Permanence is an Illusion.
If I have told my students once, I have told them hundreds of times; Nothing you do here is going to stop the world from spinning. I know artists who only sell prints of their originals, keeping each one for posterity and I wonder if they have ever considered what is going to happen with those works when they die. We as artists look at the masters in museums and consider that our work might end up being worth preserving for posterity but the reality is very far from the truth.
The Human race seems to be hung up on monuments to the ages. We want to leave an indelible mark on history that tells others that we were here. Religious structures and sculpted icons, roadways and massive buried floor mosaics, walls that climb mountains and enclose borders, carved faces on granite mountains, weathered castles and keeps: all that cry to the heavens and future cultures that they were not the first. There are things to be learned from these historical creations and I will be the first to admit it but we are also learning from the structures that were here long before bipeds strode across the surface of the planet.
The one thing that I have learned is that nothing is truly permanent. There was asian metaphor about time, “As birds fly past this mountain, one in every generation will brush this mountain with its wing. In time, those wings will wear down that mountain to a mere hill.” That too is a measurement of time and one that is so much slower than any of our recorded history, we will never understand it. Our scientists might, by studying the geologic structures of the soil strata. However; we are seeing the beginning of a new continent which might also effect the life of that same mountain.
As humans, structure and reliability give us comfort and security. I could say something about political or market manipulation through fostering our fears but really what it comes down to is this: we are more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. Our lives are short and we should consider how we live not what we collect in it. When it comes to art, I will always believe that the act of creation is as valuable, if not more; than the finished article itself. Can the knowledge be lost? yes. Might it be rediscovered? Ask the cement industry who has been trying to understand the longevity of roman roadways for decades, maybe. Ultimately the value is this: it is the doing that makes the difference, not what is left behind when it is done. Time destroys everything, it can’t help it so look to each other and enjoy the time on earth working to create something beautiful together; even if it is transitory.