Friday, May 12, 2006

Art Rocks: Have YOUR Say


As I try to get my head around this whole blogging thing I'm interested in the kind of minds this blog attracts. Here's a wee question for you to mull over...

Last year I visited an art gallery where an exhibition by Tomoko Takahashi was just coming down. As part of the exhibition we punters were allowed to take a piece of the art installation away with us. Art for all. Art for keeps. Art for free. Hooray! It took me quite a while to decide on objects that both represented the exhibition and, in some way, expressed who I am as a person. One of the objects I took away was a small piece of granite with a rather attractive concrete lump sticking out of it. Read into that what you will.

All excited, I rushed home where I gave my Tomoko Takahashi original pride of place in the rockery out the back.

So here's the question: Is the rock Art? As I removed the art piece from the gallery and installed it surreptitiously in the back garden, did it retain it's Artistic value? Huh? ...Hmmmm.

I'd be very interested in your thoughts on this. Please please leave a comment to the tune of one of three possibilities.

1. Yes. Of course this is Art. It uplifts me, engages me, inspires me and now I want to go home and write a symphony.

2. No. Of course that's not Art. It's just a rock you silly man. Go grind it into a pathway for your snails.

3. Huh? I don't know. I don't care. Blogs should be kept for more important questions like 'Why do we all buy salad in bags these days?'

Your call. Your answers count. By means of credibility please inspect the photo to the left which features the two receipts from the Serpentine gallery I recieved as I took away the rock.

What do you think people? Cast your views and join the debate.

4 comments:

Nathan said...

Yes it most certainly is art. The framing of a thing does wonders to focus the mind on it's qualities. If the artist selected the piece and put it into his installation then that deliberate act makes it art. It irritates me that leaving a gallery with a postcard of a painting is art at home but taking a chunk of granite might not be. It's more art than most things people keep because it's an artefact with invested interest. But then I'm all for the found object! I'm going to go cos I could talk about this forever and I'm meant to be having a Kill Bill vol 1 & 2 marathon with Andy.

Anonymous said...

This blog entry is art - pure art; engaging, entrancing, enlivening. What the rock lost in relocation has been reendowed in the positioning under the question and reaffirmed in the presentation to scrutiny.

It is how we look at the world around us, is it not?

Nathan is a young and passionate young man: how amusing that the difference between slate tiles and postcards annoy him. The postcard functions as a representational reminder of the art that it depicts rather than as art itself. The pieces that Ally has installed in his garden and on the web are art themselves: now because we consider them (that is, we spend time pondering their creative worth rather than considering them art)

Pausing for thought. A wonder.

Ally Gordon said...

How refreshing to return to the blog after travelling around a bit and finding two great comments. Thanks Ned and Picasso for your thoughts.

I agree, the rock is art if only because i have just deemed it so. Art works should engage, entrance, enliven... get under the skin, incite, excite and so on. If the rock has done that by becoming a part of this blog then, terrific, we have made art together!

The next question is that of value. This rock might not be technically excellent or well crafted but it has become art because it has been valued in some way. I take great delight in seeing something everyday, mundane, even rejected becoming an object of celebration and wonder.

Thanks for your thoughts...

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