“Nihilism is best left to the professionals” Iggy Pop
Excerpt of program text by Scott McKenzie
“How does one deal with all the nonsense? In The Usefulness of the Useless, Nuccio Ordine writes: “… those who are sure they possess the truth no longer need to seek it, no longer feel the need for dialogue, to listen to the other, or to tackle diversity in an authentic manner. […] This is why doubt is not the enemy of truth, but a constant spur to go in search of it.” In this vein, the nonsense that lies the heart of Kibbins’ work is a nihilist one, challenging apparently accepted and incontrovertible truths. On nihilism, Nietzsche writes in The Will to Power: “Nihilism may be viewed as the ideal of the supreme intellectual power, of the superabundant life; it is partly destructive and partly ironical.” Kibbins’ work, then, projects a certain and timely humility, undercutting absolute truths, while nonetheless advancing, through the positive destructive and ironic power of nihilism, the need to question everything.”
Program
The Child’s Concept of Chance (2014 | 5min)
Only Believe Things That Are Easy to Understand (2014 | 6min)
Ocean View (2014 | 11min)
Or So We Say (2017 | 10min)
Grading Greek Philosophers (2014 | 3min)
The Wide Wide World (2016 | 9min)
God Hates Himself (2015 | 20min)
We Move Only Ourselves (2017 | 10min)
Gary Kibbins
Gary Kibbins is a media artist and writer, currently teaching at Queen’s University. Until 2000 he taught at the California Institute of the Arts. A book of essays and scripts was published in 2005: Grammar & Not-Grammar: Selected Scripts and Essays by Gary Kibbins, ed. A. J. Paterson, YYZ Books, Toronto; 2005; 254 pp.
Related Programming
Exhibition: All Things Being Equal, Henry Andersen, Phil Rose, Mara Eagle + Anna Queen. March 15 – April 18, 2018.