2012 was an unpredictable, fast, scary, wild, and beautiful year in many ways. While the media want to talk about the Mayans and debate the end of the world, to tell you the truth none of that matters. Because every day is somebody’s last day on earth. Every day people lose loved ones who mean the world to them. While we would love nothing more to speak only of the beautiful wonderful possibilities of the new year, 2012 was sobering in many respects and it would not be honest to ignore some of the incredible human tragedies of the year. From violent regimes to the death of innocent children, unspeakable crimes against people and the celebritization of mass murderers marred the beauty of all of our social, scientific, and technological achievements. It is almost impossible to tell if we are making true forward progress as a species or just blindly marching ourselves into the oblivion media sources are so fascinated with.
Ladies and gentlemen, citizens of the world, we are at war. And this war is with ourselves. We are in a battle for our collective souls.. this thing called humanity. Imagine that every single choice you make in your life adds a drop in the water and all of our choices together represent the sum total of the human race, as viewed from far above. Good or bad, we are painting the image of ourselves for the universe to bear witness.
Art is and will always be something different than any other practice in existence, in the way that it is a practice of purely expressing yourself. Every choice you make as an artist represents how close or far you are from understanding yourself honestly, and honestly expressing yourself to the world.
But we here at Empty Kingdom believe that the expression of yourself is no longer enough.
We have to do more. We have to go to the next level.
Some artists have an esoteric idea of how they help the world, which is “I make art, I inspire people, so therefore I’m making the world a better place.” While this is mostly true, the real question is: as an artist, are you really making more of a difference than the person who uses their own two hands to feed homeless people at a shelter, or the ones who dedicate their lives and spend their precious time helping abused women, starving children, and other people in need?
So with 2013, Empty Kingdom is here to say that life as we know it is good…but it is not good enough.
It is not good enough to just make art and spread good vibes. We believe that artists, in a way, have even more responsibility than the average person to do something for society. It’s time for us to take our rightful place among all men and women, to stand tall and be a part of the change we so desperately need.
Remember, you are the change you seek. You are not what you think or say, but what you do. Your opinions don’t matter. But your actions will live forever.
Our resolution is to try harder, give more of ourselves, and create real impact on communities around the world, to create honest conversations, and help spread art and help those who may have a hard time accessing or practicing it.
And this is a resolution for all time, not just for the new year. Some day we’ll be a 90/10 company, and hopefully by then the world will be better for it. But honestly we can’t do it without YOU. Remember, every single choice you make adds up to our final choice as one species. Let’s fight to make the right choices not just for ourselves -but for all of wo/mankind.
So let us attempt to make a difference in other people’s lives, to affect real changes for real people… and let us never again talk about the end of the world, but the start of a whole new one.
It is 2013. And the beginning is near.