It’s not that I fail to understand the importance of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they don’t seem real to me. This coming from a guy whose brother is a marine, and a marine whose location and purpose were often kept secret, and yet a marine who survived his first contract with the military and is beginning his second.

Maybe it’s just a case of war weariness: we’ve been at war for so long that it’s just another aspect of everyday life. “Oh, bomb went off and killed a bunch of school children in Kandahar? Oh well…”

Maybe reading it from the direct perspective can help me remember how terrible it really is.

So when you buy this sculpture, you are legally required to plug it into the internet. At which point it will point itself at eBay and begin an auction for itself.

What the fuck.

In addition to losing your sculpture, you have to pay all eBay fees. And you can pay the artist too.

On one hand, I’m proud of the guy. He made a piece of work that bucks the gallery/curator system. Good for him.

On the other hand, this continues to provide proof for a believe I’ve got about art – that all art is good for is itself. It doesn’t provide anything to the world, nothing that wasn’t there before. Art is wasteful in every way possible. It wastes money and resources that could have been put towards a utilitarian and helpful purpose. It wastes time. It wastes energy.

The majority of art isn’t for people. Art is for artists and curators and collectors. It is for no one else. The closest thing that comes to art for others is graffiti. I’ve got a great amount of respect for street artists. Some of them keep it real. But for others, it’s about fame and getting their name out, so it’s a mixed bag.

Art should be able to rise above these things. But it can’t. It never will.