Exit Through The Gift Shop, The Way We Now Live

What to make of this world we live in, or this world we now live in? Possibly the proper question is what to make of this world we appear to be entering? If the dawn of the 20^th century saw the setting of the stage for titanic global clashes between competing economic and political systems (socialism, communism, capitalism, fascism, democracy, autocracies, etc…) the dawn of the 21^st century appears to be the second chapter of that book. Despite the lingering traces of a bygone world in various spots around the globe, capitalism is king come hell or high water. Even China has gotten on board. So as the lights flicker on in the early stages of the next millennium we humans are being forced to accept the consequences of the choice we've made to make the free market our God. The good and the bad. Thus what we make of this new truly global world we're entering is as fascinating a story as there has ever been, and humans through the millennia have expressed their stories through art, and the preferred artistic form of storytelling in our times is movies. What could be better than a global story about capitalism and art, turned into a movie? Nothing. There is no better phrase for our times, and few movies that capture the pure essence of them as well as Exit through the Gift Shop.

Artistic Abstraction

Ever wonder what happened to realist art? That is, art that depicts real people or real situations etc... Probably not. Nevertheless, what did happen to it, and why do we live in a world dominated by abstract art. The art many people look at and think, "a child could have painted this." The art that draws the reply most people think of when they think of art nowadays,..."I don't get it." Well we live in a world dominated by abstract art because the CIA made it that way. There's no political point here, just a fascinating story. Something to think about the next time you happen to be looking at an abstract piece of art and the person next to you is raving about how it makes them feel, or is proffering their deep intellectual insight to the beauty of some abstract piece and how it *ahem* speaks to them. You don't have to feel bad if you don't get it. Maybe it has less importance as a work of art, than it does as a symbol of history. After all, much of the works of the Renaissance say just as much about the Catholic Church during that era as they do about art as an art form. If that last sentence (like abstract art) even makes sense. Fascinating.