Champagne.

ArtSeasons gallery, January 2003.

 

 

Franz prefers to not see his name mentioned outside the gallery. He is dealing diamonds, big business. His clients are not really the arty type. They might not appreciate his gallery business. Artists and the ones around them are not serious people, they should not be trusted for business. They are not serious people.

I am sharing the space with Chinese painter Gao Hui Jun. His paintings feature streets of Beijing submerged by a deep sea. In his new series, he painted traditional Chinese vases that are also immerged under the sea, and explode under the pressure.

Lucky my artwork did not explode in the middle of the exhibition.

A gigantic champagne flute, filled with water, but not a drop of goodness.

It is half filled. Or half empty. It is all a question of perception. Or is it a shot-glass, either very full or very empty?

The visual effect goes beyond my expectations, the cylinder really looks broken.

French philosopher Rousseau wrote that a stick half immerged in a lake would look broken, an optical illusion. A young boy would tell that it is actually broken, just because it looks broken. Naive realism.
The boy has full faith in his senses, and they fool him.

You should not trust your senses. They are not to be trusted. Like artists.