I like it technically. However, content-wise, I think it's a lot of beautiful images that are based on a lot of exoticising crap. In the world of Ashes and Snow, Asian people are wiser, more peaceful, and more in harmony with our Four Legged Brothers, and their images— especially those of partially nude "exotic" children— exist to be exploited by Rolex for the sake of what is essentially really gorgeous high-end advertising. I don't like the idea that the art of the future is corporate-sponsored and will therefore have to restrict its meaning to whatever fits with the corporation's vision statement. However, this is a condition that, professionally speaking, I may just have to learn to live with. I would think we could at least point out the exoticisation and exploitation where it's at, though. These are colonialist images with a colonialist message. They are beautiful, but I have faith in humanity that at this point in time we can move toward beauty which is not founded on objectification of an exotic other— a revolutionary concept of beauty which takes all people as familiar and human and their beauty as springing out of that familiarity.
I mean, the Asian kid with wings... Celestial enough for you?
(feel free to tell me I'm just being grouchy.) |
