I have just published a new website, www.5thGateStore.com, to be used as the marketplace for my images. I came to this decision after a drawn out and somewhat tortuous internal struggle over what my definition of ‘art’ was. Since first hearing James Joyce’s definition of art as that which produces ‘aesthetic arrest’, I fixed upon that as my reason for producing my photographs. But I still had two conflicting positions within my own mind as to what that actually meant where the rubber meets the road.
On the one hand, I held that art must maintain its integrity, it must be true to itself, no compromises. This view allowed me to feel that I was making art for my own reasons and that the impact on the viewer was either of secondary importance or of no importance at all.
On the other hand, Joyce’s words about aesthetic arrest meant that I had to consider the reaction of the viewer as being an equally important component of the ‘art’ as was the physical object itself. What good, in other words, was my ‘art’ if no one else was looking at it and being transported to that place where, as Joyce put it, “The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing.”
The first of these propositions leads to what I consider to be the horribly corrupted high end art market where well known art ‘collectors’ buy and sell works of art for their ability to greatly appreciate in value all the while claiming that their motivations are to conserve and protect the works and the integrity of the artists. These artworks are then squirreled away in climate controlled vaults or hung on the walls of billionaire mansions where few, if any, people ever see them. What value, then, do these artworks hold? Do they raise the minds of their few viewers above desire and loathing? I think not.
The practical result of me holding to the first proposition was that I had a tendency to not want my images to be put on public display, or if they were, for me to control every aspect of that display. Where an image was displayed, how it was displayed, and how it was interpreted all had to be under my direction. This, of course, was just my ego talking, but the end result was that I was doing to my own work exactly what the billionaire collectors were doing to other peoples work.
The second proposition means, at its heart, that art must be presented and viewed as widely as possible. People must see your work and they must react to it. This democratic idea of art for the masses was very appealing to me.
But this idea can lead to over exposure at the hands of another kind of sociopathic billionaire: the ones who have no concept of art at all and are simply looking to make a buck selling something to anyone with loose change in their pockets. Imagine here the Mona Lisa printed on the back of a toilet seat lid and you will get the idea of the kind of vulgarization of art that I am talking about.
So it was that I had these two conflicting positions within my mind: 1; that art should be ‘protected’ and kept away from the Philistines and 2; that art must be accessible to everyone or it is not art.
How to reconcile these incompatible propositions? In the end it occurred to me that all of the great art museums of the world have gift shops that one passes through on their way out of the museum. Within these shops one may buy a variety of products with the great works of Monet, Leonardo, Van Gogh, or Ansel Adams reproduced on them. Indeed, the very bag that will hold your purchases from these shops will be printed with a reproduction of some great work of art. This does not vulgarize the art, instead it makes it available and accessible to everyone. When people take these products home they will be afforded the opportunity on a recurring basis to experience aesthetic arrest whenever they look at that product they bought at the museum gift shop. And it is in those moments that the true value of the artwork is realized.
So I have reconciled my internal conflict over the display of my art. I have launched a website that is somewhat akin to a museum gift shop, where you, the viewer of my art, may purchase a selection of products imprinted with my images. You may also, of course, purchase museum grade framed prints if you wish to get the full benefit of my images. It is my hope that making this move to get my photographs out into the world will benefit us all.
