PERPETUAL EPHEMERA

An exhibition by Walter Buchholz

Artist statement

“Everything is transitory, both that which remembers and that which is

Remembered” (Aurelius and Gill, 2013, p.26)

A sense of incompleteness belies melancholy in this world where each painting knows that change is coming. Ultimately, its days are numbered.

Look now, because in a moment things may disappear or change: cut up, torn apart, re assembled or covered in paint. 

Each piece in this body of work is made (in part) from the cut up or broken remains of earlier work or other found objects. These repurposed works may in turn have been salvaged from even earlier works: a cycle, that in some, have repeated itself up to 10 times. No immortality here. Any of the current works may be cut up again to materialize as something else.

This is a battlefield. Salvaged ephemera and perpetual process are at war. 

A cathartic and intermittent way of working is evident throughout. There is very little in terms of coherence. If anything, most work seem erratic. This is war. Techniques, materials and imagery are scattered across the conventional and unconventional. Sawing, breaking, cutting, weaving, sewing and painting represent a very physical and chaotic catharsis.

The only consistency may be the various incarnations of “Emoji gods”. Each god rose from the debris of discarded material: piano keys, repurposed threads, ropes and cut up paintings. Scarred emoticon deities; they deliver android emotions in a Pinocchio esque way, “I’m a real emotion!”.

If we don’t post it, did it happen? We post therefor we are. To like or be liked, that is the answer.

Virtual views and styled scenarios are posited as proof of a life lived. Are we slowly becoming feigning aspirants, inhabitants of idealized worlds and supplicants to the givers of likes? Our craving for virtual acknowledgement is insatiable. The kick from perpetuating our transient selves on virtual stages has got us hooked.

Real is out, hyperreal is in. To be in the moment requires gloriously filtered online evidence. Wage a war against the fleeting. Burn the beautifully flawed memory at the stake. But, first document it from all the best angles. There will be no suffering or forgetting here. Banality for blockheads looks better on social media. The sun always shines on Instagram. Don’t you like that, isn’t it smart? #no filter.

Followers are crypto currency. Bulging account holders reign supreme as poseur gods with a gift for the virtual gab. Aspiring bellwethers with silent bells lead virtual sheep. Dissembling mountebanks, who tout evanescence as eternity, drop their lives online. 

They proffer online Mount Olympus as the ultimate utopia. Aphrodite, Hermes and Hera, are all there, waiting inside the best filter for the occasion. Gods with better clothes at fabulous locations, living their best lives for us to gawk at. #morefollowers.

Mountebank: We can send them instantly or we can drip-feed them to make things look natural.Emoji god 2, or, Feigner: likes from real people. Emoji god 3, are painting titles that reference actual online sales pitches from websites that promise more followers and more likes. Our gods love us!

Emollient emoji gods are android emotions. Say less mean more. These poor lesser gods live in mono syllabic chat worlds. They are ever evolving replicants longing to be real human emotions, waiting for the Blue Fairy to grant them their ultimate wish. 

Life, at breakneck speed, hurtles along an infinitely laned online highway. Mobile phone flashes illuminate the way. Intermittent hearts, thumbs ups or yellow round expressions adorn the billboards. In here we live high definition lives. Who doesn’t want to live forever? Every angle, every moment and every inconsequential experience is filtered, posted and liked.

But, moments and memories of moments can be inwardly beautiful, ephemeral beasts: unexpected and gentle. Glitches in the matrix; they are like illusive creatures who appear and disappear at will. Resist the urge to capture.

List of Titles

1) Poseur: I don’t hate but I’ve come close. Emoji god 1 

2) Mountebank: We can send them instantly or we can drip-feed them      to make things look natural.Emoji god 2

3) Feigner: Likes from real people.Emoji god 3

4) Effigy of an unseen life. Emoji god 4 

5) Then love knew it was called love. Use a consistent filter scheme. Emoji god 5 (Neruda and Tapscott, 2014, p.155)

6) Organic automation: Whichever Angle We Take, Everything Explains Itself. Emoji god 6 

7) To try to love: Start liking the photos of random people to get more likes back. Emoji god 7 

8) Supplicant: Instant Organic Growth. Emoji god 8 

9) Claimer: Free follower. Emoji god 9 

10) Dissembler: Like checker. Emoji god 10 

11) Bellwether: Blockhead: Authentic followers instantly. Emoji god 11 

12) Aspirant, aspirant: Increaser. Emoji god 12 

13) We all arrive by different streets, by unequal languages, at Silence. Vox Nihili: 1 

14) We all arrive by different streets, by unequal languages, at Silence. Vox Nihili: 2 

15) We all arrive by different streets, by unequal languages, at Silence. Vox Nihili: 3 

16) We all arrive by different streets, by unequal languages, at Silence. Vox Nihili: 4 

17) We all arrive by different streets, by unequal languages, at Silence. Vox Nihili: 5  (Neruda and O’Daly, 2005, p.35)

18) Auto liker 

19) Ez liker 

20) Perfect liker 

21) Like enabler 

22) Freez like 

23) Insta model: Host a takeover 

24) Insta model: Insta famous pro 

25) Waiting to be happy

Bibliography

Aurelius, M and Gill C. (2013) Marcus Aurelius Meditations Books 1-6. First edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Neruda, P. and O'Daly, W. (2005) Still Another Day. Second edition. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press.

Neruda, P. and Tapscott S. (2014) Cien sonetos de amour. One hundred love sonnets. 23d edition. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Walter Buchholz

Poseur: I don’t hate but I’ve come close.

Emoji god 1

Walter Buchholz

Mountebank: We can send them instantly or we can drip-feed them to make things look natural.

Emoji god 2

Walter Buchholz

Feigner: Likes from real people.

Emoji god 3

Walter Buchholz

Effigy of an unseen life.

Emoji god 4

Walter Buchholz

Then love knew it was called love.

Use a consistent filter scheme.

Emoji god 5

Walter Buchholz

Organic automation: Whichever Angle We Take, Everything Explains Itself

Emoji god 6

Walter Buchholz

To try to love: Start liking the

photos of random people to get

more likes back

Emoji god 7

Walter Buchholz

Supplicant: Instant Organic Growth

Emoji god 8

Walter Buchholz

Claimer: Free follower

Emoji god 9

Walter Buchholz

Dissembler: Like checker

Emoji god 10

Walter Buchholz

Bellwether: Blockhead: Authentic followers instantly.

Emoji god 11

Walter Buchholz

Aspirant, aspirant: Increaser

Emoji god 12

Walter Buchholz

We all arrive by different streets,
by unequal languages, at Silence - Pablo Neruda

Vox Nihili: 1

Walter Buchholz

We all arrive by different streets,
by unequal languages, at Silence – Pablo Neruda

Vox Nihili: 3

Walter Buchholz

We all arrive by different streets,
by unequal languages, at Silence – Pablo Neruda

Vox Nihili: 4

Walter Buchholz

We all arrive by different streets,
by unequal languages, at Silence – Pablo Neruda

Vox Nihili: 5

Walter Buchholz

Insta model: Insta famous pro

Walter Buchholz

Insta model: Host a takeover 

Walter Buchholz

Auto liker

Walter Buchholz

Ez liker

Walter Buchholz

Freez like

Walter Buchholz

Like enabler

Walter Buchholz

Perfect liker

Walter Buchholz

Waiting to be happy