ART AND THE BOUNCY BANKER: Letter to the Bank #61

The Bruxist Collective's take on Art and (as Alfred Jarry might put it) P'finance.

A numerically dyslexic artist (and reluctant consumer) shares his dearth of financial wisdom and resulting frustrations with his Bank Manager. Read personal letters from the elusive Art to his even more elusive Bank Manager. See a comic rendition of a Day In The Life Of The Bouncy Banker. Art struggles to make sense of the senseless as the Authorities of Finance wobble but never quite fall down. Full of hot air they float above it all! When they bounce it is with impunity! Why are there no Remorseful Bankers? Can Art and Finance ever coexist? Do you have a Blue Chip on your shoulder?

When bankers get together they talk about Art. When artists get together they talk about money. Oscar Wilde

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Letter to the Bank #61

Dear Bank Manager (in the age of Twitter BM will do),

I don’t know what to say to you any more. It is all about money isn’t it? Is it good that Libya is collapsing? Is the West sorry to be losing an evil ally or happy to see the people of Libya breaking their bonds and reaching out for this elusive quality that we call Democracy? All is ambivalence. In the years to come we will no doubt hear of feckless attempts by agents on all sides to effect outcomes for better or worse. One can only hope their attempts to do so come to nought and all that occurs is the result of people taking control of their own lives and learning to hear each other and build institutions that work for the common good. I suspect banks the world over want only stability at whatever the cost to people on the ground. They stand forever neutral to the damage done to individuals and families and communities. All that ever matters is the bottom line. Unless you can see the human face of your actions, the lost home, the unfed, the uneducated, the unclothed, the struggles faced by the individual who once upon a time would sit across from you sharing his or her dreams for a better life and would look to you for advice we are all lost. Even if we loathe it this is a planet founded or foundering, leaking lifeboats of cash. Not knowing what else to do I join the desperate, stampede once in a while ducking into a doorway where I’ve seen a shortcut to reward. Briefly afloat on an all too temporary cash infusion I reward myself with a moment of contemplation, a luxury I use to make a stab at Art. A small window is leapt through and the result is a small artwork fit in to a respite from anxiety. Surely life is more than wealth accumulation? This brings us neatly back to my contention that Art is worth more than Money, my mantra. Miserable in their wealth where do the rich turn but to culture, culture being growth of a meaningful sort.

Yours sincerely,

Kristian Witherkay, muckraker.*

* My favorite current technique is to take mounds of paint and scrape and drag them across surfaces until the result satisfies on a deep and elemental level.