In a 1993 essay on the relation between television and contemporary fiction*, David Foster Wallace mentions the recent "
wider shift in U.S. perceptions of how art was supposed to work, a transition from art's being a creative instantiation of real values to art's being a creative rejection of bogus values."
Wallace goes on to describe how ideas such as "sincerity" and "passion" have been undercut by a new hip and disaffected sensibility.
Which brings me to my question. We've been talking a lot about bonsai as art, lately. When I think of bonsai art, I think of "creative instatiation of real values", of "sincerity", and of "passion." I don't think of hip cyncism or cutting irony.
So am I missing something? Are bonsai artists creating the sorts of artistic works that speak to these latter ideas? And if not, is that to the advantage of bonsai as an artform (in that it avoids false idols of contempory pseudoartistic fashion) or to its disadvantage (in that it is unable to move beyond an outdated sentimentalism based on positive affirmation of supposedly real values)?
I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts. And as often is the case, a picture would be worth a truckload of words. Any pictures of ironic bonsai, successful or otherwise?
Best regards,
Carl
Edit: Before someone else mentions it, one could claim that crash bonsai is an effort at irony. Though if irony is the aim here, I fear that is carried out with all the subtlety of a Mountain Dew commercial.
For its part, Lisa Tajima's pop bonsai is much better executed and indeed reflects a hip irreverence. But I think Lisa's work is too playful and much too kind-spirited to qualify as the expression of the sort of cynical disaffected irony that dominates contemporary artistic film and fiction.
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"E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction," reprinted in Wallace (1997)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.