Quote:
Originally Posted by Buffy
While I have some of the same general concerns you do, I think one has to be careful about being perceived a completely subjective snob about this.
In high school I rebelled against the kind of "pseudo-art" you rail against by turning in for one of my art classes an "installation" which consisted of filling my locker with orderly stacks of Dr. Pepper cans, calling it "Dr. Pepper has no Point" (subliminal reference to Harry Nilsson's The Point).
I'll refer you to this recent screed against Dale Chihuly who's work I love and realizes such amazing beauty that I considered the review slander (as did an avalanche of letters that it generated). The article's point was that it was "mere craft"--a charge commonly leveled by many artists who have no skills but put plenty of "message" and "enlightenment" in their works.
I detest Laurie Anderson, mostly because it seems so "unartistic" to me, but it of course is *loaded* with messages that I mostly agree with. I don't mind her calling herself a performance artist, and I won't disagree with labeling her as that.
Mostly this is because this is *one* area where "elitism" truly reigns: I don't think *anyone* has the right to judge something as "art" or "not art." The market will judge whether its "worthy" or not, but to try to sit in judgment on a term as ephemeral as "art" is unsupportable, and in my mind exposes more about the viewer than the artist! 
The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic, 
Buffy |
Sadly, Dale Chihuly stuff is the kind of thing I produce and even send to friends or once had exhibited as for Laurie Anderson - I'm a great fan of hers. I don't stand against ephemeral art just thoughtless 'art' that sells for loads but has little or no substance and to me, little or no impact. As for the elitism - isn't that what decides what goes into these galleries, rather than what is art itself (The pretense and conning, that requires a passport to get accepted i.e. 'He's been to art school, so must be an artist - you haven't so aren't one. Where's your certificate of bland obedience to the rules?).
By the way, the cans were trash but the title at least said something amusing - not so with regards to the unmade bed of Tracey Emin or Damien Hirst's sheep etc). To see people trying to critique stuff that has no value and 'justify' its existence, only rams home The Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome and the way everybody ignores the truth, to stay in with the in crowd (Take seriously the laughable as did the Emp's courtiers and the crowd).
