Close Distance - Space, time and art

We don’t need art to show us what a new fridge looks like; we can walk into the nearest electrical appliance shop and have a look for ourselves. The same can be said of almost any object accessible to our senses. Despite the technical perfection achieved by the extreme realist artists, and their ability to capture beauty in the living moment and for perpetuity, insofar as they claim to present an accurate representation of their subjects, and insofar as their subjects are concrete (that is, tangible) objects in the world – be they trees, persons, seascapes, animals or fridges - they don’t show us anything about the world and its constituents that we cannot see for ourselves.