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enthusiast
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OP
enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 261 |
"Art" is the arrangement or re-arrangement of articles, natural or made, into a form that has no intrinsic use or purpose other than as decoration.Both the furniture and the boxes [...]are meant to be pleasing to the eye.I also don't agree that all art should have no other use other than decoration, however, what both of these statements seem to agree on is that art should be 'pleasing to the eye,' or at least move us in some way. It is true that there is no accounting for taste, but I fail to see how anyone can be move by a lightbulb turning on and off every few seconds... I sure some will disagree with me on this one!  If the world doesn't suck, we'd all fall off.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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The Light Bulb:
First, we'd have to see this work of art to make any kind of judgment.
Perhaps the bulb turns on and off eratically;or perhaps in regularly-timed intervals; or spells out something in Morse code; or simply causes us to look at it and really see its details.
I haven't seen the work of art, so I can't judge, but, if it won some kind of award, I'd hope that the artist did something interesting or enlightening with the light bulb. I hope it just isn't a light bulb that comes on at regular intervals--that would sound more like a science project. To win an award, there was probably something creative in how this bulb was presented. Could there be something missing to your story? Maybe the critical element?
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Joined: Jul 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
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if it won some kind of award, I'd hope that the artist did something interesting or enlightening with the light bulb.
Hmm . . .I haven't seen it either, but I doubt he did. A big thing in modern art is to break stuff down to its base elements to really look at them. Now, I'm not sure what you get out of watching a light go on and off, or looking at a canvas painted one, solid, primary color, but that's the point. Modern art is reflective, you get out of it what you put in.
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Joined: Sep 2002
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enthusiast
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OP
enthusiast
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Nope, it's just a regular bulb in an empty room, going on and off at regularly timed intervals. (En lightening and de lighting to some, though I was rather put out!  ) If the world doesn't suck, we'd all fall off.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
It was a year ago, and I didn;t pay all that much attention at the time, but so far as I remember, the piece of "art" was not the light bulb, but the whole room being plunged into darkness then filled with light at regular intervals. The light bulb was, of course, an essential elemant of the piece, but was not intended as the main focus.
I believe that the artist was making some sort of "statement" that word again with the alternation of light and darkness.
Personally, I considered it to be pretentious drivel, but that is my own, subjective view and I will defend to my last breath the right for any one to make an arrangement of that sort, with some "artistic" purpose in mind and to declare it as art.
I will also defend the right od all of us to say that it doesn't appeal to us and to totally disagree with the judges of the Turner Prize.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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.... and when public money is involved, we certainly have every right to demand that it is spent on "worthwhile" projects - the problem is, who is to judge *that ???
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Seeing Georgia O'Keefe's work for the first time:
I'd read a biography, looked through two collected volumes of her work, had been interested in her denial that her work was primarily sexual, if sexual at all.
But it wasn't until I saw her paintings in person that my appreciation for what she was doing leapt high--high as a salmon leaping up falls.
She didn't just paint. She painted with precision. She painted in such a way that I could see how each stroke had been applied with a kind of perfected, even unearthly skill. What she did was comparable, in my mind, to a master violinist performing one of the most demanding concertos seemingly flawlessly. A Midori at the Beethoven. A Milstein at the Tchaikovsky. O'Keefe did with paint what Heifetz did with the Brahms.
I agree that whatever art is lies out there on many levels. And I wouldn't want anyone to stop the creative impulse in anyone, no matter what the level and no matter what the subject or the medium.
Babatunde Olatunji told a group of children learning African drumming that the orchestra didn't have the spirit of drummers drumming about the god spirit of Iron. But I knew he was wrong, though I greatly admire him and hold his own skills high in my estimation. Sometimes it's too easy to criticize what you haven't tried yourself--too easy to miss excellence because of lack of understanding.
But at my own level of lack of understanding of this light bulb, taking a room from darkness to light and back to darkness again...well, it seems to be a statement at best. Just something to make us think. But not prize-worthy. Where's that element of a human doing something godlike? Where's the heart-stopping moment that makes us (or me) sense something of greatness? It seems to me we should give prizes to great, successful effort... something that somehow humbles us.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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She painted in such a way that I could see how each stroke had been applied with a kind of perfected, even unearthly skill.
To me, art should go beyond that. The technique should be transparent. I've heared music that was played with the most exacting technique that didn't have the spirit of a bunch of mental hospital patients banging on kitchen pans. And the latter is easily at least as enjoyable as the former. Granted it's best when there is both spirit and technique, but, in general, I would prefer the spirit to the technique. And, if the technique is there, I, for one, don't want it shoved in my face.
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veteran
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veteran
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the heart-stopping moment that makes us (or me) sense something of greatnessI think this captures something of my own feelings on art. To me, a work of art points beyond itself, and often takes me beyond myself, enhancing my sense of wonder. It's an extremely valid function of art to take something supposedly mundane and make the audience look at it again with new eyes. The distinction is that phart often tries to do so too hard and too consciously. We shouldn't take enlightenment too seriously. Awe and laughter are surprisingly close.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Here is Website on the Turner prize. It doesn't explain why the wierd and wonderful should be so strongly featured. http://www.tate.org.uk/home/faqs/turner.htm
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