So what do you consider art?
In this article, this guy is stating that if Pastor Jones, who threatened to burn the Quran, was to take a different approach and call it "art" that it would be ok. This is not what I consider art and I don't think that you can just call anything art. By the end he says that he thinks that this could not even pass as art and that religion is sacred. His thought process makes me wonder if many other people think like this. His thesis is that we can consider many things art and by just stating that what we are doing is art, it can change it from being offensive to just a "movement." I think that one needs to consider what art truly is defined as. He makes the statement that "what we have in the Quran burning is but the latest chapter in the long, chaotic, glorious march of artistic freedom in defiance of out-moded conventions, intellectually stifling religious dogma, and societal mores." He is being sarcastic in what he says, because it seems that we can almost get away with anything if we call it art because it pushes the boundaries- and isn't that what we want? This makes me think about his two examples of the Piss Christ and Virgin Mary ( that was done in cow dong) and whether or not they push art to an extreme. The explanation also gives an insight into why the artist decided to do such a thing and can justify it. I think that even in the art we look at in class, we need to ask ourselves whether or not it is art, and what defines art, because the definition has changed throughout the ages.
In my opinion, art should be something treasured and inspiring, for this day. Some art will offend, but we should not try to make enemies through our art. Burning the Quran, and using the excuse that it is 'art' does not justify the profanity of the action. We must first establish what art is, before we go around labeling things as art. If we don't than anything could be considered art and it has just become an excuse to do vulgar and profane things, rather than try to inspire and be talented at something.
1 comments:
I understand and agree with you on this one. Unfortunately, it seems that art has pushed its boundaries so much that all we have left to push is the concept of art. When people first started painting, they did it as a way to record events in history, then expressionism came along to make paintings "expressions" and a way to convey emotion. However, after this came conceptual art which pushes the envelope as far as it can go. You have to start asking yourself "what is art?" This is a really tough question to ask yourself, and sometimes really keeps me up at night. Performance art and things like that are the things that irk me the most. People that make art into an action (but do not call it acting, or a monologue, it is "art"). Artists that do things just to be mean or pretentious really upset me. I suppose that artists who think like this are really big into Schadenfreude (pleasure derived from the misfortune of others... it's German).
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