| Art and his suitors |
 |
With all its beauty, glamour, power and money, art attracts one to become a part of it. So, you begin your first work of art, and it feels good! One thing leads to the other, the work flows, and the ideas rush down like a waterfall! You are enthusiastic and believe that you are part of something bigger.
After finishing your work of art you lean back and think to yourself: ”Well done!” After enjoying this overwhelming feeling, you look up and have the realization, that art, itself, has stolen your work claiming it as its own. It does not belong to you anymore. Instead of being thankful for your gift, art pulls at you and says, “That’s it? No way, I want more!” So you start your next piece and this time it is not so easy. Having lost your innocence, creating turns into hard work. But still, you do your job and create your next work of art, and the next one and the next one. Your life as an artist goes on. You can barely live from it and realize that you have turned into a slave. Art has become the master of your life. But it is ok, because you feel your work (at least sometimes) deals with the fundamental questions of life and the universe.
You get older, while the cost of living continually increases, your responsibilities also increase. You might even have a partner and a child! Your needs have become urgent, yet, the big breakthrough has not come. Daily life is more and more difficult, and more often than naught, you are sick of exhausting yourself for art’s sake. That’s the moment when „compromise“ appears on your stage and whispers in your ear, “My dear, you doing such great work and still you get nothing in return. Take me!, and I promise, you will make a living. You might even become famous and rich .” You think of all your unpaid bills and decide, – thinking, “This will just be a small compromise, it will do no harm to me and my work.” The galleries start to exhibit and sell your works of art. You get invited to festivals and are on TV , – the “Like It” clicks are increasing like never before. Everything seems to be fine. You can pay your bills and are able to move into a bigger flat.
But „compromise“ is the natural enemy of art, and art is a jealous god who will never accept compromise at his side! Therefore, art will send you, if you are lucky, a child, (like in the story of „The Emperor“s New Clothes“), to point out your weaknesses. And, if you are unlucky, art will come to you in a nightmare and tell you, “You did me wrong, you did me wrong, you did me wrong …” until you wake up sweating and ask art for forgiveness.
Art might be generous, but it wants something in return. It wants your heart, your mind and even your soul. You will sacrifice everything on the altar of art, because you are addicted to art, to being a slave of the creative process art has bestowed on you and enslaved you with! You can no longer live your life without art. You are like an old junkie who needs his daily dose, not to „get high“, but to function normally. From now on you work harder than ever before. You work your fingers to the bone no longer caring about fame or wealth. Art squeezes you like a lemon – (that was the deal !), until the last drop of your flow of creativity has finally been sucked out of you . Then when you have nothing left to say, art spits you out like tasteless rind and turns with all its beauty and power to the next suitor and the game begins again.
And you? – Go cold turkey to kick your addiction and find a regular job (maybe advertising)? If you can’t, then you might settle at the boundaries of art as an art teacher or even worse as a copyist of your own work.
Christopher Temt 2013
Eugen Kment
Eugen Kment worked as a comics artist in Munich between 1978 and 1983. He was as an art director at Comicon, next to Fred Kipka and Peter Wiechmann, where he directed stories for „Fix und Foxi„.
Beside creating the character „Plitsch und Platsch„, he also published the album „Das Kleine Grüne Krokodil und seine Freunde“ at FMZ Verlag in 1988.
For many years, he has illustrated the title comic of Sparefroh, an educational magazine that was distributed freely in banks and schools in Austria.
Since then he worked as freelance Cartoon Artist for McDonald, ATTAC, Benko, Biene Sumsi and many others.
Christopher Temt
1984: Master Degree in Business Administration -University of Economics
Vienna, Austria
Since 01.01.1993 I have been sustainable working on the development of my money and time art
„Business is none of Art´s business, except Art is using the elements and laws, rules of the market as part of its artistic creation process.“ This definition of #MoneyArt is our core business. Our art work abdicates itself from the traditional laws of the art market, calls them into question, and ultimately uses (appropriates) the elements, laws and rules of the market as part of its artistic creation process.
==> Money Art becomes a liberating response to the market’s attempt to appropriate art. <==
- Our approach is friendly subversive
- Our artistic focus is on Money, Price and Time, Date..
- Our artistic solution is about a paradigm shift from the price and the date as elements outside to something inherent, as a part of the artwork.
- Our artistic concept is based on Artifices (Kunstgriffe): Sustainable Edition and an artistic Rule
- The artistic consequence is:
… that the art work itself determines the financial value on the primary market,
… that time (days, weeks, months and even one year) becomes an artistic design element – especially with our sculptures