Ben's 4 point Modern Art guideline.

An understandable conclusion to draw after viewing the art of Paper Rad, is that;
we are mindless druggies barfing back the trash culture we were force feed by saturday morning cartoons in the 80's.


I would like to offer an "alternative" idea concerning our process of art making.
I will call it.
"The 4 point Modern Art Guideline (2007)"

So, a little, history.
Personally this is how I grew up:

I grew up in America, and was white so do the math.
My main 3 things, or, what I was all about were:

BMX/Freestlye:


Drums:


and girls, I mean, drawing:


Anyway, when I matured to a High School aged boy living in Central Massachusetts, a strange outlet for these passions was "a-brewin'".
There was a Hardcore Scene Erupting. Here is some text about the scene back in the day:

"Hardcore/Punk music was a very open playing field for new-comers. It was very possible for anyone to succeed in the local Hardcore/Punk music scene, for both the definition of success and the path to it where attainable. Playing every week, at crowded shows, writing songs, gaining a big audience, becoming "famous" relative to a 30 mile radius, all of this achievable, and very fun. Hardcore/Punk and central Mass was a match made in heaven. Middle class kids, many venues, willing parents with mini-vans, Worcester(a small city which served as the center of the universe).
You could be kid with a crappy guitar or drum-set, and with in months be a part of a very exciting social construct. But it was the architecture of the Hardcore/Punk framework that is important to paper rad.
Hardcore/Punk was
-self sustainable
-logical
-scalable
and
-self perpetuating"

So, that framework I describe above is actually,my 4 point guideline. Call it what you will, it molded me into a man. i think it chanced my approach to life and art permantly I was in only a few hardcore bands, and would go home and read Jim Morrison poetry while listening to the beatles, so that, my relationship with this experience was more than superficial, in that, I wasn't really into the superficial aspects of Hardcore Punk.


So, the guidelines, self-sustainable, logical, scalable, self-perpetuating. This is how they apply to the Hardcore Scene.

self-sustainable: no overhead, practice in garage, go on tour in a geo
logical: put out cassette tapes, everybody listens to them, or be nice to people and other bands, and they are nice back
scalable: have your act down so you can rock a basement or VFW hall
self-perpetuating: make cool looking patches, people use them, the patch is the band, the band is the patch



ANNNNYYWAAAAYYYY

Who cares that music sucked right? Just kidding, Mighty Mighty Mighty Bostones were a great band, R.I.P., ...what they still play out? sorry....what's that?...... jimmy kimmel you say.....okay.....

ART
So, this is how I break down the rules in todays modern art world.

self sustainable:
This could mean, "cheap". But not always, its more like killing a whale and using every part.(sometimes whales are expensive) Making your art in a way that you "Do It Yourself". Its fine to hire a crane to flip a van into a dumpster, that's pretty basic, that's essentially an old world style partnership, like a knight and his black-smith. An example of something not being self sustainable however is anything that does not need the "self" to sustain, or the sustain not coming from the self, it like Jeff Koons, okay....

Twist and Amaze



Jeff Koons


logical:
Logical: setting up a performance for a small number of people in a house
Illogical: David Blane "training" to breathe underwater or whatever, locking himself in an orb, then after a week drowning himself with chains, and it all not working. See also: performance art.

David Blaine


Unknown Art Collective "Fort Thunder"


Scalable:
Able to do your thing in a basement or a big fancy place. and having it work

Self Perpetuating:
Here i am talking about having your work be able to communicate its essence on it own, this also applies to creating brands and over arching ideas that also function to both inform and for lack of a better word entertain. For yet another lack of- for lack of a better example see Andre The Giant.






To end, I think Duchamp followed these rules, not just loser street artists.

The End