Concrete Art

Recently I’ve come under the sway of Walter Benjamin's critique of the concepts of aura and ritual in art, and the original, as values which are inherently reactionary. Following this I have come to have some doubts as to where to go with my physical artwork. I have felt this before as well, that there is something.. off there: in investing time and love in these objects for them to, in the end - what? Become commodities? End up in a museum, contained and sanitized? My solution has been to regard their end as religious art, as objects for a holy space. Benjamin's critique strikes at this though, and it is indeed a “catholic” mode of religion - as opposed to a protestant. What I mean is that it would have a tendency to shore up an institution, even if it is an experimental art church, there is still an institutionalizing function, and this I have some problem with.

Isn’t the ideal to form a lifework which is not sanctified in a mausoleum? Whose ashes are spread by the wind, with loose ends open for appropriation and resurrection. An institution necessarily ossifies, and art institutions do little else than restrain the artists of the future - and however necessary of an anstoss they may form, this is not a desirable afterlife. Maybe the way out is to move away from objects of physical permanence? It’s in a way a sad prospect, because it is a form I love. Maybe there is another way. Or I will have to move on. Regardless, this perspective is necessary to keep close.