Published June 2009
Fantasy VS Reality
Fantasy vs Reality isn’t as easy as Aliens vs Robots. Yeah, of course we are living in a fantasy world, but that is our reality.
A lot of my work as an artist deals with nostalgia. I think nostalgia is one of the few things I really believe in. Because it happened to me, it feels like it must be true, it must be ‘real’. When MJ died recently, the best thing for me was the chance to sing Heal The World again. I always find a rowdy sing a long so uplifting. The first time I sang Heal The World was at the Opera House in ‘92 with some other kids for a school concert. Back in 2009 at midnight outside the Hub in Newtown, we gang of MJ lovers ended our tribute evening with a courageous Heal the World. I know it’s macabre but without him around I could really sing those words again and mean it, go back and go forward in my own realities, deleting and embellishing as I went. I guess it proves that reality is about creating a sense of truth and legitimacy to what we are doing. It is a way to justify our lives.
In another reality I think the creation of art operates in a mini universe that is neither purely fantastical nor solidly based in a set reality. It is a world of questions. This world is made more complicated from our seat in Sydney, this glitzy city with its sparkling harbour we’re on the world’s edge, on its largest island, floating yet stuck, finding meaning and loosing the thread again.
I think the artists in this issue are all toying with issues of Fantasy V Reality in their work and no doubt their lives. These artists all operate in mixed capacities, none of them are solely masterpiece makers. Who can afford to only pursue art? There isn’t a cheap artists’ life anymore and artist-run-initiatives struggle more than ever to keep their real estate, if nothing else. Sydney won’t ever be Berlin, nor 1916 Zurich. We are sad to pronounce – “nothing comes for free and art is no exception” – that’s reality talking. One fantasy you can all have for free is DSP, this little mag. A moment in time when something is free. I am part of a team of people who make this magazine possible and I know it has different meanings for each of them however for me one thing is particularly important – the politics of having a publication which recognises, critiques and celebrates contemporary art for free.
Back in the real world it all comes down to death. We are all going to die. Do you die in your fantasies or does everything just die in reality? I think both sides are ignoring death from their corners of the ring. But now MJ is dead and the Wicked Witch is on Broadway perhaps we can Heal the World.
—Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris