Beauty Is The Hardest Drug - Introduction

Introduction to Beauty Is The Hardest Drug by Serena Yang

To ask what is beauty today is to come face to face with the changing definition of beauty. Perhaps more than any other time in history, we are preoccupied with, even confused by beauty; it’s power, it’s pleasures, it’s style, and it’s substance. Beauty may not be the most important of our values, but it affects us all; today more than ever because we live in a Media Age where our visual landscape changes in seconds, and our first reaction to people is sometimes our last. Given this reality, the so-called ‘triviality’ of beauty suddenly seems not so trivial after all.

The beauty we see today is different, more complex. It is elusive, doctored and controversial. No longer is beauty limited to a pretty face or a pretty picture: beauty has come to personify and reflect the social and cultural issues of our day.

As we move through our relentless digital landscape, we must ask ourselves: when will beauty no longer be defined by commodified images – flawless features, without regard to what is underneath the surface? How are our judgements shaped by the images we see?

However we try to define beauty for ourselves, we are bombarded by idealistic images vying for our attention. The best of these images speak not to just our wallets but to our minds. They demand that we question society’s notions about appearance, and re-examine our own attitudes and ideas about beauty.

text by Serena Yang - Los Angeles based Journalist, Director, Documentary Filmmaker – www.serenayang.com

Beauty Is The Hardest Drug (German)

Die Frage, was heute Schönheit ist, bedeutet sich von Angesicht zu Angesicht mit der sich ständig verändernden Definition von Schönheit zu konfrontieren.

Vielleicht mehr als in irgendeiner anderen Zeit in der Geschichte, sind wir beschäftigt mit, sogar verwirrt von Schönheit: ihre Kraft, ihre Genüsse, ihr Stil und ihre Substanz.

Schönheit mag nicht der wichtigste unserer Werte sein, aber sie beeinflusst uns alle; heute mehr denn je, weil wir in einem Zeitalter der Medien leben, in dem unsere visuelle Landschaft sich in Sekunden verändert, und unsere erste Reaktion auf Leute manchmal unsere letzte ist.

In Anbetracht dieser Realität, erscheint die sogenannte „Trivialität“ der Schönheit plötzlich nicht mehr so trivial.

Die Schönheit, die wir heute sehen, ist verschieden, mehr komplex. Sie ist flüchtig, gefälscht und umstritten.

Schönheit ist nicht mehr begrenzt auf ein hübsches Gesicht oder eine hübsche Abbildung: Schönheit wurde Verköperung von und Reflektion auf die sozialen und kulturellen Probleme unserer Tage.

So wie wir uns durch unseren unbarmherzigen digitalen Alltag bewegen, müssen wir uns selbst fragen: Wann wird Schönheit nicht mehr durch kommerzielle Bilder bestimmt – makellose Gesichtszüge, makellose Erscheinungen, ohne Rücksicht auf das, was sich unter der Oberfläche befindet?

Wie sind unsere Urteile von den Bildern, die wir sehen, geformt?

Wie auch immer wir versuchen, Schönheit für uns selbst zu definieren, wir werden von idealistischen Bildern bombardiert, die um unsere Aufmerksamkeit kämpfen.

Die besten dieser Bilder sprechen nicht nur zu unserem Geldbeutel, sondern auch zu unserem Verstand.

Sie fordern, das wir Meinungen der Gesellschaft über Aussehen infrage stellen, und unsere eigenen Vorstellungen und Ideen über Schönheit nochmals prüfen.

text: Serena Yang - Journalistin, Filmregisseurin, Dokumentarfilmerin - Los Angeles - www.serenayang.com

translation from original English text by Stefan Lischewski

Beauty Is The Hardest Drug

a dual solo exhibition by Katharina Arndt (DE) and Rebecca Weber (USA)

opening reception: Friday evening the 2 September 6:00 - 9:00 pm

exhibition: 3 September - 8 October 2011

Two Window Project

Torstrasse 154, D-10115 Berlin

www.twowindowproject.com

twowindowproject@yahoo.de

Beauty Is the Hardest Drug - text

Beauty Is The Hardest Drug

Two Window Project is proud to present new works by Katharina Arndt of Germany and R. Weber of the USA in their exhibition Beauty Is The Hardest Drug that will open at the galley space on Friday evening September 2nd marking the start of Berlin’s fall 2011 art season. Through their new works, these two artists explore the perception of beauty, celebrity and a host of the accoutrements of its darker side that have been associated with this phenomenon.

The title of the exhibition, “Beauty Is The Hardest Drug”, is attributed to Andy Warhol in particular and borrowed from an article in Interview Magazine from the 1970’s written by Bob Colacello. It was during this time that New York was at the dawn of it’s ‘Pop Revolution’ and a whole new generation was being fueled by Warhol’s probably more famous quote "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes", actors, artists, designers and models alike were all grasping for their quarter hour in the spotlight. Since then a variety of medicinal practices and potions that have been developed to cultivate a more enhanced or higher level of performance in this world of beauty helping to catapult some contenders to the front of the cue. 

Katharina Arndt’s super-realistic portraits meticulously rendered in color pencil depict easily recognizable personas from the current medias of television, movies and sports.

Her drawings of these 21st century icons display an ironic twist, as the color palettes for each are strangely beautiful, far from natural and purposefully arbitrary in their composition. As seen in her Scarlett works in this series, the subject’s hair in a pink tint and skin of darkened greens shades, suggesting an extraordinary, unearthly or possibly a manufactured beauty. Her drawings of these famous and familiar people that are loosely based on the images being flashed in the tabloids or on the screen help us to explore, from a totally new perspective, their perceived degree of beauty and celebrity. 

R. Weber’s delicate paintings in oil on wood panel in a plein air style are completely juxtaposed by their subject matter. In these smaller scale paintings, contemporary imagery such as a bottle of Botox with a syringe or various prescription and recreational drugs are depicted. The underlying harshness connected with these various pharmaceuticals has been softened by the artist’s brush strokes. In this series the artist dares to illustrate the many tabooed indulgences that have assisted many along their path to a higher state and may have also derailed some who might have abused them.

The pairing of these two talented international artists and the unique point of view of their works for the exhibition Beauty Is The Hardest Drug should make for a very entertaining perspective on this realm of beauty, celebrity and indulgence. 

The artists will be in attendance at the opening reception.

For inquiries please email to: twowindowproject@yahoo.de

Beauty Is The Hardest Drug

a dual solo exhibition with Katharina Arndt and R. Weber

opening reception: Friday the 2 September 6:00 – 9:00 pm

exhibition: 3 September – 8 October 2011

Two Window Project

Torstrasse 154, 10115 Berlin

www.twowindowproject.com

An Interview with artist R. Weber by Kay Weeks

The Visual Poetry of Mono no aware (物の哀れ)

A Conversation with Artist, R. Weber

Delicate rodent bones, scissors, a sand dune, bittersweet, pomegranates, a fire pit, a stick of incense with smoke rising in a thin column--what do these objects have in common, especially when R. Weber focuses on them as content for art? Beauty for sure.

Bittersweet.

Beyond that, R. Weber captures an object at a precise moment in time, while the progression of time simultaneously begins to affect form, cause natural decay, and extinguish the incense or campfire. But, for now anyway, the painting of the object as well as the artist and viewer remain. They and we, too--at different moments--will become small points on the timeline and vanish into memory.

Beautiful sadness, the ephemeral, fleeting. In the Japanese language and culture, this is Mono no aware (物の哀れ, mono no aware, literally "the pathos of things"), The term is used to describe the awareness of impermanence (Jap. 無常 mujō), or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing.

Portrait of a distinctive carrot.

So, in R. Weber's paintings, beneath the glow , the patina of time, oxidation, there is this hard reality--the understanding that the object is in the process of disintegration. In the case of her fruit--or this gnarled carrot--it has likely disappeared by now, but the record of it--in poetic terms--remains. In our conversation about art, the artist used Japanese terms: Shibui, Wabi-Sabi...then, I found Mono no aware and think it applies even more closely to what is painted. Weber's paintings are visual poetry--in a way, the romance of "passing."

At what point does this knowledge that all will disappear in time push us toward a nihilistic philosophy. Why bother, then? I put that one to rest immediately. Weber told me that one hears the phase "Inshallah!" frequently in New York City..."God willing." I think we all have a phrase that holds similar meaning, but has heavier implications. For example, when we say "See you!" or "Have a good day!" we know underneath the cheer that there is actually no assurance it will happen. Someone I know says that tomorrow is only a concept.

Great Dune.

As opposed to the fatalistic and perhaps ironic Que Sera Sera or Inshallah, the objects or scenes Weber paints can't talk or rely on Other (e.g. religious or philosophical constructs) for hope or continued existence. They simply and poetically...disappear. But the paintings themselves are held in time--for now and future years---gracefully and that is what we see, as viewers. It is a thoughtful contradiction.
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I remember the book title, Only Earth & Sky Last Forever. Recent upheavals, tsunami, violent winds, potential meteorites...we are whistling in the dark to accept that notion of some planetary "forever continuity."

In my 30 professional years working in historic preservation, I was writing the same thing, so the conversation with R. Weber resonated deeply with me, The notion that we can’t recover the physical past in any authentic way (restoration introduces new elements and reconstruction means all new material).

Persimmons in a bowl.

In brief, the small natural or man-made objects that Weber chooses to paint are gentle reminders of our time here, our love, hopes, dreams and despair. Although they can be recorded through painting or scientific endeavors, ultimately, the records will disappear--as we will. We can't stop the effects of time; and time is always change. But while we are here, the art glows with life, is brilliant, small and authentic.

Art & Poetry - Thematic similarities. In his startling poem, Limited, Carl Sandburg describes in a matter-of-fact way the passage into nothingness of all things. I shared the poem with the artist and we agreed to include it in this essay.

Limited

I AM riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains of the nation

Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people.

(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall pass to ashes.) I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he answers: “Omaha.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916.

Granted, Carl Sandburg is very tough when he writes about what I call the "mortality container," our lives--with the amazing machinery we employ to make it go even faster in reference to the larger expanse of time. But there are touch points and Weber recognized them immediately.

Here are more of R. Weber's exquisite paintings:

Anna's Bones. This is in my collection.

Fire Pit.

Butterfly.

Scissors.