"Clusterfuck Aesthetics" - Jerry Saltz, Art Critic

"Clusterfuck aesthetics" is a term used in this article by Jerry Saltz, and I think it's a great term. "New Cacophony" is also a term used. The article describes parallels between the chaotic feelings in work made by artists such as Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy, and the "havoc of everyday life." I actually feel like a lot of first year art students (although I can only speak for myself, I suppose) find their everyday life (workload, schedule, and such) completely devoid of "havoc," but their minds are the opposite. Personally I think that when I make cluttered work it relates to that.

I'm reading the article as I type. It's saying some vaguely insulting things that I could also see as being true of my own work. I kind of like that. Saltz seems to question the maturity of Kelley's work, referring to "bittersweet" "goth-teen-sex-blasphemy–bad-behavior motifs."

Apparently this mess thing is a very male thing: "New Museum curator Laura Hoptman says, "Women artists accrue like crazy but apparently don't get off as much on making messes.""

While I'm reading this and thinking that this whole "clusterfuck aesthetics" business sounds great, I'm also remembering all the Paul McCarthy work I went to see last year and didn't like (Paul McCarthy is one of the main inspirations for the essay I'm going to write that is probably going to defend the value of aesthetics and beauty in art).