Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Best Anecdotal Moment re the Christo Orange Curtains
And the best anecdotal moment re the Christo thing comes from a Manhattanite ...
too funny - I can just picture the look on her face...
p.s. I won´t link any pictures because they've been splattered everywhere... I´m tired of seeing the photos already. An orange curtain blowing in the wind has been photographed 3 times in every way possible... OK, we've seen it, blue curtains, please.
update Feb 22-2005
Old art/funding debate flares anew. Interesting comments that represent most of this debate (see also his previous post the Soap-Chewer performance piece).
The average citizen anywhere has so little control of what is done with tax money. That is one of the biggest problems with modern "democracies," profound lack of agency with the public sphere. The structure and process is absolutely machiavelian.
Update Feb 23-2005
Here's a great take (from Ideas Hatched) on a similar recent controversy regarding Hillary Clinton and the funding war for the Brooklyn Museum of Art regarding an insulting religion art piece.
The finance side of the elite/museum/gallery art world is one cesspool.
At least Christo, reportedly by other bloggers, finances his own art playground extravaganzas. But where does he get the millions to do it in the first place? Previous public money heists? Private donations?
Update mar 1-2005
From the Evangelical Outpost:
I think a toilet, more than a urinal, reflects perfectly not only "the dynamic nature of our art today," but the entire society. A latrine is much representative of art today than art in 1917, and in the last century as a whole. What was once used to create controversy and break the rules has become the rule.
"expert" Simon Wilson is good.
.
Get a load of this- I was webslinging up 5th Avenue, right along the border of Central Park. I look off to my left, toward the park and I see literally THOUSANDS of these orange archways being erected along the paths through out the park! Attached to the archways, people were hanging large orange 'curtains' (for lack of a better term).
Okay, I'll bite. This I gotta see. [...]
Anyway, I asked this young woman what was going on. [...] "We are putting together a work of art for the people of New York City to enjoy" Simone said. After surveying all of the "orangeness" I asked, "Okay, so where's the art"? This question was met with a bit of retort. I didn't mean to offend... honestly!
too funny - I can just picture the look on her face...
p.s. I won´t link any pictures because they've been splattered everywhere... I´m tired of seeing the photos already. An orange curtain blowing in the wind has been photographed 3 times in every way possible... OK, we've seen it, blue curtains, please.
update Feb 22-2005
Old art/funding debate flares anew. Interesting comments that represent most of this debate (see also his previous post the Soap-Chewer performance piece).
To put it into terms more easily understood by philistine Ablution readers, the piece consisted of "trashing a public toilet by chewing up soap and spitting it all over the walls, floor and sinks, and spreading toilet paper around the floor." While it's not immediately clear, this opus may have been a reproduction of Ms. Bartram's groundbreaking Spit and Lick, an event performed in November, 2003, and also funded by the taxpayer and the lottery.
The average citizen anywhere has so little control of what is done with tax money. That is one of the biggest problems with modern "democracies," profound lack of agency with the public sphere. The structure and process is absolutely machiavelian.
Update Feb 23-2005
Here's a great take (from Ideas Hatched) on a similar recent controversy regarding Hillary Clinton and the funding war for the Brooklyn Museum of Art regarding an insulting religion art piece.
What makes the story even more absurd is that the Museum is taking legal action against the city for cutting their funds. The lawyers hired by the Museum are most likely being paid for partially with past subsidies from the city, and the city, of course, must mount a defense. So, in effect, the taxpayers are financing each side of a legal dispute over whether or not taxpayers, through their government representatives, are allowed to determine the uses of their money.
The finance side of the elite/museum/gallery art world is one cesspool.
At least Christo, reportedly by other bloggers, finances his own art playground extravaganzas. But where does he get the millions to do it in the first place? Previous public money heists? Private donations?
Update mar 1-2005
From the Evangelical Outpost:
Modern art is in the toilet.
Literally.
Last December, 500 arts specialists in Britain agreed that the single most important work of art in the 20th century was Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain.”
For most people, the selection of a urinal over the works of such artists as Picasso or Matisse might have come as a bit of a shock. But according to art expert Simon Wilson, “…it reflects the dynamic nature of art today and the idea that the creative process that goes into a work of art is the most important thing - the work itself can be made of anything and can take any form." [emphasis added]
I think a toilet, more than a urinal, reflects perfectly not only "the dynamic nature of our art today," but the entire society. A latrine is much representative of art today than art in 1917, and in the last century as a whole. What was once used to create controversy and break the rules has become the rule.
"expert" Simon Wilson is good.
.
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