Negation of the negation
Aug. 19th, 2009 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusOn Sunday I was cycling up Ohlauerstrasse -- the part of Kreuzberg that begins just over the canal from our part of Neukolln -- when I spotted a rather witty poster. "I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED A BLANK WALL RATHER THAN THIS GREAT PIECE OF SHIT," it said, in crossed-out Verdana letters.
What I liked about this poster at first was the thought that it was complaining about -- and therefore effacing -- itself. It was a paradox, a speech act that condemns speech acts. There's an infinite regress built into this (and emphasised by the crossing-out): the condemnation is also condemned, the effacement effaced, and so on. Later, it occurred to me that the poster was a good example of what Pat Kane, citing the Italian thinker Paolo Virno in his review of my books the other day, called "the negation of the negation".
I put the image up on my Flickr page last night and within hours two people had linked to similar posters they'd seen in Paris and London. Someone called acb (oh, it's Andrew Bulhak!) had seen these two posters on a mural on Chance Street in Shoreditch, London:
IN AN IMAGES SOCIETY, PRODUCE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN POSSESS, says one (crossed out), and SORRY ABOUT IT, BUT IT'S NOT AN ACCIDENT, says the other. Meanwhile, Flickr user Fufurasu (oh, it's my Greek friend Orestes!) showed a poster in Paris:
JE N'AIME PAS BEAUCOUP LES GENS QUI POURISSENT NOS MURS AVEC DES AFFICHES, it says; "I don't much like people who foul up our walls with posters". Misreading the small print at the bottom of the poster, Fufurasu links to a clip-art site called Retroart.com. In fact, the posters are signed Reroart.com.
Réro, we learn from the site, is based in Paris (which explains the slightly tilted English) and makes graphic design and street art. He (assuming it's a he) has a show coming up in September at Antje Oklesund's "audiovisual laboratory" on Rigaerstrasse, Berlin. There's a big page of photos of the posters in Réro's Next Customer (le client suivant) series on his website, with an artist's statement about his intentions.
After looking at the images on this page we can add a few new "negation of the negation" slogans to our collection:
ART IS GREAT TO WASTE TIME BEFORE DYING
THIS IMAGE IS FREE COPYRIGHT
I'VE JUST WON AT THE LOTTERY AND YOU CAN FUCK OFF
RESERVATION FOR TWO PEOPLE
THIS POSTER IS INDIRECTLY SUBSIDISED BY THE TAXPAYER WHO FINANCES ITS CLEANING AND THEREFORE PERMITS IT TO DISAPPEAR
Réro also explains the "next customer" idea (I've translated from the original French) in a text:
"On the theme of the image illustrated by a text, "I am the next customer" is the person who, even before having paid for his goods, is proud to mark the limits of his property at the supermarket check-out, even before the products actually belong to him. This little psychological barrier might seem harmless, but it's also a very good index of our time.
"With irony, these posters -- which represent exactly the opposite of what they seem to be saying -- raise a smile. Then, the fact that the text is crossed out leads to a new reflection on whether it's a simple mistake the artist thought it best to preserve, or another negation by image... This project has, as its objective, to make the passerby think about the notion of the physical and intellectual ownership of a work."
After reading Réro's artist statement, I almost feel I know too much about his intentions and ideas.PERHAPS HE SHOULD HAVE CROSSED THESE TEXTS OUT TOO.
What I liked about this poster at first was the thought that it was complaining about -- and therefore effacing -- itself. It was a paradox, a speech act that condemns speech acts. There's an infinite regress built into this (and emphasised by the crossing-out): the condemnation is also condemned, the effacement effaced, and so on. Later, it occurred to me that the poster was a good example of what Pat Kane, citing the Italian thinker Paolo Virno in his review of my books the other day, called "the negation of the negation".
I put the image up on my Flickr page last night and within hours two people had linked to similar posters they'd seen in Paris and London. Someone called acb (oh, it's Andrew Bulhak!) had seen these two posters on a mural on Chance Street in Shoreditch, London:
Réro, we learn from the site, is based in Paris (which explains the slightly tilted English) and makes graphic design and street art. He (assuming it's a he) has a show coming up in September at Antje Oklesund's "audiovisual laboratory" on Rigaerstrasse, Berlin. There's a big page of photos of the posters in Réro's Next Customer (le client suivant) series on his website, with an artist's statement about his intentions.
After looking at the images on this page we can add a few new "negation of the negation" slogans to our collection:
THIS IMAGE IS FREE COPYRIGHT
I'VE JUST WON AT THE LOTTERY AND YOU CAN FUCK OFF
RESERVATION FOR TWO PEOPLE
THIS POSTER IS INDIRECTLY SUBSIDISED BY THE TAXPAYER WHO FINANCES ITS CLEANING AND THEREFORE PERMITS IT TO DISAPPEAR
Réro also explains the "next customer" idea (I've translated from the original French) in a text:
"On the theme of the image illustrated by a text, "I am the next customer" is the person who, even before having paid for his goods, is proud to mark the limits of his property at the supermarket check-out, even before the products actually belong to him. This little psychological barrier might seem harmless, but it's also a very good index of our time.
"With irony, these posters -- which represent exactly the opposite of what they seem to be saying -- raise a smile. Then, the fact that the text is crossed out leads to a new reflection on whether it's a simple mistake the artist thought it best to preserve, or another negation by image... This project has, as its objective, to make the passerby think about the notion of the physical and intellectual ownership of a work."
After reading Réro's artist statement, I almost feel I know too much about his intentions and ideas.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 01:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 01:51 pm (UTC)To say, however, that my new book is THE MAIN POINT of posts about Bobby Gillespie or Réro is simply wrong.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 01:59 pm (UTC)MOMUS HAS A NEW BOOK OUT AND HE'S GOING TO MENTION IT IN ALMOST EVERY SINGLE POST HE MAKES BUT THAT IS NOT AT ALL THE POINT OF THE POSTS, NO SIRREE.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 02:01 pm (UTC)It also comes out of a mindset that says "Ya, ya, ya, everybody has something to sell and a vested mindset related to the bottom line", which is a really tedious reductive cynicism -- a mindset that Adam Curtis skewers very valuably in his documentaries. That cynicism is not in any way liberating. All it does is erode the possibilities of any belief in public service, altruism and sharing. It leads to the libertarian-paranoiac politics of "trust no-one, hole up in the desert in a compound, they'll all screw you in the end".
(And this thread is getting holed up on the right, too.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 02:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 02:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 02:29 pm (UTC)Why do you waste your energy getting into these pointless back-and-forths, Momus?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 02:40 pm (UTC)Because I have a guilty Judeo-Protestant mindset. Kafka said: "Only our concept of time makes it possible for us to speak of the Day of Judgment by that name; in reality it is a summary court in perpetual session."
really?
Date: 2009-08-20 03:30 am (UTC)anyways.... hows the book coming along? I heard somewhere that is was, at least sell well....
Beware
Date: 2009-08-20 04:40 am (UTC)tom k
---
http://www.transatlantis.net
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 02:28 pm (UTC)For crying out loud, he's got the right. It's his blog. I ask again (and again, and again) -- why do you read this blog if you don't like it?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 03:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 05:41 pm (UTC)Tuesday: Outrage over Taliban attempts to disrupt the due process of democracy in Afghanistan (no mention of Momus' books here either).
Wednesday: Giving thanks for the mainstream contributions of more successful artists I have shared labels with over the years. No book plugs.
Thursday: Wholesale, widescale condemnation of flimsy modern conceptual art, "high art lite". No book refs.
Friday: Detailed descriptions of meals eaten this week, with recipes and illustrations.
Saturday: Softcore porn spread of Momus's non-Japanese girlfriend.
Sunday: Resolving Contradictions Day; a day in which we look at discrepancies between theoretical positions outlined in Click Opera and the actual behaviour of the person Nick Currie, and make sincere, robust efforts to harmonise the two.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-19 10:40 pm (UTC)Bizarromomus (eyepatch worn over his left eye) is born, the bastard hatechild of an anon and Momus' morbid self-awareness.
Long live bizarromomus, that abortion of a man!