Witt noise¹

“The artist seeks contact with his intuitive sense of the gods, but in order to create his work, he cannot stay in this seductive and incorporeal realm. He must return to the material world in order to do his work. It’s the artist’s responsibility to balance mystical communication and the labor of creation.”² This Apollonian and Dionysian interplay³ exists as profoundly in the exploration of a medium as it does in the economy surrounding art– having one’s circumstances stable enough to support the creative process while free enough not to burden the result. Since the inception of the ‘free’ market, the accrual of wealth and power in the hands of the few has not faltered. The prevailing hegemonic forces have slowly drowned out the cries of starving artists and left only those who starve. What remains is a professional class of artist-folk with fine arts degrees from the world’s most reputable universities, and yet another engorged, soul-sucking enterprise wielded by powerful ‘elites’ to hoard wealth at the expense of the rest of society.⁴

In a conversation between Lucas Zwirner, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Elizabeth Peyton,⁵ Tiravanija and Peyton described their experience in the ‘90s where they paid $290 (~$700 adjusted for inflation) per month for a three-room apartment in the East Village while their neighbors ‘probably’ paid $90 (~$220). In contrast, A and I share our three-bedroom apartment in Bushwick with two roommates and collectively pay nearly $4,000 per month. Zwirner, referring to the mythologies surrounding artists in the city in the ‘90s, noted “it was possible then, it still is possible now. But then it really was happening… And it seems to me that that’s not available to artists, or doesn’t feel as available to younger artists now.” Simply put,
rent is too damn high.

The material conditions Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe found themselves in during the ‘60s would not allow them to find stable housing in 2025. Similarly, Andy Warhol’s capacity to manufacture a subversive identity at The Factory would turn limp amidst the Instagram Stories, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok Reels from influencers today.⁶ The mythologies of yore feel unattainable as capitalists have amassed ownership of the spaces mythologies of today would originate in through an accumulation by dispossession.⁷ A result of institutions, in all spheres, preying on emerging artists, pitting them against one another, and heralding only the genius who stands above the rest.⁸ Counter to the reality that all artists stand together in a lineage that opposes the very fascistic mechanisms now wielding their image.

There is an old Spanish expression that says hunger sharpens the wit.⁹ And I must emphasize, I have never been truly hungry.¹⁰ Smith’s seditious songwriting, Mapplethorpe’s sadomasochistic imagery, and Tiravanija’s relational aesthetics¹¹ all lay bare a materiality to ponder, and exist in conversation with the surrounding socioeconomics. My frustration regarding the current state of the world for aspiring artists is Witt (white) noise when it comes to actually living as such– to be an artist is a state of being informed by material conditions, not dictated by. The cacophony of everyday life—extreme rent and insidious institutions—falls mute against the collective drumbeat of artists forever seeking to illuminate the elementary,¹² and reaffirm what truly matters.

Notes

Invoking Patti Smith’s Witt (pronounced white)– one of Smith’s first publications; a window into her early voice. The idea was inspired by friend and artist Laurel Delany.
Just Kids, Patti Smith, pg. 121. I listened to this on audiobooks while visiting my uncle in late 2024. Her prose transported me to a world equaling the grandeur of the dense alpine expanse of South Lake Tahoe. Smith’s presence in my life marks the inflection point towards actively pursuing creative expression.
See All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, a documentary following Nan Goldin’s fight against the Sackler family while highlighting the art world’s complicity in ruining the lives of millions of individuals and their families.
The Birth of Tragedy: Or Hellenism and Pessimism, Friedrich Nietzsche. I stumbled across this during a period of time when I sought advice on how to be a writer– show up as often as you can, otherwise you won’t be able to capture those moments of inspiration.
Rirkrit Tiravanija and Elizabeth Peyton, Interview by Lucas Zwirner, available via Spotify. Found through Helen Molesworth’s work on Ruth Asawa.
I acknowledge that these platforms in some ways exist in response to Warhol, and without his influence we would live in a very different social climate.
Harvey, David. “The ‘New’ Imperialism: Accumulation by Dispossession.” Socialist Register, 19 Mar. 2009.
Jean-Michel Basquiat is the prototypical individual representing this idea. He was one of the first forced to bear the weight of the artworld’s gaze in the modern era (Anthropocene to current day).
Never Any End to Paris, Enrique Vila-Matas. A book recommended by Juan Avila of SmallTerrain– an artist collective located in Ghent, Belgium. https://smallterrain.org/
Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, at some point, were truly hungry (I cannot speak to the others I’ve alluded to). These words aim to elucidate the context in which my words are written, and speak to my intrinsic ignorance of this world.
“I have, more or less, used the kitchen and cooking as the base from which to conduct an assault on the cultural aesthetics of Western attitudes toward life and living... In the communal act of cooking and eating together, I hope that it is possible to cross physical and imaginary boundaries.” untitled 1990 (pad thai), Rirkrit Tiravanija
“The difficult problems are the fundamental problems; simplicity stands at the end, not at the beginning of a work. If education can lead us to elementary seeing, away from too much and too complex information, to the quietness of vision, and discipline of forming, it again may prepare us for the task ahead, working for today and tomorrow.” Black Mountain College Bulletin (1941), Anni Albers