Kings and philosophers shit — and so do ladies.

‘Kings and philosophers shit — and so do ladies.’

-Michel de Montaigne.

I should like to use this opportunity to present an issue that perhaps does not surface enough in current artistic and academic discourse in the broader context in which I should wish to present it; and I will therefore mostly revert to the words of various philosophers, poets, and intellectuals in order to bring context and rationale to my proposal.

The above quote extracted from the ‘Essays’ of French philosopher Montaigne sum up most humorously the satirical subject matter I have in mind. Namely, I wish to speak; through a combination of photographs and quotations of various thinkers of the past and present, of the ideals of successful lifestyle and external achievement that tend to bind the general public, (more strongly perhaps in a large capital such as London than anywhere else), to a perpetual and most emphatically absurd cycle of seeking validation and a sense of self worth through comparison to others in realms of economic wealth, facades of social status, and other such metrics for the feelings validity and value that are always desired but transient, illusive, and never quite obtained.

One might how the above quotation is at all relevant to the communication of the absurdity of this social predicament; which leads me naturally in the discussion of the visual subject matter, and how exactly it may lead those who experience the exhibition to question the ideals as commonly perceived.

‘On the highest throne in the world, we are seated, still, upon our arses.’ — Montaigne.

The photographs will aim to represent the shadow side of the ideals that are most perversely omitted in the mainstream media, lifestyle and fashion culture; et cetera.

To more exact, the viewers will come upon photographers of young tall men in clean tailored suits tripping on the pavement; pretty women with expensive handbags wiping ketchup stains from their sleeves; politicians looking confused, bewildered, childlike; the most fashionable, trendy youth in their moments of insecurity — beyond the facades held up and perpetuated by those who have some claim to the relative ideals of status; a more faithful depiction of those of whom the majority look up towards, to show that ultimately — human beings are of-course all quite clumsy, insecure, and confused.

The exhibition would aim to depict the ‘shit’ and the ‘arses’ of the ladies and kings of whom we are conditioned to conceptualise as role models that exhibit, in abundance, the metrics of validation that bind us in internal and external conflict; unattainable ideals that perpetuate the general publics insecurity, ultimately, a feeling that one must achieve an unrealistic perfection in all aspects of lifestyle and status before one can approve of oneself as loveable; through the lens of these absurd societal values.

The doorway to a more faithful and healthy conception of a successful life, then, opens up; but first, the unrealistic ideals must be shattered — hence the rationale for this work.

Bukowski — ‘We’re all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities.’

The photographs will attempt to represent the absurd trivialities that make up the media-endorsed cultural ideals; in technical terms, the photographs will aim to dethrone the glorification of wealth by showing the reality of the wealthy classes in all their unimaginable anguish and insecurity that is rarely depicted faithfully in popular media. The photographs will challenge the deification of exaggerated and manufactured physical beauty through images that exemplify the absurdity of the make-up industry’s common agenda to weave the assumption that natural beauty is inferior to an artificially manufactured aesthetic into the mentality of young women — and men.

It may therefore depict beauty in less commonly appreciate human forms, for example, the beauty of an old mans crooked nose; as is a growing movement in todays photographic trends: however, this work takes a broader, deeper, more conceptual approach to an deeper underlying issue — thereby requiring a greater diversity of subject matter.

So, therefore, the project takes on a dualism of satiricism of the absurd cultural ideals, and a gentle compassion towards those aspects of humanity that we often repress in seeking to present ourselves in congruency with this unrealistic ideals. It is, therefore, a two pronged approach to highlighting both the absurdity of the cultural conceptions of worth; and the absurdity of shame towards the wholeness of our beings.

One might conclude then that the exhibition may well be separated into two parts; a castration of the current trivial conceptions — and a reframing of the human ideal towards a more realistic perception of what constitutes a worthy human being. Equally, the latter part may well serve as its own standalone project; and I will thereby, for now, leave it on the wayside in this proposal and move back to the purpose of the satirical work.

‘People don’t have ideas, ideas have people.’ — Carl Jung.

The insight that this short phrase entails relates to my previous discussion of the culturally manufactured ideals that might be said even to literally possess the common populace.

The work then, from this perspective, can be seen as an attempt to spark the process of liberation from these ideals by visually representing their irrationality.

One of my favourite novelists, Herman Hesse, wrote in his book Steppenwolf: ‘The man of power is ruined by power, the man of money by money, the submissive man by subservience, the pleasure seeker by pleasure.’ Here Hesse comments in a similar vein to the Jung’s idea inserted above, and is a perfect description of the method of conceptual anarchy in which this project endeavours to elucidate.

Through photographs that exhibit the ‘successful ones’ in all the ugliness and humanity that we come to associate only ourselves with; the ugliness that is repressed and hidden from the public eye: the frail anxiety given away in the posture of a rich businessman beyond office shutters, the nervous glance of a fashion model on stage — the exhibition aims to shed light on the illusion that another human being can possibly be more worthy of humanity by means of any kind of external ideal: be it economic, social, physical, or hereditary; and moreover, that the relentless pursuit of a sense of worth through these external ‘achievements’ is perhaps not as wise, or fruitful; as one is conditioned to assume.

‘When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.’ Lao Tzu.

And, obviously, the wall will be plastered with relevant quotations and ideas; else I think, without the context of language, the visual symbolism is all but lost; obscured, veiled in mere pretention.

Axle.