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If someone is only interested in you as a victim, they probably aren’t interested in you at all.
Pretty Pictures and Fluffy Words
Some artists are paid very well for their work because they contain no surprises.
They operate and produce in a confirmation bias prison built around them by their audience.
The work is valued because it is intrinsically valueless.
They gain recognition not because they make the audience think but because they encourage the audience not to think.
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The online mob only has as much power as you choose to give them. Just do and say what you feel to be true and needed. It doesn’t even matter if they come for you as you can rest assured that they have the attention and commitment of a goldfish. They will move onto some new shiny cause or reason to be offended in no time. If you aim for longevity in culture stick to your position, if you don’t take your voice seriously how can you expect anyone else to?
Enjoy Your Silence?
Those who wish to see you fail are relying on your inner saboteur, fear of risk and egotistical desire to be praised to stall your creative and intellectual direction.
They will foster a cultural environment which will ‘encourage’ you to conform to doctrine and cover from conflict and critique.
If you find yourself censoring your opinions and expressions in public to appease the collective, taking a silent neutral position or allowing your silence to be interpreted as public support for ideology and behaviours you are opposed to in private then you are going through life as a backgrounds actor on the cultural stage, you become disposable to the causes of others whom will eagerly trample you down when your silence ceases to be of use to them.
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Weak ideas require a tyrannical cultural environments to propagate. Strong ideas flourish in a diverse and free space by paying attention to the level of restriction someone calls for you can surmise as to the fortitude of their character and point of view.
History Keeps Receipts
Many today choose to be opportunistic instead of creating opportunities. They follow an expedient path constantly shapeshifting to adapt to the moral memes of the moment in order to mask a lack of integrity and admonish any need to take personal responsibility this approach appeals to the caseous amongst us, those whom have severe deficits in talent, and absence of work ethic and an intellect built on a foundation of sand whilst the possible short term gains may sound appealing. This behaviours only serves to build a cultural cul-de-sac around oneself. Time reveals all and those with a creative voice that remains consistant independent and honest stand the strongest over the long term.
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An artist ability and willingness to manifest and express their true authentic voice is the source of their power.
A lot of people around you do not want to see you succeed. Your creative risks and open thoughts are co-often and redefined by their egos as tools to instill uncertainty and fear in you using your voice!
When an individual, ideology, or cultural cycle demands that you mould your expression to fall in line to their criteria, they are attempting to sabotage your career, your freedom, openness and commitment to creativity as light on their lack of those virtue. It is a hard lesson to learn but once accepted it ultimately grants you greater confidence in your voice as it becomes clear many people identify with the struggle from their position any form of ascendence is seen as an affront to the comfort they find in failing to launch.
Currents
For an artist there is a thin line to be tread between coherence and predictability.
Riding one wave of success and mindlessly repeating yourself creates a the shadow of void that waits to swallow you once your surf comes crashing down.
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It is not the responsibility of the world to reward you for merely being creative.
The responsibility to demonstrate why they are of cultural and economic significance!
The default setting of the world towards your creative expressions is complete and utter indifference, often sprinkled with hostility. Especially if you have something to say that challenges the status quo. An artist is an entrepreneur competing for a share in a cultural and economics market that fetishises the new, the deviant, the independent whilst behind closed doors is doing everything with it’s means to keep everything within it’s means to keep everything frozen in place. Bow down to this at your peril.
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If the culture doesn’t support your artistic voice that means there is a huge gap of unexplored territory in the cultural consciousness for you to inhabit!
The reality that we are in a market downturn for a work from emerging and less established artists should be a great source of creative freedom for the non art. Brand names amongst us if there is little interest in your work take that as an opportunity to be creatively free, push yourself our of your confort zone in doing so you will invite others to step out of theirs.
Social media and omnipresent interest is flattening out visual and intellectual culture, it’s also fetching our egos desire to be special for the sake of existing or some useless victim narrative.
When the attention is useless elsewhere that is the perfect time to go full force with what you are capable of to be true to your creative strength, not your weakness liked by all.
You have nothing to lose when no one is paying attention and everything to gain by creation and intellectually expressing your true artistic drives desires and impulses. Culture needs disruptors, not followers.
Words by MICHAEL PYBUS
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