But is it Art?

[basys]

Hi Folks

I think if I hire a room at the Tate
and suspend a dog turd from the ceiling..
I'll get the reaction I was intending too
but will IT qualify as art??

It'd need to be a truly outstanding turd.



To lower the tone even further.

Being heavily into photography from an early age,
and having an eye for the potentially outstanding.

I could supply recreated imagery that would definitely qualify as such.



I used to be heavily into sea-kayaking,
and a very-very long time ago
was paddling from Newcastle to Berwick-on-Tweed,
with a team of similarly fruit&nut/muesli-consuming, healthy-living oriented, paddlers,
along that stunningly beautiful coastline.



As a callow youth of 19/20
on going for a paddler's prerequisite,
visiting a nearby sand dune,
was shocked to encounter,
for those of you of a certain age, who might be familiar with,
what can only be described as a substantially overly diameter'd,
resplendently laid out, but in a giant contorted full figure-of-eight formed version,
of that long since disappeared, 'Nutty' bar.

Following discussion with team-members
said deposition was identified and attributed to
the thence-forward spooneristically and deservedly renamed Harry Bowells.



Dang'd interweb's been overrun by usanian crap.

It's a bad day when you can't find a picture of a 'Nutty' bar,
other than some misleadingly named 'Little Debbie' snack.
A truly weak impostor, resembling a finger version of a "Carr's Chocolate Wafer".



ATB
Paul

[Jon.M]

Dave,

You're so out of touch with the modern art world.

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articl ... t1213.html

Jon

[DaveB]

Thanks for that Jon Actually, I wasn't considering 'Human' waste as a subject. I've been in training with my Labrador.. experimenting by giving her various things to eat and seeing what pop's out. I have to be careful though as she must have got her teeth into a few bits of metal not long ago and before I knew it, I had a Lada on the back garden

ATB

DaveB

[Jon.M]

[Garry Russell]

Sure gettin' a Lada laughs

[Paul K]

Positive review from Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/colu ... -kill.html

[DaveB]

That's smashing Paul.

Take an object, make up a load of blx about it then call it art. I remain unconvinced They're very pretty though and it keeps that poor girl in work and off the streets

ATB

DaveB

[Garry Russell]

To be fair...you can't blame th 'Artist'.they just feed the market.

It's the plonkers who praise the output who are to blame ......I wouldn't give £1 for a painting by Renoir (aged 6 by the look of it)....on the other hand I found a shrivelled banana skin in the bin yesterday and if anyone wants to give me $1,000,000 for it they are more than welcome

[Paul K]

That's smashing Paul.

Take an object, make up a load of blx about it then call it art. I remain unconvinced They're very pretty though and it keeps that poor girl in work and off the streets

ATB

DaveB

The problem is, where is the threshold beyond which art becomes bollocks ? Its all far too subjective to define. One could say Constable was an artist because he painted the The Haywain, while Dali wasn't because he painted melted clocks and other such bollocks.

If it provokes a reaction and discussion, or is interesting or just pleasing to look at, then thats good enough for moi. I was planning a trip to the Tate Britain anyway. I'll take some photos for you, Dave.

[Quixoticish]

Here's a reply I posted on another forum pertaining to the exhibition and peoples definitions of art.

I think a lot depends on your definition of art. I was always quite fond of Tolstoy's definition, that art is essentially the expression of emotion, positive or negative. That's why I love to see a furore kicked up over modern art sometimes, because in my opinion if it's got people talking then it's a great thing, even if some people are talking about how much they loathe it. I would imagine that the worst compliment you could pay an artist is to shrug your shoulders and say that their work is so-so!

I suppose you could take this argument to its logical conclusion and deem everything art, and to be honest it probably is. The second anyone gives a second of thought to the aesthetic design of anything, from a car to a kitchen appliance, then it's become art in one way or another. Although if we take it right back to Tolstoy's definition of art then even something that was designed with complete function rather than form in mind would be found aesthetically appealing or revolting by someone somewhere, and someone is bound to comment on how pretty/ugly it is, and then it becomes art.

Whilst there are some "modern artists" who are blatantly churning things out for the money rather than from any sense of artistic expression there is still a wonderful world of modern art out there that admittedly may not be to the liking of lots of people, but love it or hate it I'll give the artists an A+ for making the effort every time.