Ask Me a Philosophy Question is written by philosopher Christopher Sunami.
He lives in Columbus with his wife (artist April Sunami), and two children. He is the author of two critically acclaimed books, Hero For Christ and How The Fisherman Tricked the Genie. He is the originator of the Reconstructivist Theory of Art. He is thirty-seven years old, of black (African-American) and Japanese descent. He is a graduate of Columbus Alternative High School, Swarthmore College, and the Ohio State University.
Christopher Sunami is available for book signings and public speaking engagements. Please contact him at chris@chrissunami.com to schedule.
Hopefully I appreciate what is the noble in the noble, as that is what makes one feel good about one’s self and world:
But reading your article of reconstructionism for the same reasons I argued in an open letters with a writer for E-Flux journal that merely changing labels or minor perceptional points does not in essence change matters.
Your points on art, are in a contextual negation of all that came before and lead up to deconstructionism. I too wish to find context for my art work, but the stepping off point as a root cause, is not deconstructionism but Dadaism, which in reaction to the bourgeois status quo in art that culminated in the brutal events of World War I and eventually which lead to World War II with similar consequences; and which continues today as it has since then can not be ignored.
Currently I am in the process of writing a poetry manuscript where I was touching upon what I called “bourgeois art” monetized and marketed conservative and broadly liberal without soul or depth in context, realizing fulling at different times some bourgeois art played keys roles historically (Beethoven, Schiller,) in the ascent of the bourgeois in bourgeois democratic revolutions, which ascended and all but stopped in ascent as it acheives an apex.
Today bourgeois society is in decline morals ethics law business as it becomes a heavy burdensome weight of opposing factions much like the end of the Roman republic.
So what replaces it?
Your reconstructionist art falls short for it presupposes the solutions to society’s grand problems, perhaps as a world view it is fine but on an international universal scale it is insufficient to address indigenous tribal art at the same time large scale corporate art on equal footings, for the art was not made in a vacuum.
I will post this on my blog site also in the category Blog Waste. And make references but I find no reason to agree as you approach art merely as the deconstructionists have from what I describe as a tactical or utilitarian value of how to execute art; and how to rationalize art, which is not at issue as that is easy by merely making art. Art theory is for the bourgeois, artists make art, they learn theory and forget it, then struggle to produce it.
As a foot note I have come to learn of Nelson Rockefeller the CIA and US government in the development of Abstract Expressionism (1950-1960s) as to oppose Soviet Realism. You should find that interesting to study since it exposes the shame and fraud of the art market, art academics and artists for the last 60 years to see how all these views were corrupt, how the Paris Review, Hudson Review, Encounters, and Congress for Cultural Freedom were used as CIA fronts.
I read a post that you were looking for an illustrator for an upcoming book of yours. Have you found anyone yet? I’m looking to do some type of animation project.