What is Art? (Was "Ecological Art?")

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Note: I changed the title of this thread because the discussion has move in another (and I think more interesting) direction.

This is concept that I have never heard of before, but I heard it mentioned on the radio today.

Ecological Art is a worldwide movement, the philosophy of which is based on ecological awareness, the harmonic coexistance of human beings and nature. It is a revitalizing movement in terms of materials used in works of art, which are in many cases, recycled and natural at the same time. Most of them emphasize the beauty of nature as a masterpiece, but one which is as fragile and vulnerable as our own life.

This from an essay entitled Ecological Art and Ethics - the main site is http://www.ecologicalart.com/. Is this a phenomenom that I anyone knows more about it? I would be interested in learning more.

[Berhael]

Tempting me, eh V?

I know nothing about this... but it reminded me of Christo's "Surrounded Islands", a project that I found much more beautiful than his (in)famous wrapping of the Reichstag...

http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/si.html

I'll be back. [/Terminator]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That looks like quite the project.

[Whistler]

I suppose I’m just a knuckle-dragger, Ber, but I don’t get it and I’m not certain that there’s much to be “got.”

Of course I can appreciate that such things may be very interesting to look at, and that design and color skills are necessary to plan and execute them. But it strikes me that the greatest skill in evidence is the ability of the artist to extract money from the wallets of whoever pays for this stuff.

My namesake was charged with “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face,” so I am hesitant to dismiss as nonsense anything that displays no apparent talent to the uneducated eye. I don’t require that art reproduce nature; but what, exactly, is the point? And where is the merit? And why should I care?

If I had the money (and the inclination) to cover my house with red shag carpeting, by what reasoning would you call my work inferior to this? If I had about fifteen minutes, I could write a little article explaining why a carpet-covered house makes a profound esthetic or sociological statement. You know how easy it is to blow pseudo-intellectual smoke.

So please enlighten me, if I am a fool. We can’t let Whistler be a Philistine, can we?

[Jnyusa]

Art using "found objects" has been around for a long time.

The day care center that my children inhabited when they were pre-school age was operated by a research center in the "University City" neighborhood of Philadelphia. The owner was very much an art afficianado and he commissioned a mosaic that covered an entire side of the building, made entirely from objects found on the streets of the neighborhood.

Abstract, of course, but with recognizable geometric shapes like car wheels and partial faces made from bits of glass and metal. It was magnificent. Truly beautiful. And what a great thing for the children to be able to look at and touch.

This is recycling of a sort and also an ecological statement (imo) about what we consider 'trash.'

My cousin is a carpenter and cabinet maker. He has his own business now doing custom woodworking but for years he worked for one of those do-it-yourself home repair stores, and in his spare time he would comb landfills for discarded wood and use it to make jewelry and jewelry boxes.

Beer palettes are made out of solid mahogany, if you can imagine that, and then discarded in land fills when the slats crack. I have a collection of really gorgeous jewelry boxes that my cousin made out of precious woods found in landfills. I absolutely treasure these - one, because I'm related to the artist, and two, because they do make a profound statement about our values.

Jn

[Whistler]

All of that makes perfect sense, artistically and intellectually, and from a practical standpoint, as well.

Still trying to figure out that pink-trimmed island, though.

[Jnyusa]

Oh ... well, there's art and there's publicity.

"Surrounded Islands was a work of art which underlined the various elements and ways in which the people of Miami live, between land and water."

Does this mean that everyone in Miami has pink carpeting?

Maybe just pink flamingos on the lawn.

Jn

[Berhael]

Oh, I don't know. I haven't read the manifesto. But it strikes a chord with me... I just find it beautiful!

[Whistler]

Ah, but a spiderweb is beautiful, too! Yet a spider has no mind, no heart, no soul. Can we call a spider an artist?

If an artist constructed a gigantic spiderweb spanning the Grand Canyon, it would be an incredible feat of engineering that would astonish the beholder. But it would never be quite the achievement of a real spiderweb, produced by a creature capable of no more real creativity than a thumbtack.

Somewhere we have abandoned the old-fashioned notion of talent. I don't suggest that the artist be reduced to a performing pony, but I do think we should expect him to have some innate (or learned) ability that others lack. And by that I mean something more than the ability to envision something outrageous.

I'm sure I'm wrong, as usual!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm tempted to change the title to "What is Art?" Now that would be interesting discussion.

[Whistler]

What is art? Art is what artists make.

Who is an artist? Anybody who says he is.

Okay. Whatever!

[Primula Baggins]

Yes, and a violinist is anyone who says he is, too.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Sadly, Prim, that is very much true when comes to drums, because of the drum circle/community drumming phenomenom. I will definitely be starting a thread about this in The Cottage of Lost Play in the near future.

[Primula Baggins]

Well, drums are, y'know, primal. All our hearts beat, so we can all beat drums.

Sorry. I'll stop, with the observation that I've watched the percussion section in Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, and those people have been practicing.

I dearly hope to hear you play someday.

[Berhael]

I still find those Surrounded Islands beautiful. And I still can't explain why.

[Whistler]

There is no need to justify it, Ber. I'm just trying to reconcile work of this nature with work by traditional painters, and wondering what they would have to say.

Perhaps one of the great things about art is that we can never quite pin it down. It defies all our puny attempts at definition.

I’m expecting you to teach us some things about Turner, when you can.

[vison]

Sadly, Prim, that is very much true when comes to drums, because of the drum circle/community drumming phenomenom. I will definitely be starting a thread about this in The Cottage of Lost Play in the near future.

Voronwë, I'm sure you've heard teh old joke?

Question: What do you call the loser who hangs around with a rock band?

Answer: the drummer.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.


I heard a pretty famous drummer being interviewed once. I don't remember his name, but it wasn't Ringo Starr! Anyway, he said when people go into a club or a concert not one of them imagines that he could go onstage and play the guitar or the piano, but everyone thinks they could sit in for the drummer!

I don't, of course. I know MY limits.

We used to have a kid who worked for us who played drums in several well-known local bands on the West Coast. He was a good drummer, I hear. BUT. He was at a dance with us one time and I danced with him and that boy had no sense of rhythm AT ALL. My poor feet were covered with bruises! I could not understand it. Still can't.

[Jnyusa]

I LOVE percussionists. They are the greatest people, and the most likely to take the music into their very souls.

Of course, the percussionists I've known have all played with symphony orchestras ... it's been moons and moons since I followed a rock band around .... and for a classical percussionists the tone is as important as the rhythm because many of their instruments do have tonality. Getting correct intonation out of a percussion instrument is very difficult; you can't even touch classical percussion without a perfect ear.

Jn