Neurotika -On Strangeness.

I believe that art is an expression of the strangeness of life. In literature, art and music -we express the marvellous nature of existence. It is sometimes said by critics that realism is the ultimate expression of man -that fantasy is at it’s best a distraction -and an escape from the ordinary. But life itself is extra-ordinary and exotic. Art is a way of showing -that every thing in the world is strange and miraculous. Sometimes it is bad or painful -other times it is ecstatic. Either way we confront a cathedral of meaning -a terrible and beautiful thing. The rule of the mundane is a falsity and a lie. We are inundated with ideals of family and country -this is indeed a worship of the commonplace. But there is no commonality -except in the masses. The concept of such things is an illusion -for in truth man is alone in the world -there is no such thing as masses.

I believe that art is either derivative or provocative. In the case of derivative -we have an imitation of reality -a sort regurgitated food -in the movies and the culture. In this way all differences are made the same -a sort of polished sheet-metal surface. In this way -we redo and recreate what is in it’s former essence -a child of the faceless power. Programming and conditioning is enacted in order to teach conventionalities and artifice. These personalities are stereotypical -shallow and unfinished. So in prose and art -it is a thing of a caricature world. In provocative art -there is a threat and a danger. A grotesque truth is intimated -a thing not accepted by those who preach of realism. The provocative is a sort of funnel into an uncertain land -where risk and adventure hold sway. The truth is told that cannot be swallowed whole by the public. Therefore in this way -commerce and art are contrary to each other -and hardly ever mix. The artist is a questioner -who has no answers.
It’s true that fantasy is not an escape. The actor’s purpose is not to put on masks -but to take them off. It is said that Surrealism is an irrational and illogical thing -apart from conscious reality. But I believe that all reality if indeed immeasurable and absurd in nature. The variations of life -are all indeed unique -there is no unity. All these distorted visions are a thing of uncertainty. We are never sure of the ultimate truth -it is an elusive sense -of an obscure dream. I say -make your art -a thing of all you see -in the ways of the eerie -to delineate the weird corners of being. Beyond the illusions of the appearance -behind the face of bright disguise -there is a darkness. Skin is light -and flesh is night. To take water from the well -you must look into its shadowy depths. Fantasy as apposed to realism -is all about the core of madness -a sort of entranced inspiration -where the artist is caught in his demented point of view. He is unaware of the world -and works unhindered by its moralistic concerns.

Now what is the nature of reality? A book is a thing that holds many souls -and we participate in their lives. They are as real as anything in the material world. If these characters would stand up before us -and speak their names -we would know them. ‘The only reality is the soul.’ so the French poet Baudelaire said. In the realm of pure light -all things are made of that light. The created things are just as literally made -as the mountains and the sea. They live in a world of speculation -and as such are fictions -and roles -of tales and stories. We are like them -we also have been reborn in some way. Heroes and villains are both sleeping in the tomb of the book. They come to pass when they are revealed -by the reader. In this way -all the shapes and forms of the artist are no more than an extension of his mind -like someone from the audience walks up onto the stage -we are participants in the art of the creative man. We look around at the actors and the scenery -and we realize their lies are the same as our lies. We are moved from within -rather than from outside. We recognize and are realized by the fantastic – in this way we look to the flower and not the root.