so many difficulties

One of the most troubling things in writing about art in the United States at the moment is the fact that the United States seems to have stopped existing. Maybe this gang from brooklyn with their tales of happy trips to Chelsea have just missed that the entire government, if it is not on its way to total collapse, is being propped up now by ridiculous sentiments equally distant from reality as those of these starry eyed art fans. People who decry the bubble and yet hope it's shimmery walls will part just long enough to let them slip inside.

True, artists can and should live independently of their system and their surroundings. But it seems to me that much of the hype of the current "art market" and the miserly spectacle of its artistry is aimed at maintaining a false cultural hegemony that obscures the actual work of culture being built beyond the bubble of american conciousness.

One of the truly great things about moving out the gelatinous envelope of America's self-imposed Sovietization is in finding people everywhere who understand that culture is an obligation and a tradition. it is still real and it is still happening.