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Ars Brevis, Vita
Longa is a play on Hippocrates’ famous aphorism “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis,
Occasio Praeceps, Experimentum Periculosum, Iudicium Difficile”. He was referring to the practice of
medicine when he stated that ‘art is long, life is short, the moment is
fleeting, experiment is treacherous and judgment is harsh’. Ars Longa, Vita
Brevis has been interpreted by many artists to mean that artistic creations
outlast the human life. My
adoption of the reverse of this idea has become the overarching mantra of my
art practice. Art is short, Life
is long! I adopted this slogan to contemplate my tendency to create large,
complex and intricate pieces, which complement my less serious conceptual,
text-based practice. According to
this philosophy, I create ephemeral art in the form of installations, printed
publications, posters and stenciled drawings. I have made up variations on famous American anti-war sayings
from the 60s & 70s and stenciled them onto army tarps. I have spray painted these same texts
onto snow and watched them melt away over time. I have loaded storefronts with images of love symbols. I
have created T-shirts and stamped willing participants with symbols and words
to spread messages of peace so that my ideas can walk around on human bodies. I
have documented this process and shared it on the internet and in zines and
bookworks. I love to play with words and symbols to create new meanings, ask
questions and resurrect dead languages.
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