I Just Made Another Boring Art

In his work I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971, John Baldessari playfully (and doubtfully) acts as a writer, painter, artist, human, and decider—someone who changes something within himself, I assume, in his work and in his motif. Back in 2024, when I grew tired of the routine act of showing up in the studio, doing something supposedly meaningful, I began to feel dull and empty. "The gods were bored; therefore, they created human beings,” as Kierkegaard says.  Is art the last resort to save me? What if even (my) art is boring? And what is the meaning of a not “boring” art? The answer, whatever it is, signals the beginning of change. A move. A migration. I feel excited and joyful, even if the work is about boredom. I Just Made Another Boring Art, 2024, may appear boring, but the initiative behind it is thrilling. And I was excited to create boring art. Isn’t this the story behind most artworks? Most stories we create? If so, I appreciate boredom. I embrace it fully. As the artist Francis Alÿs once said, “Sometimes making something leads to nothing.”  But now I would say that sometimes doing nothing leads to creating something.

2024