BROOK WINTERS

I thought I'd spend the better part of this morning writing >1500 words about @Tao Lin while eating waffles.

I am somewhat obsessed with Tao Lin, as I find he is one of two artists today who capture ‘the world around me’ and that world is one of marketing and branding. I do not spend money on any artforms, I never buy books, or comics or music, etc. I do not feel I have that kind of money to spend. I only spend money on rent. So when I read shoplifting from American apparel it was in a bookstore, over two sessions. when I read ‘bed’ it was a copy of my old roommate’s.

I feel I somehow relate to tao lin because he is asian and because he understands the corporate/cultural nature of the world today and is accepting of that. I enjoy how I have to slow down to read everything he types, as everything has so many pauses via punctuation. I am enamored with his brand because I feel it is specific to me and relevant to my artistic interests. I also feel this way with video artist ryan trecartin.

I feel a little sad writing this, because it is in many ways in order to obtain a copy of that book, shoplifting from American apparel, which I’m not sure I need or want. physical objects, I’m sure (not sure) tao would agree, are not things I necessarily desire.

last night I was laying in bed (futon) thinking about the title, shoplifting from American apparel, and how beautiful it was. at first when I heard the title (it was ‘shouted’ at me from the blog header in giant Helvetica) I wasn’t sure. I had read the short story that appeared in vice, which I already viewed as capitalizing on an empty story, but now having read the full version I enjoy this title. it is empty and yet not, tao is asian but he is American. I like how he can be 100% something and that something necessarily includes nothing.

I am writing this to ‘get rid of’ tao lin’s thoughts in my head, to lower him from something high to something human, which he makes incredibly difficult! he portrays himself as nonhuman and this to me is something admirable, or something I don’t really see that often.

I am still unsure what tao lin really feels, the same way I’m still not sure what duchamp felt. in his interviews (at least a couple of them) he writes that he is actually trying to express himself, etc. in his comments he says his promotional aspect is only to ensure his ‘self expressive objects’ (books (my words not his)) are sold/read. And yet I can only view the books as a single part of his overall art, what might be called social practice. I can only see him and carles (google him) as manipulating society through various means, all of which are very contemporary and relevant. this is the new paradigm and art must accept this. to express oneself via marketing and branding and meming.

when I saw the blog post on Jeffrey brown it was the first time I felt a little bad about tao lin. I liked Jeffrey brown (and still would if I read him perhaps (actually I’m not sure … his books are good but his overall performance (meta) doesn’t work for me. it is funny because his objects are his documentation of that life but he doesn’t realize (perhaps) that in the internet there can never be only ‘one’ source of documentation. documentation is unavoidable, not something ‘created’ necessarily.) I can see the similarities between Jeffrey brown and tao lin.but I felt more alone (perhaps) because tao lin would not like my comics because he is an outsider to my culture. but tao lin gives me hope because i feel he used to be in my situation. he has successfully marketed a brand which previously had not quite existed. it is different than Miranda july and the whole indy thing, different than Jeffrey brown and tomine. I feel now like marketing and the internet are planets aligned with me where anything can happen and be validated.

when I first realized contemporary art was in every crevice of the mainstream I was upset but now I accept that. perhaps this is my greatest relation to tao lin (which is similar to my relation to ‘my generation’ and hipster culture in general) which is a desire to ‘go with the flow’ in a Taoist way, to accept everything and not fight back. Is this some asian nostalgia? In a previous life I was half Japanese. Today I have no idea about the culture. I think Taoism is from china, but I can’t be sure. I wikipedia things and I think tao lin does as well.

As with every person I’ve been inspired by, I know tao lin is only one side of me, and likely only one side of himself. a name is a brand and it always has been! it is a very powerful thing, it is very powerful to know someone’s name but it can also be a shield. tao lin is a beautiful name. I was thinking about the name ‘sam’ as well and how it is similar in some ways but very American in a way tao is not. I thought about this alongside the phrase shoplifting from American apparel and how the two went together. the way tao is shoplifting from America, now I just connected that to ‘fuck America.’ I like how he didn’t even try to meme it! so great.

I relate to tao lin’s solipsism as well. it is an easy thing on the internet, no one is real. all tao’s comments I used to think were fake. same with hipster runoff. I now find myself leading an empty solipsistic existence but I may be coming out of that now. one thing tao taught me is never admit to anything and that the only thing that really counts is the literal translation of one’s words. I was fantasizing last night about, say, a man. this was in a sexual sort of way. I was thinking that if I was black I would be a playa and I would tell men things that only sounded good transcribed. I thought last night, ‘what men want is to tell their friends what happened, and this can only come from a good transcript. in this way their sexual life is connected to reading.’

this now reminds me of a diary entry from high school. sometimes I like to say high school when I really mean college, as I did most of the things straight people did in high school, in college. I like that tao lin hasn’t gone to grad school because I don’t think I could afford it myself.

now I am a little sad (not really, it is very early) because talking about tao lin reminds me I am attracted to his methods because I am an adult and I wish I was still a child because then I wouldn’t have the same sort of responsibilities like ‘find a job’ and ‘pay rent’ and all and I could only focus on aesthetic value. does toe lin think about this or is everything a web of contextual markers? conceptual markers?

tao lin makes me nervous in another way and that is his aesthetics. I highly enjoy the aesthetics of his site, it as as if he were a designe (carles: I am a designer) ubt I am worried because he does not dress like one. he does not dress like me, not hip enough. he is not someone I would see and my mind would register hipster, which makes me nervous. does he have an aesthetic vision as well? I am not sure what to think of his drawings, I feel like the titles outweigh the aesthetic elements. the colors are naïve, which is difficult to pull off, but I wonder if it is just a fluke. I like the idea of emo music but I am not sure if actually like it. I’m not sure if anything tao lin says is genuine and that makes me feel good.

I will talk a little of the stranger in relation to tao lin. when we first read this in sophomore year of high school everyone in the class said meursault was a terrible person and I was genuinely surprised and shocked that they would think this. I viewed him as a real friend, someone I would really want to hang out with.

in writing this I understand how much work tao lin puts into his writing, and how the lack of descriptors has a very strong effect on one’s word count. when I heard reviews that described shoplifting from American apparel as slight I believed them. but it is a mistake. it is incredibly dense. a character who is very important to me, the reader, goes to a mental institution but this entire event is given one or two lines when we hear characters say ‘did you hear so and so left the mental institution’. it was not moving at all while reading it, only in retrospect, reading the comments afterward. reading the comments was when the totality of shoplifting from American apparel hit me and I realized the genius and emotion / etc in it.

love you tao lin

brook

ps shout out to my peeps
pps just realized i could give sfaa as a present to someone, maybe my parents, for christmas