Subrealist Manifesto
From
a park bench point of view
this architecture
is really sad
even the art
gallery looks more like a mausoleum
It's nothing
but a cube of concrete slabs
The only
art you can see from the outside is the facade
of an overwrought
iron excuse for a sculpture
oblique
trapezoids painted with lurid orange latex
It's
like a cheap sci-fi movie prop disguised as high culture
And
the cubism of these monstrous offices
these
huge superstructures of glass and steel
this labyrinth
of malls
with walls made of mirrors
these concrete
abstractions seem so far from real
It's
all so severely rectangular
so
hopelessly linear and square
There's something sinister about this geometry
It all seems so unimaginative and bare
What
have they done with the architectonics?
Who
stole the gargoyles from the bell tower clocks?
and why aren't
there any colossal statues in the parks?
What happened to all the public Art?
Damn it!
where
are the ornamentalists when you need them?
I suppose
they're still paneling rumpus rooms
Come
on out of hiding you subrealist fugitives
Rise
up from the Underground!
Let's see some more Iconography
before it's all institutionalized
Let's give the patrons an ultimatum
The culture must be realized!
It's time to reinvent civilization
The manifestos have decreed
Time is up in all departments!
Let the blueprints be released!
Lift the
ban on graven images
Put those pagan
statues back!
and let's
erect some more appropriate phallic symbols
than these necrophiliac cenotaphs
How
'bout some hermetic obsidian obelisks
engraved
with epic hieroglyph poems?
and
why don't we get some more interesting lawn ornaments for
the parks
like maybe...anatomically
correct garden gnomes?
Let's
fax our demands to the financiers
insist
they let us melt down the gold in the vaults
Hand over
the treasury keys to the artists
Let's gild
some of these buildings and illuminate the books
Why don't
we commission some expressionist bricklayers
to lay the foundations for a new kind of Institute?
Why not renovate
the academies and rent them out as studios?
Let's get
creative about putting people back to work!
There's no point
waiting around for these crooks to give us the business
If
we left it to them, the entire culture would come grinding
to a halt
so let's forget
these pathetic art strike tactics
This
calls for an all out art assault!
Mobilize
the reserves of post-industrial technicians
Let's commandeer the special effects
Project
forty story movies on the sides of the skyscrapers
and sabotage the propaganda techniques
Calling
all pirate radio units
You ham operators
with alias names
Stand by to broadcast
the manifestos!
Let's jam the airwaves with takeover claims
It's high time
for a cultural revolution
These ornaments need to be rearranged
and
we ought to kick these ventriloquist dummies out of office
Let's hire
some better entertainment for a change
Call up the troupes of mad circus performers
Let's outflank the treacherous avant garde
Send in the clowns to create a diversion
while we overthrow the museums of Art
And then damn
it! let's build a civilization we can be proud of
Enough of this chintzy rip-off junk
Let's put this con
artist scam out of business
and apply some more aesthetic economics for once
© 2007 Gary Lee