Thursday, May 10, 2007

Shit and art

What can a struggling artist do in a world where some of the most successful art is literally shit?

Pascal weighs in:
"Some claim that anything can be considered art. Well, I believe there is some definite confusion between the pure philosophical statement of, say, putting the by-products of your alimentation in cans (thus reversing its purpose), and producing an emotion. Art IS expression, but it's more than that. If there's no beauty in it, only the intent to shock, it's something else, not art. Perhaps revolutionary philosophy?..."

I tend to agree.
Even if we consider the idea to be art (and I can live with that), then there is the question "is it good art?" I think the shit-in-a-can idea is a good spoof of how the fine art world works. And for the fine art world to actually consider it great art and a great investment is proof that the spoof hit the nail on the head.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eolake wondered: "What can a struggling artist do in a world where some of the most successful art is literally shit?"

How about building an apparatus that sucks?

Anonymous said...

What can a struggling artist do in a world where some of the most successful art is literally shit?

I've seen a lot of art in my time. most of it considered shit. I won't pinpoint any names but on this blog I have seen some of it.
If you post this I'll be suprized because most artists can't handle the truth. They live in a self-induced world where they are the only judges.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I've never deleted a comment for criticizing my work.

Anonymous said...

fallen darkness said...
"I won't pinpoint any names"


Much obliged, FD. I appreciate your discretion. ;-)

One has to wonder sometimes: "Is it art, or is it fart?"

Which reminds me of a family tradition that spontaneously emerged in our home when we were kids. Every sunday during lunch, my brothers and I somehow ended up talking about a gross subject, with no real intention. And incidentally, way before Piero Manzoni's excremential experimentals (he's very mental), we had already come up with the very novel idea of marketing farts. I imagined a vacuum seat cushion that would grab every last molecule of the stuff the second it was produced, and we brainstormed creative and convenient packaging ideas. Cans, super-strong and volume-saving concentrate, and my own fave, dehydrated fart in powder form. "Just add water prior to use!"

To preserve the fine artistic level of this blog, I won't describe the recipes we made up to obtain interesting... aromas! Or the day we realized we had left out the invaluable field of socks in our industrial projects.

Alas, the UN embargo on chemical weapons sales to Saddam put the kibosh on our dreams of easy fortune. (Sniff!) What a waste of a promising idea!

Anonymous said...

Some claim that anything can be considered art. Well, I believe there is some definite confusion between the pure philosophical statement of, say, putting the by-products of your alimentation in cans (thus reversing its purpose), and producing an emotion. Art IS expression, but it's more than that. If there's no beauty in it, only the intent to shock, it's something else, not art. Perhaps revolutionary philosophy?...

It is said that psychotic emperor Caligula wiewed the "creative" slaughter of innocents that he devised, often on stage, as his own artistic talent. Yo, dude, too much is too much, you dig?

The shenanigans of "Jackass" are a truly amazing record achievement in raw stupidity, but nobody would call these antics art. Now, antique "the jawbone of an ass", turned by Samson into a Weapon of Mass Destruction, THAT's creative!

Anonymous said...

Ok, in this thread we've read about literally shit, an apparatus that sucks, and fart as a medium for art.

To continue, why not explore Fry and Laurie's idea "Photocopying My Genitals With".

Anonymous said...

TTL,
Are you free for lunch next sunday?
You've got interesting conversation. :-)

Anonymous said...

An immigrant was entering the U.S. The border officer asked: Are you a resident, Sir? Immigrant: Are you crazy? resident is mister ruman.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

That was above my head.