Nathaniel Davis - "The Young Painter"
"Inspired by a certain 'breakdown' of Art in the Art World of the 21st century, as well as an unresolved 'breakdown'of conceptions of desire and action resulting from psychoanalytical theory of the 20th century, I aim to use various mediums and processes to clarify the following questions: What exactly is the power of art? What can art do or express? What is still important about art? What is now completely unimportant about art? How is success achieved in Art? What is the effect of the social community of the Art World upon the experience and interpretation of art? How is artistic meaning made? If meaning is made by the audience, what is the purpose of the artist? How does art relate to music, art's happy and foolish mute brother? How does art relate to literature, art's grave and calculating father? How do art, literature, and music relate to psychoanalysis and philosophy? Can one react in a non-verbal aesthetic way to an image, and if so is this important to do? How can a photograph inspire an emotion? Does style express anything profound, beyond symbolizing a community? Does all the pleasure that is elicited by physical, intellectual, or aesthetic experiences relate back to something completely different, something unknowable? Should this change the way we think about the pleasure we experience, namely should this pleasure be devalued? Should art similarly be devalued as an unnecessary, unreliable, or wholly non-functioning link in the chain by which meaning is made?" March, 15th - April 04th, 2008