Greenaway may alienate 99% of his audience, but that's the AUDIENCE'S fault, not his.
He makes his art. He has said "think of what a work of art demands of it's audience". If I could hand that phrase out on a slip of paper to everyone entering multiplexes THAT might affect social change. They might drop their bag of popcorn and say "That dude is right: fuck Torque".
I just saw a documentary at the Alberta College of Art called Stupidity. It outlines the major movie studios, government & corporations that have a deathly fear of alienating the masses.
They have to hold the attention of a society whose actual attention span is 3 seconds.
If you're not titillated, shocked or bizarrely interested in the program, you'll change the channel. The doc clearly pointed out that being intelligent is not cool. Nobody encourages anybody to become smarter, read Balzac, watch FUCKING GREENAWAY or concentrate on writing a poem. We've been dumbed down. We
have access to more information and art and have the freedom to do almost anything we want, yet we choose stupidity.
I say "we" because I'm dumb too- I watch the Anna Nicole Smith Show. We choose Jerry Springer and Maury Povich and Britney.
We are a society of idiots. Plain and simple. We know war is stupid. We know driving drunk is stupid. We still do it.
Einstein said: "The universe and stupidity are infinite. But I'm not certain about the former".
"Art and Audience" is at best wishful thinking.
Greenaway belongs in the pantheon. Put that on my grave.
"Set the controls for the heart of the Sun" - Pink Floyd
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