The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting. We talk of deviations from human form, but the truly repulsive is the face that has no character, that is habitual.
He had identified the one thing that possesses the most potential for disruption and transgression in the whole cultural hierarchy. The funny thing is that many people assumed that Hickey's defense of beauty was reactionary—or sentimental or nostalgic or some other backward-looking thing. But if they paid any attention to him, they knew that Dave Hickey consistently celebrated the most shocking and controversial works of art.
1mo ago
The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.
Water is necessary to us, but a waterfall is not. Where it is to be found it is something extra, a beautiful ornament. We need daylight and to that extent it is utilitarian, but moonlight we do not need. When it comes, it serves no necessity. It transforms.
That the Earth decided to make something this beautiful, when it could have just gone on making granite, felt like a miracle — the miracle of all those things unnecessary to survival, like music, like love, that give meaning to being alive.
Why all the threadbare drama, the stale catastrophism of calling it broken? It still beats, doesn't it, still trembles at the sight of fog flowing through the forest like a slow dance song. It was only dislocated, lost its locus for a while, popped out of the socket of good sense.
One rebuttal — which I happily ascribe to — is to reply with an image of Las Vegas Sphere and say, "yes, we definitely do" build anything beautiful anymore.
8mo ago
Underscored — save the words that stop you in your tracks.
