Saltz's article concerns installations or artworks that are overly cluttered or organized, or otherwise known as a clusterfuck, as the title suggests. He thinks that these kinds of works are artists' response to the hectic and chaotic reality of everyday life. Saltz definitely has a less than positive opinion on these works, calling them desperate, unbearable, and dislocated. The pictures of a John Kessler installation highlight Saltz's criticisms. An entire wall of televisions playing the same image, and another room filled with different arrangements of tv's make Saltz's opinions seem on point.
He goes on to discuss an installation by Mike Kelley, which consists of yearbook pictures that have been retouched, rephotographed and arranged in an obsessive compulsive manner. Although Saltz says that it is clear and clever, he admits that it feels very empty and unfulfilling. He felt that the piece, not the artist, generated it's own appeal, and because of that, he makes it seem like a cheap thrill. Despite these two artists' shortcomings in making works that are 'clusterfucky,' Saltz discusses other artists who's work has a similar aesthetic but ends up being a success.
The 'clusterfuck aesthetic' is present in pretty much every kind of art, from the sculpture Saltz talked about, to music and videos and beyond. While it definitely has it's appeal in each medium, there comes a point where it gets too over done or gimmicky, even within a single piece. Referring back to the Kessler piece he talked about, if it was just a huge wall of televisions playing an interesting video piece that somehow had a message that tied in with the installation, it might have been a lot more interesting. Instead, there were multiple other installations made out of more tv's. Saltz's point seemed that there was just too much of too much. Too much is fine, but when you start pushing well beyond the limits of too much, that's when the 'clusterfuck' starts to weigh down and degrade a piece.
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