A
Letter from Saatchi Gallery
I got a rather strange
email today. From Saatchi Gallery, of
all places. Since my website is so
astonishing, etc. etc., I am cordially invited to take advantage of free space
on Saatchi.com. Of course, it turns
out that so is everyone else in the world.
Not absolutely everyone is sent an email, but anyone who goes to the site
can set up a small gallery for free.
I took advantage of the opportunity, since any link is a good
link, as far as I’m concerned. Even
Stormfront can link to me if they want, as long as they don’t expect a return
of the favor. I disagree with those
such as Morgan Weistling, who strongly warns off anyone who wants to connect up
with him. I think once you put images
up on the web, you have to pretty much expect that people will be borrowing
them and stealing them. You just have
to hope that they can’t do much with small files except decorate their own
little websites and refrigerators. And
you certainly shouldn’t prevent them from linking to you. That is the whole point of the internet,
seems to me. Anyway, every stolen image
makes the original worth more. Even if
someone stole all my 4mb original files, they would still just have potential
posters, which are nothing compared to the originals. Computer files are not art, not by my definition. They are just PR. My future reputation lives on in the real works, not in the
files. If you can’t share your files,
you might as well turn off your computer and forget the whole thing.
Anyway,
the reason I am here writing this note is that I think it is funny that
Saatchi’s web reader did not scroll down past the first images on my site. If she had reached my “Introduction to the
Argument against the Avant Garde” she might have skipped sending me an
email. Inviting me to be on their site
is a bit like inviting a boll weevil into the cotton field. I expect that at some point in the near
future they will figure out who I am and formally dis-invite me, but until then
we will have some fun. It is also
somewhat akin to inviting a Jedi into the Imperial Fortress. If I end up reaching any kind of goal in
this mad crusade of mine, it will be fine fodder for future historians, who may
find it as rich as I do that the black king should leave unobstructed access to
his last row.