#488 Here We Are Now
2 100 € / 24 210 kr

Johan Söderström
Artist · Oslo, Norge
| Size | 84 × 64 × 5 cm |
|---|---|
| Medium |
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| Year | 2023 |
Filler, oak panel
The text on the work is the name of a famous blues by Roy Hawkins and Rick Darnell, immortalised by B.B. King. This work is related to #489 Entertainers, and if one reads the two titles together, they misinterpret a verse in Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Art is similar to infatuation in that it is a state of exception. Infatuation lifts the object of one's desire out of the crowd of the others. The recipient is no longer part of the Other category; we feel a special bond. We sense that it has something of us in it. It's the same with a work of art. It is no longer an object in line with all others; we recognise something in art and find something of ourselves inside it.
But that experience is fleeting because it is, after all, an illusion. A construction in our own minds, with no basis in the object in front of us.