The world was never good or right or perfect. There was never a golden age. No utopia has ever existed. No religion is the correct religion. No country is the correct country. No god is watching. There is no accountability. No Heaven, no Hell. No narrative, either at macro or micro scale. Murderers will murder. Thieves will steal. Outbreaks of justice will rise and be quelled. You are alone, gathering whatever data your instrument can supply, synthesizing whatever your instrument synthesizes. You will do this until you die.

Visual art is uniquely positioned to convey this. Yet were artists to convey this perfectly, you would never notice the art. It would be nitrogen, bedrock. The sea floor beneath coral reefs. Such art would pre-exist all beginnings.

Visual art wants to stand away from the flow of life, even as it arises from that flow. This is the paradox.