ABOUT HUMDRUM​ [negative aesthetics]

The drawing is inspired by reading ‘Aesthetics of the Familiar’ by Yuriko Saito (2017), wherein it is described that often we (or: philosophers) do not attach aesthetic value to everyday life. Instead, often aesthetics has to do with the extraordinary, and not with humdrum-monotonous familiar life. In short, Saito argues that everyday life can be considered of aesthetic importance - the humdrum rhythm of things might just not be seen as something of positive aesthetic value. Nevertheless, according to Saito we can ‘develop daily life’s extraordinary aesthetic potentials, other times savor the very ordinariness of the familiar, yet some other times sharpen a critical perception of the aesthetically negative aspects of our lives’ (she continues “with an eye toward improving them” but I do not think that is necessary per se). 
Life is not just positive experiences, neither should aesthetics have to concern mere positive, special, or sublime experiences. Humdrum. 

While reading, the word humdrum got stuck in my head, and in a humdrum manner I drew line after line with regular pencil until the paper was saturated. The granite of the pencil creates this shiny or mat effect, depending on how the light strikes it. The drawing is just greys, it’s monotonous and itself ‘humdrum’ in its expression. The repetition of putting down slightly diagonal stripes, over and over again, actually was quite soothing. And boring. And distracting.  For me, HUMDRUM is a response to the question of negative and everyday aesthetics through creating something arguably aesthetic yet not necessarily aesthetically attractive.