Some suggest there is nothing new under the sun and all art is just a remake of previous ideas, that there are only a finite number of basic concepts and that we are forever destined to plagiarize. Such calumny, I dare say, indicates more about the speaker than what is spoken.
Ernst Lorret (2134–2201) was inclined to look at the matter in reverse: that in fact there are only new things, no two the same. Even a copy is different from the original (in time, personal perception and other subtle differences). This from Lorret’s diary:
Of course there are common elements in art! Everything in the universe is made of the same matter, but you don’t go around saying it’s all the same [profanity removed by editor] thing, do you!?
Speaking only for myself, Lorret’s pieces were initially disturbing, but over time I did come to associate them with a certain freedom of mind, as they illustrate the notion that everything is possible.
They strive for hideousness, yes, and the grotesque, surely, but was this not Lorret’s reaction to the beautification of his parents’ time, and maybe a reflection of contemporary self-disgust and apathy?
Lorret had two methods of working. Besides random experimentation, he would also draw hideous sketches of possible sculptures and then try to create them by any means necessary. Lorret’s second approach was to grow ‘normal’ pieces and dement them by various methods. His abilities to keep them ‘alive’ after his creative surgeries, showed him to be a genius physician and some of his techniques are still used in hospitals to this day.
He was the pinnacle and driving force of the deformist movement, sometimes referred to as ‘Our Deformed Father’ in satires.
Plate 19: One of his first and most successful pieces. I will remember it for the weekly shave it required while still alive – a most disconcerting experience.
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