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Daniel Erban's first Internet show from June23 to September 23 at
www.danielerban.com

Fighting back

These drawings are ink on 12"x24" specially designed, one of a kind hand
made paper. David Carruthers made them in Montreal at his La papeterie
St- Armand . He refers to them as" slabs" on the other hand I call them
"tablets". The aesthetic of these slabs can be summarised according to
the following principles. We call a paper a tablet if the paper is rigid,
very thick and naturally deformed. The paper must appear dirty uninviting
and definitely sick looking and ugly. Furthermore the paper must have the
appearance of a defective and an undesirable object. Aesthetically the
paper must also capture the feeling of the art community's general belief
that the tablets are useless papers "good for nothing an expensive
indulgence".

In this body of work I question the cornerstone of modernity as expressed
by Clement Greenberg in the well-known Edmonton Interview. Greenberg has
argued that a good work of art depends on how you do the art and not on
what you do. Here he represent the most important cannon of modernity,
which claims that the subject matter in art is not important but the
style, is more so.

This kind of culturally learned belief is not based on observations. It
has become the cornerstone of an extreme right wing oppressive and
censored driven culture that Canada is unfortunately adopting. As I see it
the following three false beliefs are the essential axioms that are
unchallenged and are making inroads into our visual culture and these are
makings it impossible for strong visuals to exist in Canada. . The first
belief is that there is too much violence in visual culture. The second is
that there is too much sex in visual culture. And the third is that all
strong narrative is opportunistic and propaganda, and cannot be tolerated
because of community standards.

With this show I protest the fact that it is difficult and extremely rare
to exhibit strong and shocking art in this community without some sort of
a warning. That the opportunity to celebrate strong visuals is getting
harder with each day. And appears to be getting virtually impossible in
Canada.

What I argue with this show is, that artist should depend only on one
evaluative principle. it is called the principle of positive response.
A simple explanation of this is the need for a positive response to the
question of whether the art in question works or not to be considered
good art. Because of the dual nature of this principle debate
discussions and a never-ending evaluative processes must take place.

This Internet show sets out to prove that there is an interest in this
kind of imaginative and disturbing art form. By visiting my show you
participate in rejecting and promoting a freer and a more just visual
society. This evidence based Internet exhibition depends on your impute.
The more you see this art the more you support me.

It can be viewed on my web sit danielerban.com from June 23 2006 to
September 23 2006. There will also be an opening reception at FIMA-the
Festival International Montreal en Arts show from June 29 to July 2 to be
held on Saint Catherine Street East between Wolfe and Papineau.

You are welcome to see the work in person and judge for yourself. Don't
be taken by the slogan that "The public is stupid" instead operate on the
belief that the public is sophisticated and has the right to see art that
challenges, enriches and is made by artists in their community.

We are familiar and we agree with the post-modern principle that says that
if you think that these tablets of hand made paper have infinite meanings
than they must have no meaning at all. We actually find it interesting and
interpret it as a call for evaluative processes and not the opposite. We
don't see it as a proof of the impossibility of art evaluation and
criticism because of the subjective nature of interpretation and thus of
art. In face, it points to the spiritual values of all the various visual
art activities, and the need of reporting and serious examination of
historical and evaluative critical thought. If we stay silent art will
die. A sure way of harming art is to partially ignore it.

A partial List of works.