Steven Keen
the artist
The artist is a young male three years out of graduate
school. The artist graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemestry, and has spent
his last three years working for a large chemical company. The artist
is somewhat cynical and forlorn, not unlike most of his generation.
However, his cynicism arises from his distain for most of his peers,
who he sees as whiners and self-immolators.
The artist sees his society as one berift of new ideas, concepts,
desires and goals. He sees society feeding back into itself and
rehashing the same perceptions of yesteryear. Parts of society have
legitimized virtually any action and belief in the unending goal of
justifying total freedom of expression and action, while other parts
have reacted to this legitimization by retrenching in the beliefs of
the past. The artist counts himself as part of, and leader of, the
second group.
the art
The artist is obsessed with reuccuring patterns, and his
distain for them. Part of his art consists of precise pen and ink
drawings that recreate and mock an icon from contemproary pop culture.
He does this by tying the icon, usually a consumer product of some
type, to whatever need the product is ment to satiate. The artist
represents each need as an empty desire invented by a money-hungry
consumer products industry feeding off of an apathetic, uninformed
population. Each drawing depicts producer/consumer patterns - endless
lines of people entering and leaving factories and stores - a
continual pattern of production and consumption.
The artist also makes short, silent video movies that contain
scenes alternating between human and animal subjects, showing simular
large-group patterns of behavior. Humans rioting on some city street
are compared to scenes of quarreling between members of a wolf pack,
for example. A human shopper reacting happily to a new product in a
t.v. commercial is compared to a pet dog sitting or rolling over to
recieve a reward or treat.
the beret
The artist is conservative in many ways, and does not
typically wear any sort of hat at all. The beret, to him, is an
example of what someone would wear if they were attempting to look
like an artist or poet, and therefore it strikes him as being fake to
wear one. The artist refuses to consider outward appearances as
importaint in art, and distains from trying to project a certain
persona.
Submitted by Steven Keen (sdkeen@mtu.edu), on Sunday, June 5, 1994, from Michigan, USA