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Yesterdays quote for the day:
The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else. -John Updike, writer (1932-2009)
Both parts of this statement kept me thinking.
It all depends on how widely you take the the meaning “artist” ; “did not exist before” and what you understand by “destroying” .
“artist” and “didn’t exist before” :
A knitter who knits an article from a self invented pattern is an artist if you stick to the statement. Anyone molding something out of clay is an artist. Does it have to be proved something that it did not exist before? Is it verifiable?
Second part of the statement:
“he does it without destroying something else.”
Michelangelo had a lot of mountain parts demolished to bring all these glorifying marble statues into the world. Michelangelo had nightmares about how to get and transport all that marble.
Ivory cutting has been the ruin of many a healthy elephant and ivory rendering animals.
For woodcarving you need to damage the wood.
I think Updike must have had only the writer/poet in mind when he made this statement.
Writers cause relatively little material damage writing books. Although following the expression that the pen is mightier than the sword, who knows. Reputations and believes can be destroyed by a sharp pen.
Is it strictly observed only the singer and spoken word performing artists who can do
without any destroying?
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Thought-provoking remarks, BranShea.
I agree with you that some forms of art do seem to destroy something else in the process. But perhaps something of little value was "destroyed" in order to produce a lovlier, more valuable and longer lasting piece of art?
I would guess that two trees were cut down in order manufacture a couple cellos and a few violins. But think of the beauty and pleasure that results from the instruments! In their new form they could last for hundreds of years - how long would the two trees last?
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Interestingly, I read just this morning about an art exhibit by an installation artist called Marco Evaristti in the town of Kolding in Denmark where the police were called to shut it down for just this reason. The interactive exhibit consisted of goldfish swimming in kitchen blenders. The public could push the button on the blender if they wanted to. Apparently two goldfish had already become bouillabaisse by the time the animal rights people had complained about it!
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Pooh-Bah
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There is always some idiot that will push the button.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I would guess that two trees were cut down in order manufacture a couple cellos and a few violins. But think of the beauty and pleasure that results from the instruments! In their new form they could last for hundreds of years - how long would the two trees last?
Of course we can miss a few trees as long as we replant them and let them grow again. I would miss the cello's and violins too. I looked up Updike and he proves to have been a good quoter in general: A Life in Quotes Though I knew his name, I never read any of his books. On reading The Pook's goldfish story, visual artist seem pretty desparate these days. Poor vision, poor philosophy, only big yelps for public attention. Preferebly causing scandals. Let the music begin.
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Interestingly, I read just this morning about an art exhibit by an installation artist called Marco Evaristti in the town of Kolding in Denmark where the police were called to shut it down for just this reason. The interactive exhibit consisted of goldfish swimming in kitchen blenders. The public could push the button on the blender if they wanted to. Apparently two goldfish had already become bouillabaisse by the time the animal rights people had complained about it! This is pure, unadulterated hypocrisy! I'm sure the Danes eat lots of fish, and don't tell me their capture and death is more humane than a quick blender experience. Is a goldfish somehow exempt because it is kept as a pet? How about an exhibit which would allow the public to kill an ant? Or a fly? Or a wasp? Would the animal rights activists be all over that? Why do goldfish have more "rights" than insects? I'm all for not being cruel and not torturing animals; in fact, I make sure to buy cage-free hen's eggs (yes, I know they still have little space, but it's better than a cage...) and free-range beef, when I can get it, but the actual killing of animals is routine. I realize there are vegans among us, and respect their right to eat what they wish, for whatever reason. I kill lettuce, too...
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Carpal Tunnel
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formerly known as etaoin...
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I only know what I like... I wouldn't bother to see that exhibit.
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Carpal Tunnel
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well, there's protest and/or making a statement, and then there's art. sometimes the two can be one and the same.
not in this case.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Cmon..two. You can keep exhibits of any animal to show how well you raised it ( matter of taste whether you like fringed poodles and manicured cock-a-doodies ) but you can't make a PUSH THE BUTTON TO MASH THE GOLDGFISHES-exhibition item. That's not a matter of hypocrisy. To call it art, that's hypocrisy.
I don't kill and ant nor fly either unless it really bugs me.
BTW,I think the ant would survive the blender. And good for him.
I am of opinion® ( stole your copyright-bug Etaoin) Looks chique.
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Cmon..two. You can keep exhibits of any animal to show how well you raised it ( matter of taste whether you like fringed poodles and manicured cock-a-doodies ) but you can't make a PUSH THE BUTTON TO MASH THE GOLDGFISHES-exhibition item. That's not a matter of hypocrisy. To call it art, that's hypocrisy. The hypocrisy to which I was referring was that of animal rights activists getting upset about the killing of a goldfish, not the actual killing being art, or not. Calling it art isn't hypocrisy, but a display of poor taste. I don't think anything that displays/glorifies the harm or death of something living can be considered art, but that's just my opinion. :0)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Have you all seen the news-item about NBC refusing to air
the "ladies" fondling vegetables, during the upcoming
Superbowl? And the notariety they area getting as a result?
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Very poor taste - sensationalism to make up for lack of talent! Reminds me of the crucifix photographed in a jar of urine, and someone called it "art". >:p
As for the trees, yes, BranShea, we would plant more spruce and maples! Instead of saying we were "destroying" two trees to make several musical instruments, we could say we were "sacrificing" them. That sounds better.
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Carpal Tunnel
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C'mon! This is sea kittens we're talking about!
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I think it is, but whether it is good art is another question. twosleepy makes a good point, and this is exactly the kind of discussion the exhibit generated at the time, which means it probably achieved the artistic ends the artist intended. I don't condone the idea of casually destroying life for the sake of art, but that is the very question about human nature the work is raising. I think you could make the same point by not having the blender working - just to see how many people tried to do it. The installation forces people to investigate their attitudes towards Life itself. Is it 'sacred' in any sense? Is the life of a goldfish more important than satisfying my morbid curiosity or desire for power over life and death? etc, etc.
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Came across this poem by Updike on another blog some days ago:
It is a religious poem. I didn't realise Updike wrote anything like this - thought he was just a novelist.
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
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I don't condone the idea of casually destroying life for the sake of art, but that is the very question about human nature the work is raising. Has this question not already been aswered for ages? We know humans are capable of being destructive. We know some are capable of being destructive for no apparent reason at all. Or because someone makes it easy for them. That question had been raised in so many books and discussions and on so many occasions. This blender thing is another try at kicking in an open door. So often this so-called "confrontation art" is only that: kicking in an open door. ( and having only this above said self-serving motive )
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Carpal Tunnel
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yes. (and I don't know what I would call it, but it isn't art in my book.)
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Came across this poem by Updike on another blog some days ago:
It is a religious poem. I didn't realise Updike wrote anything like this - thought he was just a novelist.
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance. Thank you for that poem and for taking the time to put it all in this thread.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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old hand
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Actually it's one of the least obnoxious works of this particular 'artist'!
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