Beauty rests only in the UNKNOWN. It never comes from the process of thinking. With that one may be fully assured that the term “conceptual art” is simply a worthless speculation about beauty. Ideation about the thing is not the thing itself! “I seek the knowledge of love but I have never been in love!” “What stupidity! Throw the bum out!” Thundered the Alpha Seer. By now it should be clear to all that thinking is from memory, and memory is dead. “There is nothing new under the sun!” declared Nietzsche. And amazingly he was right for once with art ! If a work has failed to transport your spirit to the beyond, or the absolute,–that profound realm of the mysterious, one might as well dismiss it altogether. It has no more significance in that room than any other object found therein! Never mind what the academics or art critics tell you! The most tragic thing in these modern eras of ours is not the fact that those “experts” cannot tell art apart from non-art,–the deep tragedy lies instead in modern man’s total reliance on those “experts” or “specialists!” I call it Humanity’s most unforgivable surrender to evil since the Holocaust, when apathy coupling with a herd’s instinct for self- preservation had vastly enabled Adolf Hitler’s twisted conceptualizations. Be fooled NOT by your own ego! NEVER trust your herd instincts or the so-called conventional wisdom! ( e.g. Oh, yeah, I think Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, Turner, or Rauschenberg is great because important people say so, VIPs like Arthur Danto or Alberto Bingo said so!– even though I didn’t have the foggiest clue as to what they really wanted to say!–I ‘d better agree with them,–who am I to disagree with experts anyway? Yeah, it’s safer to do so or else I would become the laughing stock in my circle of friends!) A work of art, folks, is REALLY something else! Listen to the best of Mozart/ Bach/Beethoven, then suddenly blare out the Beatles, the Blues, the Jazz or whatever tunes that has found a path via the market to the public’s ears in the last 250 years. Make earnest comparisons and feel the difference. Anyone can do it! The difference is not such a deep thing to be yielded up. As long as you have patience,–you can be better than any “expert” on earth! Patience is itself from that inner beauty found within you. It is the only luxury you may enjoy when all else have failed you. The “experts/professors” may have known all the jargons, the technicalities, all the anecdotes, the names or events. But they are stupid! You only have to know one thing: the DIFFERENCE! That silence in the DIFFERENCE should trump all their petty knowledge! It is on the circumference of music that they have built their knowledge and livelihood, but your knowledge of DIFFERENCE is the most powerful of all,–since you have gone into the heart of an art and you have studied its very soul! An academic’s dictation, therefore, should no longer have any place in deciding which music provides the best benefit to anyone of us from now on. When an individual is thus rebellious, then there is still hope in the world! The art critics will cease to find a place in your heart, as in truth neither would you offer sanctuary to ANY of their conditioning within that deep hall of your soul! By the same token, set up a Titian, a Velazquez, a Frans Hals, a Rubens, or a Cezanne by your tea room, look intently at them for some time; making sure that you are fully taken in by their sublime forms; then place some of what the academia have the audacity to call “art” next to any one of them. It is then one may realize that, in all true art there is found the very magic to engage your soul! That is the very magic of beauty, from which the universe invokes a blueprint for wondrous relationships! Albert Einstein once exclaimed, ” Nothing in the universe can be more beautiful than the mysterious!” Beautiful is the mystery that resides in those sublime forms! All you ever need in determining what is beautiful is through the simple act of COMPARISON, since the very mystery that Einstein alludes to abides in the forms. Look deeply, making serious notes of their formal beauty. If you are aware enough, you can actually hear falseness drop away with an alarming throb. The work of impostors can never quite stand up to earnest scrutiny! Don’t let your own Ego fool you, though! Eager to achieve, the Ego is perpetually saying: “Okay, I’ve got it,”– while in truth, one remains in stupidity and ignorance!–go back to Square One!!! So watch your Ego! If you are not sure, be very honest with yourself since this is a great moment of reckoning! You must look at yourself in the mirror every day. Can one actually afford to be such a fraud,– day in and day out,– and with so much self-delusion? In the event that no difference can be yielded even after a long and painful scrutiny, as it may happen with a good percentage of humanity, ( please don’t feel sad: most are born blind to beauty anyway!) then art is probably not something for you! Look instead at the flowers,– or at a glorious sunset,–allow the happy sights of the mountains, trees or rivers to dissolve in it, never to wake up from that hilarious spell again! Beauty found in nature may prove more suited to your temperaments! Or you may try to find beauty in songs or in poetry. Existence can be so blissful,–and with beauty, so much more powerful. THE ALPHA SEER **** The seers are the Awakened Ones. The Alpha Seer is a seer who is awakened to Beauty.
From: Ben Lau Date: Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 10:59 AM Subject: Current state of affair with art: WALLOWED IN CAMEL MUD! To: Ben Lau Speaking of MCAD, this story was suddenly recalled: The French Foreign Legion in Algeria had a new general. As it turns out, most of their generals were French nationals, and pretty young were they. Older folks simply could not withstand the great hardship that came with desert campaigns. To get acquainted with his new base the general was shown around the barracks by a captain. It was a sweaty affair since Algeria is an extremely hot country. At the end of the tour, the general asked the captain,” What about the house at the far south west corner, the one with a green door? You never said anything about it.” Amazed to be caught at this negligence, the captain stammered, “Oh that,–that’s just an empty space, sir. When the men feel the urge to relieve themselves, there is a camel inside, . . .” “Now that is very disgusting! That’s enough, you may go now!” said the general to the captain. Being stationed in a desolate desert far away from France could amass in a young general a good deal of unused energy and that took its toll on him. He felt a strong urge to get rid of it. So he went to the captain and asked for the keys to the barracks at the south west corner of the base. Behind the green door he found the cutest camel that Algeria could offer, . . . ******************************************************************** Meanwhile the captain became worried because it was quite some time since the general had disappeared.The general had earlier asked him for the keys to the south west barracks so he knew where to find him. The captain looked inside every single house in that direction, but– nothing! Finally he came to the house with the green door. As he looked inside he saw a man totally naked, his body swiveling excitedly but totally smeared with camel shit and urine. The captain asked the general, “What are you doing here, sir?” Hardly expecting this intrusion,least of all such a stupid question, the general was embarrassed and not at all humored. And he replied in a bashful but harsh tone,” Didn’t you say that when the men feel the urge to relieve themselves they would come over here?” ” I did, sir! But just as I wanted to say something more, you stopped me! I was really saying, when the men feel the urge to relieve themselves they would come here,– find a camel to ride into town,then find a woman there,. . . — but you stopped me before I could finished!” ******************************************************************** That is the current state of affair with art of our time,–not just inside a local art school, but the world over! Indeed, not unlike the general in the story, our so-called “artists” are wallowing in shit and urine! Don’t want to believe me?check it out yourself: check out all the art magazines, or any mass media on arts, the “avant garde” museums and galleries, . . . just find out for yourself! The misunderstanding of art has become such wallowing in camel mud! Folks’ egos have long stopped listening! So whenever they feel an urge to relieve themselves, anything go! — Ben Lau, a.k.a.the Alpha Seer* * The Alpha Seer is one who is awakened to Beauty.