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The infected touching antiquity

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  The infected touching antiquity Do you feel divinity when you touch antiquity? Metamodernist art by JJFBbennett Stand before a marble relic, and you find yourself at the threshold of contact. The museum enforces detachment. Do you feel the decay and contamination your hands carry? But what happens when your flesh touches ancient stone? To reach out is an act of somatic friction. Our mortal residue, sebaceous oils and living warmth, ruptures the sterile illusion of the untainted idol. We drag the pristine monument down into the mess of human mortality. Yet, the instinct to touch is an innate longing for connection. Laying bare skin against ancient form collapses millennia, sparking a euphoric link to what came before. Touch restores, renews, and opens an otherworldly portal beyond everyday perception. Touching antiquity infects its distant divinity with our decay, but in that very transgression, it bridges the void—granting the seeker genuine transport into transcendent awe. Marks...

The infected touching antiquity

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  The infected touching antiquity Do you feel divinity when you touch antiquity? Metamodernist art by JJFBbennett Stand before a marble relic, and you find yourself at the threshold of contact. The museum enforces detachment. Do you feel the decay and contamination your hands carry? But what happens when your flesh touches ancient stone? To reach out is an act of somatic friction. Our mortal residue, sebaceous oils and living warmth, ruptures the sterile illusion of the untainted idol. We drag the pristine monument down into the mess of human mortality. Yet, the instinct to touch is an innate longing for connection. Laying bare skin against ancient form collapses millennia, sparking a euphoric link to what came before. Touch restores, renews, and opens an otherworldly portal beyond everyday perception. Touching antiquity infects its distant divinity with our decay, but in that very transgression, it bridges the void—granting the seeker genuine transport into transcendent awe. Marks...

JJFBbennett travels to Taiwan

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  JJFBbennett travels to Taiwan Navigating the Metamodern City: Reflections from Taiwan What happens when ancient culture, vertical hyper-modernity, and raw street-level life collide through a traveller's lens? In my short video series exploring Taiwan—from the rain-slicked avenues of Taipei to the summit of Taipei 101 and the quiet contemplation of Liberty Square—travel becomes more than just sightseeing. It becomes an inquiry into metamodernism, architecture, art, and the everyday rituals that anchor our lives. Get ready for some serious wanderlust! I'm diving into JJFBbennett's incredible adventures as he explored Taiwan's stunning islands. Follow along on a journey that captures everything from Taipei's bustling energy to the historic elegance of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. Experience the trip through a vibrant travel photo library and an exciting video playlist that brings the entire destination to life. It’s an unforgettable look at Taiwan that will hav...

Forbidden Hand - Festering Imprint

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  Forbidden Hand - Festering Imprint The infection is the encounter's punctuation mark: while electron clouds repel and deny true union, the exchange of thermal energy and cellular decay leaves a festering, lasting imprint on both the sacred stone and the observer’s mind. Be Creative and Innovative with Knowledge John Bennett - AKA JJFBbennett , is an independent artist. You can view and subscribe to my work via  Blogger , YouTube , Flicker , Facebook , Instagram and Deviant Art .  Subscribe to JJFBbennett's private FB hub:  https://www.facebook.com/share/g/18ythpSXPZ/ You can subscribe to my music via  YouTube Music , Spotify , iTunes, Apple Music and Soundcloud To support my art, feel free to donate via JJFBbennett through PayPal    If you want to acquire JJFB's art creations as an NFT - John's Opensea NFT profile is https://opensea.io/JJFBbennett   Copyright This artwork is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws . Di...

The Anatomy of Friction: Signature vs. Smudge

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  The Anatomy of Friction: Signature vs. Smudge When standing before a canvas, the observer is partially immersed in a physical convergence. On the gallery wall, a metaphorical fingerprint looms between the portrait and the viewer. As the thick pigment bleeds down the plaster and pools onto the concrete floor, the participant casts a quiet silhouette. A ghost echo of human presence observing an artistic expression encapsulates human contact. To say the fingerprint is more than a signature is to embrace the core of the creative act. In the shadow of the bronze man The signature belongs to the marketplace and the textbook. It lives in auction catalogues, provenance records, and legal contracts. It tells you how much the painting is worth, which estate holds the rights, and who receives the cultural credit. It is an administrative seal—a brand stamped upon a surface to declare completion and commercial value. In our current landscape of digital creation, AI synthesis, and endless virt...

WHAT CAN MAKE UP FOR LACK OF TALENT

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  WHAT CAN MAKE UP FOR LACK OF TALENT Does art derive its validity from the skill of the creator's hand, or from the cultural scaffolding that forces our conscious spotlight onto the object? This gallery space has thrown down a direct challenge. Dominating the centre wall, glowing in bright white neon above the shattered glass and the Campbell's Soup Can, is a raw, uncomfortable question: "WHAT CAN MAKE UP FOR LACK OF TALENT?"  This neon sign acts as the ultimate cognitive mirror, forcing us to reconcile the two extremes hanging on either side of the gallery. The Postmodern Answer: Frame and Hype Look at the soup can sitting in the spotlight. Postmodernism, driven by Andy Warhol and Pop Art, gave a cynical, revolutionary answer to this neon question: Context, branding, and institutional framing make up for a lack of talent. Postmodernism declared that you don't need the masterly brushwork of the Renaissance or the sublime emotional intensity of Mark Rothko. An art...

JJFBbennett travels China

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  JJFBbennett travels China Travel China vblog A travelogue through transit, urban spaces, and metamodern art. Follow the journey from Darwin into mainland China—spanning flight corridors, local bus routes and the architectural textures of Guangzhou. Blending visual observation, posthuman reflections, and ambient digital art, this series explores mobility, modern landscape, and the hero's journey in transit. Travel serves as the raw material for my digital art, transformed through the lens of experiential video. I approach video recording much like a traditional painter uses charcoal: as an immediate, fluid sketch. Where a static photograph freezes time, a video sketch captures gesture, momentum, light shifts, and the living pulse of an environment. Through editing, video becomes more than a record of movement—it becomes a site of active reflection. It allows me to re-enter the experience, positioning myself within the atmosphere of the place. This process of thinking about think...

When Atoms Reach for Sacred Altars

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  When Atoms Reach for Sacred Altars What do you feel when you touch something sacred? Do you want to touch sacred art? Are we creatures bound by thermodynamics, driven by an instinctual urge to exchange heat, shed skin cells, and mingle our matter with the monuments we revere? To stand before a sacred masterpiece is to experience a gravitational pull—an irresistible desire to collapse the space between subject and object, to leave an oily fingerprint as proof of shared existence.  The gallery border is a social construct attempting to enforce absolute vacuum, forbidding the inevitable entropy of human connection. To reach out anyway is to assert that our physical reality is not separate from the sublime, but bound to it by the very matter we carry on our fingertips. Reaching across that barrier is a quiet rebellion against social decorum: a desperate want for quantum entanglement that collapses the boundary between ideal beauty and our messy, lived reality. Be Creative a...

Abstraction Belief and Experience

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Modernist art and idealised reality When you look at abstract art, you filter it through your own beliefs and experiences. Your perception turns the artwork into a visual puzzle, shaped by your unique psychological makeup. It is futile to ask what the artist intended, because you inevitably interpret the artwork through the lens of your own life. Bring your own perspectives when approaching modernist abstract art.  Modernist artists aspired to a universal, timeless harmony, pursuing the "supremacy of pure feeling." They demanded absolute sincerity, approaching the canvas as an idealised reality. Decades later, the world and art have evolved. Modernist art and idealised reality Looking through the Lens of Belief Your core values and philosophical outlook dictate whether you perceive divine harmony or chaotic randomness in a composition. Many pioneering abstractionists created art inspired by their spiritual beliefs, often expressing the unseen. The artist’s worldview shapes th...

The Metamodern Smudge: Seeing Growth on the Frame

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  The Metamodern Smudge: Seeing Growth on the Frame My use of the phrase "Fingerprint on the frame" functions as a metamodernist artifact. From my perspective, metamodernism oscillates between modernist sincerity and postmodern irony, and this concept sits precisely at that intersection. It recognises that the artwork within the frame is a construction, while also valuing the human touch that created it. More than just recognition, it is the fundamental identifier.  In this space, the smudge is not just an artistic signature; it is a map of personal growth. It reveals the traces of our experiences and the impact of our interactions with the world around us. The transparency of glass symbolises the invisible cultural conditions that shape our perspectives, allowing us to see through to the complex realities that influence our creativity and expression. This interplay creates a deeper understanding of both the art and the artist, acknowledging that every mark left behind tells ...

What is the Churn of the Unmade

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  What is the Churn of the Unmade?  Metamodernist art by JJFBbennett It isn’t just paint; it’s the heavy, exhausting gravity of pure affectation. I applied these deep purples and stark whites with a thick palette knife, wanting you to feel the weight of the medium itself—the messy, chaotic over-saturation of our digital lives, the constant noise. It’s dense, tactile, and completely overwhelming. But  The chaos is interrupted by a line of perfect, unyielding geometry. A clear glass ring slicing straight through the noise. This physical ring stands as the initial boundary of awareness. On one side, the suffocating density of raw human expression and digital noise; on the other, a clean, projected window into an idealised, quiet simplicity.  Where does the noise end, and where does our awareness truly begin? The glass ring doesn't just divide the canvas; it bridges two entirely different eras of the soul.  Look to the left. You see that heavy, anxious abstract expr...

This ring is the disparity portal

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  This ring is the disparity portal What are our cognitive struggles? Metamodernist art by JJFBbennett The glass ring doesn't just divide the canvas; it bridges two entirely different eras of the soul. Look to the left. You see that heavy, anxious abstract expressionism—thick, turbulent strokes of purple and white paint colliding in a chaotic swirl. It’s the noise of modern anxiety, the visceral weight of our internal cognitive struggles. But follow the curve of the glass to the right, and the world opens up into an almost naive, idyllic landscape. Soft green hills, a quiet, winding river, and a pastoral peace that feels like a memory of a place we’ve never actually been. It’s intentionally a bit ironic, a bit nostalgic—a digital dream of simplicity. This ring is the disparity portal itself. It is a lens balancing on the fine line of metamodernism, suspended between cynical detachment and sincere hope. And if you look closely right there on the upper-left curve of the glass, I left...