In the mind map under the heading ‘Art?’ the question mark resonates the most with me. A lot of art is controversial whether it is in fact art or not, however the artists intention is often a main contributing factor in deeming it so. So, if the artist in this case isn’t even sure whether it is art or not, the work, to me, holds less artistic merit. The subheadings to ‘Art?’ are:
-gardening as sculpture
-blogging as art
-social interaction as art
The ‘gardening as sculpture’ seems an interesting idea but with such little mediation to the gardening process, seems difficult to distinguish a difference between this ‘work’ as art and regular gardening.
The latter two are about peoples interactions with each other and the ‘work’. This again is an interesting concept in its correlation to relational aesthetics. It annoys me though that blogging has to be seen as art, and social interaction as art, are these activities not able to be seen by them selves as what they are? Does making them into ‘art’ make them any my valid as an idea? What does it achieve and what is the point? Blogging is blogging, not art.
You need to defend your position here. Why do you say blogging is not art, it seems a very strange thing to say, certainly not a statement i can see working.
ReplyDeleteI just don't think writing 'as art' next to a concept such as blogging validates it as art or makes it any different to what it is. Along with the other points I made, the artists have even questioned it being art. This doesn't make a convincing argument to me.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to hear your view point on why it is art.
There is a whole book that recently came out about text in and as art, "Words to be Looked at" by Liz Kotz (MIT Press) - there is so much text that is art it is hard to know where to start. For me the most important text work is from Fluxus, the Event Score esp. Would i want to separate the fluxus score from the blog, no. To say certain things are art and other things are not is too simplistic.
ReplyDeletebody project, your questions are spot on, and if you can crack an answer to them, you'll be well on your way to a deeper understanding of the artfulness of the world around you!
ReplyDeleteas i mentioned to one of the groups that came to visit the garden last week, i thoroughly recommend the book "The Art of Living: Aesthetics of the Ordinary in World Spiritual Traditions" by Crispin Sartwell.
Sartwell argues, by making a cross-cultural analysis of ordinary activities "as art", that it is only in the western avant-garde tradition that we make such strict demarcations about what is art and what is not-art.
you're absolutely right, blogging is blogging. but this does not mean that blogging cannot also, simultaneously, be art. when we garden at TENDING, we just garden, it is true. but we are also engaged in artmaking.
the twentieth century is a period of historical time which violently expanded the parameters of what art can be. we live in the wake of the pioneering activities of our aesthetic ancestors who cleared the decks for anything - ANYTHING - to be art. (remember - as caleb has mentioned elsewhere in this blog - this does not mean that anything is GOOD art... that is a different matter)
another truly wonderful and joy-filled book which helps make this clearer is Allan Kaprow's Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life.
Thank you for all these readings... i shall be busy!!
ReplyDeleteAs Lucazoid pointed out Sartwell's theory- that by making a cross-cultural analysis of ordinary activities validates it as art, i am starting to make better sense of where TENDING is coming from.
There is also the point about good art and bad art but I like to look at art as believable to an individual or not (not an elite institution). For example in this blog and in Renee's you said this kind of art had been written about a lot and is now highly regarded and accepted as art therefore you yourself have accepted rather than questioned it as art too. Or more likely you have indeed questioned it but have come to a different conclusion to me.
I'm not saying it is wrong to call this art, but in this analogy.... i can be brought up in a Christian household, go to church and read the bible, a very accepted and cherished book by all around me and millions around the world, but ultimately I still have the choice whether I want to accept and believe in it for myself. In the classes and readings I have done so far I can't say I'm a believer of this kind of art. It is an individual choice that everyone has the right to have an opinion about.
Art is so subjective so to say I'm right, or for you to say I'm not right is not the way of this discussion but rather it's become an insight to how different people interpret controversial works with or without the influence of 'elite critique'.
p.s. 'Body project' is Natalie Luxton...... for some reason my computer's not letting me 'Select Profile'.
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