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Like It Or Not, It Is Art Dammit!
10/8/2002
Sam sent me a link to an article in the Miami Herald which serves up this sarcastic dismissal of modern art, focusing, of course, on the more extreme examples out there. Now I'll readily admit that some modern art can be excessive and downright silly, but that's often exactly the point.
The writer William Burroughs one said it is a job of the artist to make people aware of what they are aware of
". This article is particularly dismissive of an exhibit called "the Lights Going On and Off", which features a room with just that happening. As I read the article, I couldn't help but remember how, as a child, I was fascinated by lights going on and off. I would stand there playing with the lights switch flicking the lights on and off slowly, quickly, simulating lightning and generally having a good old time. As I got older, my fascination with the light switch was left behind with interests in ant hills, the dust in chalk-board erasers, and the amazing effect a fire cracker can have on a frog. I'd become unaware and numb to such phenomena. Is an exhibit that awakens these older perspectives really so shallow?
This article's writer waxes on about art that is familiar and easy makes sense of. "People that look like people". It's true that the familiar, the easy, and the non-threatening roads will always prove to be the most popular. But are they the most rewarding? I suppose it depends on what you're looking for. If you just want something to decorate the space above your couch, sure why not? But if you're looking for something that actually exercises your mind, then those would seem poor paths to travel.
The one element of the article with which I wholly concurred is its assault on snobbery. There are great many artists, and art aficionados, who somehow derive a sense of superiority from their appreciation of the unpopular (although I must say, I tend to find more of these types in the music realm than anywhere else). This is all just nonsense, and always has been.
10/8/2002 | Permanent Link
