“Art for the most part, is about concentration, solitude and determination. It’s really not about other people’s needs and assumptions. I’m not interested in the notion that art serves something. Art is useless, not useful.”
I believe art matters most when it changes how we look at the world. Pollock did that with abstract expressionism, Warhol did it with pop art, and Judd did it through minimalism. Each of them helped people see art in a new way — and that kind of influence is what gives their work real meaning and value.
“Art has been valued and given importance through the artist, regarded as the one who creates something wondrous and beautiful. At a certain point, artists within that way of thinking often distance themselves more and more from the community and society. In Thai education, this system of teaching and learning art is still being used.”
“When art is no longer the center of the universe, then artists are not either. This has been a question asked of artists since the time of Walter Benjamin. He spoke about this long ago, and it has been written about for a long time.
“In the modernist view, the artist was seen as something close to a superhuman — exalted as someone with supreme specialness, with an intuition that could not be explained. When the artist was elevated above us, above the university guard or the noodle vendor next door, the artist became like a kind of demi-god, regarded as more special than anyone else.
“In fact, in contemporary thought, the artist is like a motorcycle taxi driver — it’s just another profession. We work within a framework of knowledge that is not some kind of miracle. And art itself depends on other bodies of knowledge.”
Jiradej Meemalai Co-founder of ‘Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts & Culture’
“เมื่อศิลปะไม่เป็นศูนย์กลางจักรวาล ศิลปินก็จะไม่เป็นด้วย ซึ่งศิลปินเคยถูกตั้งคำถามนี้มาตั้งแต่สมัย Benjamin Walter เขาพูดเรื่องนี้มานานแล้ว หนังสือก็เขียนมานานแล้ว
“I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love—and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking—and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle.”
