John Steppling

"The culture in which we live is perhaps the most claustrophobic that has ever existed; in the culture of globalisation, as in Bosch’s hell, there is no glimpse of an elsewhere or an otherwise.” John Berger (Portraits) "Painting's memory nests two supports within each other, since if perspective is the support of imaging, the chessboard, as Hubert Damisch has shown us, is the support of imaging." Rosalind Krauss (Under Blue Cup) "The destruction of the past, or rather of the social mechanisms that link one’s contemporary experience to that of earlier generations, is one of the most characteristic and eerie phe- nomena of the late twentieth century. Most young men and women at the … [Read more...]

"So (Max) Raphael’s answer to Marx’s problem — why is art enduringly moving even though it merely reflects its social context? — is to say that art doesn’t merely reflect its social context. It does reflect it, because the artist’s material, style, the things they want to represent, even the way they see, are historically conditioned; but it doesn’t merely reflect it, because the transformed material speaks of something deeper and more voluntary. It speaks of humanity’s ability to make its own world, to become the subject and not merely the victim of history." Robert Minto (Culture Matters, January 2017 A smuggling operation: John Berger's theory of art) “A man’s features, the bone … [Read more...]

"The word ‘freedom’ resonates so widely within the common-sense understanding of Americans that it becomes ‘a button that elites can press to open the door to the masses’ to justify almost anything. Thus could Bush retrospectively justify the Iraq war. Gramsci therefore concluded that political questions become ‘insoluble’ when ‘disguised as cultural ones’." David Harvey (A Brief History of Neoliberalism) "The centralization of power, even more marked than the concentration of capital, reinforces the interpenetration of economic and political power. The “traditional” ideology of capitalism placed the emphasis on the virtues of property in general, particularly small property—in reality … [Read more...]

"The rose is without why; she blossoms because she blossoms. She pays no attention to herself, does not ask if anyone sees her." Angelus Silesius "I never had a memory for myself, but always for others." Masha Ivashintsova "What you didn't see, don't say...having seen keep quiet." Solon (Apophthegmata) "The capitalistic order produces modes of human relations even in their unconscious representations..." Felix Guattari (in conversation) There is a collective regression to contemporary thinking. Or maybe it is the loss of thinking itself. But overlaying this can be seen a collection of resentments and fears, of desires and identifications with power and aggression. And … [Read more...]

"It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists.” Wittgenstein (Tractatus) “Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few” Ecclesiastes 5:2 "The criteria distinguishing history from poetics involved the modes of representation, which (if we might exaggerate somewhat) were intended to articulate either being or appearance. " Reinhart Koselleck (Futures Past; On the Semantics of Historical Time) “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” Daniel Boorstin Many years ago I was reading a lot of … [Read more...]

"In theory, “affirmation” refers to every discourse, such as positivism, that silences the negative, the dark, the inassimilable, or the contradictory nature of the real. In practice, “affirmation” designates reconciliation with the world as it is, submission to so-called reality, moral resignation, political defeatism, and approval of the status quo in general." Theirry De Duve (Aesthetics at Large: chapter 7 Resisting Adorno, Revamping Kant) "...let’s do ugly non-art pictures, let’s not be good. Let’s not learn from others. No talent is the talent." Edith Schloss (Letter to Jean-Michael Basquiat) "I want to be a machine." Andy Warhol What art means, what that word means, is a … [Read more...]

"The dream screen, as I define it, is the surface on which a dream appears to be projected. It is the blank background, present in the dream though not necessarily seen, and the visually perceived action of ordinary manifest dream contents takes place on it or before it. Theoretically it may be part of the latent or the manifest content, but this distinction is academic. The dream screen is not often noted or mentioned by the analytic patient, and in the practical business of dream interpretation, the analyst is not concerned with it." Bertram D. Lewin (Sleep, the Mouth and the Dream Screen, 1949) "Thoughts precede thinking. They need to be thought in order to be recognized as thoughts. … [Read more...]

"The rich have grown afraid of screens. They want their children to play with blocks, and tech-free private schools are booming. Humans are more expensive, and rich people are willing and able to pay for them. Conspicuous human interaction — living without a phone for a day, quitting social networks and not answering email — has become a status symbol. All of this has led to a curious new reality: Human contact is becoming a luxury good. As more screens appear in the lives of the poor, screens are disappearing from the lives of the rich. The richer you are, the more you spend to be offscreen. Milton Pedraza, the chief executive of the Luxury Institute, advises companies on how the wealthiest … [Read more...]