{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://hypersubject.net/entries/2026/05/oblique-art",
  "path": "/entries/2026/05/oblique-art",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-03T18:21:17.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:32534e3a5wza2m3omyuflhm3/site.standard.publication/3mnmnwcnftk2i",
  "tags": [
    "weekly-update",
    "art"
  ],
  "textContent": "Contemporary art is often criticized for being extravagant, farfetched or\nnonsensical. You might think of the paintings and movies of David Lynch,\nsculptures of Miquel Barceló or even the banana (Comedian) of Maurizio Cattelan.\nThey are definitely strange and hard to interpret, and in Cattelan's case, give\nthe finger to Art as an institutional practice. I have no problems with this\nkind of art. I don't think the artist owes me any meaning. Even if the artwork\nseems straightforward, it is still too easy to misinterpret. My sculpting tutor\nmade a sculpture of an anorexic girl with a VERY visible vagina and still,\npeople keep thinking it's a male...\n\nHowever, I do have a problem with contemporary artists' lack of courage. I\nkeep seeing (and hearing!) a lot of artworks that are not too abstract but too\nvague. As if the artists struggled to accumulate the necessary conviction to\nbreathe something of themselves into the work. This obliqueness of art makes\nme so frustrated. It feels like the artist hides behind the foggy landscape of\nthe present where meaning is either too atomic to be interpreted by anyone but\nthe artist or too high-level for anyone to hold all its significance at once.\nIt seems to me that oblique art is neither, but an epitaph of the artist's\ncowardice.\n\nLast week I went to a concert to listen to a violin concerto composed by a\nfriend of mine. I've never had the chance to listen to any of his works. I had\nhigh expectations because of the praise I had heard about him and the overall\naura of his very likable presence.\n\n(He is not aware of this blog and I don't think he'll ever read this. E, if you\nare, I'm sorry.)\n\nThen I heard the same obliqueness in his concerto.\n\nBefore the concert there was a pamphlet with a long exposition about the\ncomposition. I found it very odd because, of all art forms, music is the one\nthat requires the least amount of exposition. Of course it's not that easy to\ntell a story just with music, but it opens such a direct channel with the\nlistener that the story does not need to be told for music to bloom into\nemotions.\n\nThen it started. For a minute or two, the violin didn't even make any sound. We\nwaited awkwardly, watching the violinist sway and tremble while the contrabasses\nin the orchestra smirked at each other. After a time that felt like an eternity,\nwe heard a few notes from the violin. It was a good melody! Alas, it didn't\nlast long. Then the orchestra started to hum a very ambient sound. Everything\nsounded like the white noise tracks I listen to while I read. This all lasted\nfor almost 45 minutes; here and there, the orchestra abruptly made sharp noises\nwhich felt like jumpscares. At one moment, I opened my notes app and wrote \"are\nwe in a David Lynch movie?\" to show my wife. The out-of-placeness of everything\ndefinitely felt like a David Lynch movie, but unfortunately not like watching\none, but being trapped in one.",
  "title": "Oblique Art"
}