2.26.2005

Saffron?


I've never noticed that cheez-its where such a lovely shade of saffron.

The installation of "the Gates" in Central Park has caused quite a stirring debate about what is, and what is not art.
I'd love to hear your thoughts.

2 comments:

jimi said...

i am sitting in Panera, wandering my way around a few blogs, and this picture made the people around me look at me funny. They aren't sure what to do about the guy in the corner laughing outloud by himself...oh well. The picture is priceless!

Kerry said...

I majored in art in college, which probably makes me LESS qualified to talk about this. But again, my big mouth is missing a foot.

Well, what IS art? I really like lots of different kinds of art, ranging from ancient cultures to Dutch painters to modern art to video art to... Well, it just kind of goes on forever. The problem with the "what is art" discussion is that so many modern and post-modern artists have used their "art" to disassemble and rearrange our concept of "art", including Picasso. (Especially Picasso.)

Everything has been used to challenge the currently accepted notion of artistic value, including real dead animals, construction materials, and found objects. These people have forced us to take a step back and say, "Well, why not?" Why not turn a urinal upside down and try to enter it into an art show? If putting pigment on a piece of cloth is considered art, why not squirt that same paint out of my bum? (Trust me, that's too gross to have made up.) What we have today is an overwhelming range of genre and medium, and personal preference becomes your very own personal guide to what art is to you. What so many artists have been trying to ask is, what isn't art?

I'm getting to the point in the discussion when "art" is sounding funnier and funnier to me. Say it over and over again; it sounds hilarious, like a guttural noise or a word from some long-lost language. Art, art, art. Now it even looks funny to me.

Hey, is that art?