Diana Arce
visualosmosis

The Art of the Steal and Work of Art or Why I may possibly reside outside of the US forever

As a part of my long furlough outside of Germany, I have made a point of trying to really educate myself in aspects of American Art and Culture, History, as well as Politics. Mostly, what I have found has not been to my liking and not really sustainable to my lifestyle.

More and more I find the lack of regard for society, culture and space to be very disturbing and sad. The biggest oil spill ever to occur in the world has happened and the irresponsibility of the guilty parties have devastated an already destroyed part of the US. A Republican representative are implying that a move to a more socialist based model of government will lead to unrest as bad as or worse than Greece. Virginia, the state which I refuse to recognize as home, has filed a lawsuit trying to break the Health Care Act. Access to clean water and foods that are not genetically modified or full of hormones will go the way (and have been for a while) of that of Welfare and the economy. And while the whole country is morbidly obese and slowly dying of cancer, the government is feeding this, by pumping people full of the High Fructose Corn Syrup that is definitely killing them. Try to buy some bread or anything for that matter without High fructose corn syrup in it: It is extremely complicated and rather expensive.

And if my animosity could get any worse, Bravo TV has made a show truly commodifying the art-making experience called Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. It truly displays all of the horrible stereotypes of artists and their rich “well educated” appreciators. And in Don Argott’s The Art of the Steal I got to watch the process of stealing a collection of art, that’s legacy was meant to be an educational tool for students and true art appreciators, to a tool for the elite.

Europe is in no way perfect, but when reading and watching about things such as these, I am very happy to call Berlin home.