Janis Joplin really did want me to feel good, and not because she was a considerate person but because she was actively being choked to death with her own empathy. Her music is rich because she's struggling, but also because of the kind of struggle she's engaged in.
It hurts to feel other people like that. To give yourself away to every single one of them.
The pain of empathy is not exactly what empathy is for--that suffering artist shit belongs to Janis. But that sense of deep empathy drives much of the art I really remember--that really changes me. I don't really like the sterility of video art as a genre, but watching a Paul Chan is not tedious because Chan consistently brings serious empathy. That amazing Altmejd show that's up right now is a series of monuments to empathy. A good Tara Donovan is not about cubes or cute tricks of material, but about empathy, and when I say empathy I mean a strong, recognizable urge to thrust the artist into the viewer's or art's or material's shoes and not vice-versa.
It hurts to feel other people like that. To give yourself away to every single one of them.
The pain of empathy is not exactly what empathy is for--that suffering artist shit belongs to Janis. But that sense of deep empathy drives much of the art I really remember--that really changes me. I don't really like the sterility of video art as a genre, but watching a Paul Chan is not tedious because Chan consistently brings serious empathy. That amazing Altmejd show that's up right now is a series of monuments to empathy. A good Tara Donovan is not about cubes or cute tricks of material, but about empathy, and when I say empathy I mean a strong, recognizable urge to thrust the artist into the viewer's or art's or material's shoes and not vice-versa.
