just reminded myself of jon rafman’s shit ass music video for oneohtrix point never and how he basically did just “oh am i weirding you out?” by grabbing whatever ‘weird net’ shit he could from fmtownsmarty, fucking gurochan,and a hodge podge of other’s people’s videos and acting like he’s on the bleeding edge for jumping into other people’s net communities and waving shit around like he discovered fursuiters in bondage. just fucking trying to waltz his ass over to the moma or some shit waving around a deviantart animaniacs OC or the like, doing absolutely nothing interesting with his recontextualization, just popping out some boring ass “are you weirded out yet? huh?! there’s weird people out there!” like it’s 2005 and we’re still boggled by the thought of inflation fetishism
like roy lichtenstein for internet folx, just as hollow, just as unwilling to have his own ideas, and just as dismissive and condescending of the very material he cribs from, refusing to engage with the material he finds or the cultures cultivating it as if they’re actual folx of their own or are artists of their own and aiming for celebration for being a guy who basically functions as a living reblog of a “weird internet” blog shit to a video installation
i get heated about this tired ass hollowness, this engaging with the strange from a “oh aren’t they fascinating, but my showing this to everyone else is much more fascinating than they are” angle, this voyeurism with no sincerity and absolutely no creativity, a barton fink motherfucker who’s looking but not really listening
i can’t stand the lack of engagement, the inability to appreciate strangeness as it is and people as people, the inability to be sincere and see the strangeness in yourself, existing wholly as a voyeur who Knows Better, Somehow; the idea that being Awfully Smart And Important and showing off someone else’s work makes it more valuable than the person doing the work in the first place, as if it wasn’t art or creation before it touched your hands
2032 some motherfucker gonna be getting applauded in an art museum for taking someone else’s Biker Mice From Mars foot fetish fanart and putting it in a frame – “he saw this weird shit, and he showed it to us! brilliant!”
as if the person making it wasn’t communicating something themselves, even in a format like fucking Biker Mice From Mars foot fetish fanart posted to the internet, which shows more baring of the self than so many, even if it’s in a “low art” fashion
i can’t stand that attitude, that condescension, that idea that because you engage with the weird without “being” weird (a lie, often, told to the self), it makes how you present it inherently better than how it originally was
this probably wasn’t a necessary post at all, but i get heated. i just know some motherfucker soon enough gonna trace some furry art from 1999, slam it in a frame, and call themselves brilliant
roy lichtenstein ass motherfuckers who don’t appreciate anything but themselves
TRUE FACT THOUGH
I was in a shop in the trendy part of town and I noticed this magazine on the shelf, I did a double-take because I recognized something on the cover:
It’s one of Northfur’s prosthetics. I know these guys. Friends of mine, even. I’ve seen their videos make the rounds in a “Gee, look at these weirdos” kind of way, especially their dolphin one. It’s even been memed. And here’s their horse prosthetic in Homestuck. It’s all pretty embarrassing by proxy because I sincerely think they’re doing really cool work and I look up to them as independent artists. Seeing them get used for a “weird factor” joke gives me a little burning feeling behind my eyes.
So I forwarded the pic to them, because how could I not? Like, what the hell, right? They did some digging.
Turns out, the cover of the magazine is a painting by this artist Jamian Juliano Villani. For the work in context in a motherfucking white wall gallery, see here, see also their copy of some Monsterbait photomanip. It’s interesting who gets credit for the work when the ones taking the risk are weird and online and queer.
None of the artists she borrows from were asked permission, or compensated for having their work appropriated. This kind of thing has a habit of getting back to the artists who originated the “weird” art, artists who have taken a risk in sharing their work, a risk some other bozo is making a profit off of in a New York gallery for the sake of pop surrealism. It’s gross that these blind references are socially acceptable in the art world.
As an artist who has always appreciated the weirdness that furry has to offer, and as someone who joyfully contributes to it, I’ve become very defensive of the integrity it takes to sincerely indulge in stuff that other people are just going to take to make themselves feel normal, even though they’re probably not normal otherwise why would they need to remind themselves you know what I mean
“It’s interesting who gets credit for the work when the ones taking the risk are weird and online and queer.”
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