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Originally Posted By: BranShea
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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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?


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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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C'mon! This is sea kittens we're talking about!

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Originally Posted By: etaoin
yeahbut® is it art?

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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Originally Posted By: The Pook
Originally Posted By: etaoin
yeahbut® is it art?

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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Originally Posted By: BranShea
kicking in an open door


yes.


(and I don't know what I would call it, but it isn't art in my book.)


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Originally Posted By: The Pook
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.


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Actually it's one of the least obnoxious works of this particular 'artist'!

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