to the ideas and practice of the individual. Although many critics at one point argued that past movements such as painting were dead, the liberties of individualism has led to some amazing work that can be classified into previous aesthetics. The definition of quality, meaning what is good art, it what has really taken a shift. Previously in the movements of modernism, works were largely praised for their progression, a strong protestant industrial revolution ideal. Greenberg in the mid century praised movements that redefined the practice of painting such as abstract expressionism. However, as post modern artsists found themselves unavoidably working in similar styles as past movements, the presence of aesthic progress became inferior to the presence of content. Contemporary works created by artists such as Eric Fischle and Tim Hawkinson largely resemble the works of previous movements. Hawkinson works with similar forms and in a similar practice that Jean Tinguely did about ninety years ago. However, the redefinition of form or sculpture is no longer what makes his work good or the appropriation of past forms what makes it bad. It’s the content of the work, the ideas expressed through forms, regardless of new or old, and the continual redefinition of what art is, rather than what it looks like that creates importance. The new aesthetic is one that appropriates forms of the past in ways that express contemporary ideas and content. It is the ideas that are progressive and their relationship to contemporary society that defines their quality. In that way good art will continue to be not only influencial, but also avant garde.
I might also argue simultaneouly that it is nearly impossible to define a new aesthetic movement because they really no longer exist. Art today is just one big cluster fuck of artists doing what they want, what will get them laid, or what will get them famous, and there are far too many trying far too hard at it. Look at its consequence in society. The two biggest aesthetic movements today might possibly be facebook/myspace and blogging. Their similitude to contemporary art is aweful. Individuals using generic templates, questions, posts and pictures, hoping to somehow acheive some sense of acceptance and community, helplessly defining their influence by their number of friends.
The only alternative to the existential cluster fuck, is the possibility that all the individual artists together compose a single movement. It may be possible to define the post modern movement as a movement of modernism in itself, a movement that may one day shift. Artists may find themselves in communities again collectively making art inspired by a single ideal and the current aesthetic or absence of a concrete definition of one will become just another chapter in the lineage of fine art, bracketed by dates and classified by individuals.

Here’s the video of my tree being set on fire. Please refrain from making any references or connections to the destruction of things that are beautiful. I apologize for the blue streaks, its a bit unprofessional, but then again, I make things out of match sticks.

I used over twenty five hundred matches to build a cherry tree. Who knows why. Maybe Bobby Dylan made me do it, or maybe it was my OCD, obsession with construction, or the fact that I was broke and still needed to make things. The project began in the summer of 2008 and finally ended January 22, 2009, with the long awaited igniting of what proved to be another consuming endeavor. I was glad to see it go in glory, rather than the slow deconstruction it had experienced while making it due to the intense heat waves during the summer. Sure I would have loved to see it last, possibly be shown and shared with others, but it was necessary to get it out of my space and out of my head. And of course I am able to share it here, with anyone who cares to look, and don’t fret, the video of its destruction will soon be aired, as quickly as youtube decides to process it.

“Every man has to believe in something, I believe I’ll have another beer”

"What's your favorite beer? Whatever I'm drinking right now.

It feels like a Saturday
The sun running its fingers through the empty trees,
A man with Vatican arms trying to capture a child.
The ground still spotted
With pools from the previous rain,
Reflecting what’s left of autumn leaves.
It’s strange to think that what’s closest to the sun
Is most difficult to see,
Like leering into a spotlight,
Only with distance can the individual parts,
That comprise the landscape,
Be fully observed.

I have been recently working with new materials including silicon, urethane, and other liquid plastics. It has been a wonderful process learning these materials and has opened up many new possibilities for the physicality of content. I will be posting my latest idea in process next week. As for now…

One of my first photos in my high school photography class was a thirty minute exposure of the solar system moving through the night sky.

As I think back now, upon that photo, I am comforted by the thought that all the particles in existence must move through the space of time as I do.

I wonder if I and they are the same, gliding along lifes unstoppable gravity, or if we are perhaps engaged in an eternal struggle to break free from the parameters of physics and go our own existential directions.

Newton, Kelly, Roco, Myself, in front of the NBC building NYC

The drive for the American Renaissance brought me and old friends from San Clemente together in New York City last week. Maybe it’s not that serious, maybe we just do what we want to do, but standing outside the NBC building last Wednesday, on the other side of the United States, with friends I have know for over 10 years, I realized that both our friendships and our desire to create a different America had brought us there. Roco had flown into the city for a photo journalist interview with a cooperative photography company that specializes in conflict photography, Kelly was in town because Delta Spirit (the band he is in) earned the opportunity to launch their tour with a spot on the Conon O Brian show, Newton…well Newton loves history and fighting crime, and lastly, I personally flew out to continue my pursuit of an MFA and an understanding of the contemporary art world, and maybe drink a little wine while I was at it. After putting our mandatory tasks behind us, we finally met up for the taping of Delta Spirit on the Conon O Brian show, which proved to be an amazing time. And as I looked at the four of us, the bellman about to snap our photo, I realized that we were all standing together not only as friends, but as people trying to come to terms with our own ideas of how the world should exist and how we should exist in it.

• #1 Fixed Gear Bicycles
• #2 PBR
• #3 American Apparel
• #4 Being Vegetarian
• #5 Beards
• #6 Liberal Arts Degrees
• #7 Deep V’s and Dangley Medallions
• #8 Hand Rolled Cigarettes
• #9 Independent Coffee Shops
• #10 Comments on their myspace photo

As of September 9th we have updated our list to include two new contributions being beards and hand rolled cigarettes. Enjoy.

Hipsters at Their Finest