

Speculative Archaeology - benbreen
https://placesjournal.org/article/speculative-archaeology/

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RobertKerans
I think the art described in this piece is quite interesting, and the Hal
Foster essay was a good read, but " _x_ is like _y_ ON ACID" is like a huge
flashing neon sign stating 'this is a lazy piece of writing'

~~~
shannonmattern
A lazy piece of writing. Ouch. Sorry you feel that way. Actually, it took
quite a bit of work to not only notice the trend over the course of several
years, but also to pull together myriad examples from multiple fields, and to
provide a theoretical context. And if you'd seen the Freeman + Lowe show you'd
know that there _is_ a pronounced psychedelic aura to their work -- hence the
acid reference. It's not simply a lazy metaphor.

~~~
RobertKerans
Heh, sorry for the hyperbole. It did really annoy me though, I was enjoying
the piece and that interrupted my enjoyment.

<rant>I could get on board with, say, likening the experience of _Bindu
Shards_ to being on acid. But if this has a psychedelic quality, describe it
as such. Or better yet, actually describe it. ‘..on acid’ is a bad cliché[1],
it doesn’t really mean anything, and it’s so overused, and so blaring, that it
doesn’t [for me, anyway] fade away into the background.

[1] this springs to mind:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2fN4MmMAY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2fN4MmMAY)
</rant>

Aaaanyway, the two exhibitions you focussed on look great, I like very much
obsessive, meticulously crafted assemblage (e.g. Kienholtz, Cornell,
Heartfield). I worry a that I’d be a little underwhelmed by the Freeman & Lowe
show. I think any artist attempting what they are has a key [probably
insurmountable] problem: when mapping an expansive vision onto the world at
1:1 scale, practical considerations preclude simply expanding that outwards to
any kind of size. Wexler works at a different scale, and his seems a more
controlled approach to what is a similar problem. Both look fantastic though,
and I love the effort that’s gone into the ethnographic side of the art.
[apologies for the somewhat dickish comment]

