The Bohemian Bananas
(Pre-exhibition premises) 

A few years ago, a bunch of us sat around talking about doing a group show, as artists do sometimes. We all had different styles and research interests and were discussing how our works might seem cohesive together. 

But did our show really need to be cohesive? 

In this postmodernist anarchical state of the arts*, is cohesion even relevant? We couldn't agree on this. But we were cohesive enough as a group of friends, being people who came together from different walks of life just because our paths crossed arbitrarily. Without arbitrary commonalities we wouldn't have been discussing these. So, fine, we agreed to adopt an arbitrary premise, as exhibitions are conceived sometimes, except that instead of something abstract and obscure and important, we decided on something arbitrary and basic and common and Asian (since we are all based in Singapore), but not exclusively Asian because we are quite international, and somehow the motif of the banana fruit was settled upon. Maybe because it is quirky and maybe because some of us did not like onions. Maybe because bananas were the preferred unit of measurement on 9gag, and  maybe because bananas come in a bunch, and we were a bunch. Whatever. 

So we would each just make whatever works we want from this point of departure.

The idea was to create mainly whatever kinds of art. It is anti-but-pro conceptualism, pro-but-anti-naturalism, collectivist but individualist and vice versa. High and low brow but also neither. Art for arts sake but also whatever. Just be authentic ok?

Of course it was put off, as these things happen too often, but never entirely out of our minds. We grew older by a few years and got involved in other things, like, In(ter)dependent Studies, and C3 Curatorial, and other ventures and projects, and learnt how we can better work with others and how to live our lives. 

So this is another experiment, I guess. And it's about time to get around to it. 

And then the banana duct tape thing happened. You know. Somebody went to duct tape a banana to the wall at an art fair and called it art. And it was expensive and it was bought. So one of us went like, Aiyah see la! And for a moment we thought our 2-year-ago idea was too late? 

But then again, maybe it's just right because it helps that that question was asked, as in if a banana is duct taped on a wall in a fair and put on Internet is high art? It makes it easier to grasp the question we want to pose, being, then why are our drawings or stories of bananas left on the floor not art? Which art do you prefer? Whose preference is more important than your preference?^

Alright so we do it anyway, better late than never. 

You must be wondering,  when will "Covid 19" appear in the brief since it is in every other brief out there. Of course we asked ourselves if we should relate it and how. But instead of abandoning our original premise and going for the viral, we decided that it's actually more important and relevant, to stick close to our original intent and aims, as we ought to, with our actual lives. 

The things we considered are about how to incorporate the physical limitations in a conceptually sensible manner.  And it so happens that a rather obscure on line gallery, which had only shown one prior exhibition with works installed with masking tape (cheaper friend of duct tape), is available to host us. 

*And the other thing that Covid raised is, was art really in a postmodernist anarchical state anyway? If it wasn't apparent before, as in for those who haven't watched Velvet Buzzsaw, seeing how covid is threatening the mega structures of international fairs and exhibitions and institutions, must raise questions on the existing hierarchies centered and surrounded by layers of barriers of entry gatekept by inner circles within circling circles that now cannot meet. 

Then the remnants of the bohemians who have been wandering and creating art regardless of these walls are affected how? Well, many of us have part time jobs and side games, and we now need to adjust if the previous ones had been displaced or affected by covid. But our art? Actually the art is quite the same, as it should be. And except perhaps… as we slowly realise how these changing things might be changed forever, we may wonder what are the new structures to navigate, if there will be any? 

Covid has already changed how things work forever. And it isn't even nearly done yet. 

Art will not die. No matter whatever whoever tries to sensationalise otherwise, art will not die. It was there before exhibitions, before academies and institutions, and even art history. It was there before insiders and outsiders. Just check out the instinctual rush to buy art supplies and join the ranks of us doing art for art's sake… art will survive! Perhaps the question is how? 

What is essential now? They say, it's not the celebrities but the farmers. Not the branded apparels, but the bread and bread-baking skills we have taken for granted and neglected. So, will the role of art be also stripped of all the recent paddings added to its anxieties, since the invention of the photograph and other modern and postmodern insecurities? What will be left? What was its role in the first place?

Thus, the initially arbitrary banana 🍌 might have unwittingly become a metaphor for the above. Not only because we've got to peel the banana (doh), but it's an appropriate enough subject to reflect on what might make one want to dedicate resources to create or own an artwork of a banana, over procuring the real thing which can literally fill one's stomach? The mainstream argument against art that has been going on is how it can't fill the stomach yada yada, but what can art do? What keeps people pursuing art, even during these difficult times?

That said, and perhaps ironically, above all, what I personally most like about the idea is that, in spite of covid, a banana is after all, still more or less, just a banana. It is simple and silly and serious. Like art is to me, personally. So if the situation clears up, maybe we can convene all the artworks for a physical exhibition and party, and if it doesn't, we'll see. Afterall, if we aren't already, it's time to be quite comfortable playing by ear when it comes to these things. 

Wishing all well. 

meekfreak 
11 Apr 2020