No one remembers their first lie. Lies are too commonplace in our regular speech to always stand out as memorable, even to the most “truthful” and “noble” of us. We sugar coat, we falsely flatter. We extricate blame, avoid punishment. We play tricks. We lie. Rousseau lied. Churchill lied. Picasso lied. Kerouac lied. Billy Wilder lied. Your parents lied. Your precious Obama lied.
I lie.
I am lying to you right now.
The lie is our best friend and worst enemy. It drives us to create and destroy. I lie not because I am evil, but because I am human. My DNA says that I am unique, but that could also be a lie, and in that case, I, too, would be a lie. And all things considered, that wouldn’t be so bad...
My work is made of lies. I craft truths out of the world’s falsehoods. I pick and choose subjects’ best sounding lies and with them, I tell you a story. I place together synthesized sounds and experimental noise and call it a song. I add my own details – birds in the background, rigged moonlight through a window, reverb on a clean note – for the sole purpose of making you believe what I am telling you.
I make films because it’s the most obvious way to fool you – didn’t someone say that, “Seeing is Beliving?” (This person was also a liar). I make music because it’s the least explicit – I can hide my pathology, my quirks, my philosophies, my rants, within the abstract realms of timbre and drones. I write poetry and prose because it’s the most difficult way to tell a lie – boldly and bluntly, without the distractions of the physical.
I am a painter that can’t paint. A sculptor with no hand for carving. My medium is illusion. I put all my neuroses, sweat, and consciousness into the work only so that you never know how hard the process was. I hide the seams so that you never suspect me…
5 comments:
After reading this post, I am not sure whether to feel worse about art, or better about lying! You certainly have an interesting way of viewing art; it is the crafting of fake experiences to allude to real ones. We are indeed the ultimate crafters of the lie. And yet, effective art strikes chords with people because it harmonizes with something real – some truth – that resonates with the person viewing. The consumer searches for truth in our lies; that is way they are there. In this sense, lying is perhaps the most effective way to convey truth.
I love the way in which you boldly break down your craft. It is memorable and effective, and I think it perfectly reflects your personality (or, what I have seen of your personality) as an artist. After reading this, I feel that I, to an extent, know Meredith Upchurch. Well done.
P.S. I think you’re really cool :)
Simply put, this is quite brilliant. I find it to be quite a relief to read something so honest…If you will. I enjoyed reading it because I felt as though I could really hear you plotting somewhere in shadows. Half of the time everyone is just concerned with being ‘real’ and ‘true’ ---whatever that means. Why does art have to be any of these things, when it so seldom is real in the first place? I agree with you, I also pick and choose and craft the kind of stories I tell. I just do it through character. But I also am in the business of lying.
P.S. I also find you very cool.
What a unique artists statement. I love it! It’s so scary and amazing at the same time to think about what a manipulative art form filmmaking can be. It is the only medium in which you have the ability to control almost all of the audience’s visceral senses. This gives you the ability to create emotion and feeling in someone elses mind. I have always tried to combat this with documentary, but even within a “truthful” medium the artist still has control over what they decide to show or withhold from their audience, therefore once again shaping their emotions. I guess we are all liars. Great opening!
You are a revolutionary my friend and I love it. I admire that way you take responsibility for your intentions--not may artists admit to lying even though lying is at the very nature of art itself.
Nietzsche says "we have art in order not to die of truth"-- what he means is that the world is filled with lies and there exists no truth, just our constructions of it--so art makes everything more interesting. He holds the artist in the highest regard because we lie--therefore we are the most honest. Lying is creativity at its core--this brings us closer to truth than truth itself.
As an artist, I appreciate you for this statement. Your honesty is refreshing (ironic :). I look forward to be fooled by you and your art-maybe you will enlighten me in some shape or form one of these days.
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