What’s so great about art?
Joseph Kosuth, “One and Three Chairs” (1965)
[Update 4 October 2014: See the bottom of this post for a bit more.]
This is a response to this recent post, which is itself a response to Janey Smith’s “Fuck List,” originally published at this site. It’s also a response to the numerous comments on the original post. Because it seemed to me that, as of this writing, a lot of the debate over Smith’s post, and the book that’s apparently resulted from it (which I’ve not seen), has taken the form, “Is what Smith did art?” Mind you, I doubt this post will settle that debate, but I hope it provides
- some historical context I think relevant to Smith’s post;
- plus an argument why, at the end of the day, I don’t think that it really matters whether Smith was making art.
I guess I should also note, in passing, that my name was the first name on Smith’s “Fuck List” (thanks to the magic of alphabetization). Since I find myself (along with numerous others) the object of some obscure desire, perhaps I can offer a few thoughts on the subject.
Sixth Mess Section
1. Alone, for one moment. –directions to performers from Erik Satie
2. Lutgardis, mystic. Born at Tongeren in 1182, died at Aywieres in 1246. Lutgardis’s family fobbed her off on a Benedictine nunnery when she was still a girl. In her mid-twenties she decided that she needed a more austere existence and so joined a group of Cistercian nuns near Brussels. There she levitated and dripped blood from her forehead and hair. –Marina Abramovic’s “The Artist is Present” In Another Context
3. “Try going a day without it you’ll miss it Charlie–” –Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule is live
4. The Pharmako trilogy by Dale Pendell is a massive accomplishment, and great to read. You will want them. Look inside.
ADDITION: 5. The hallway of blood scene in The Shining, recreated with CGI. Look up.
Fourth Mess Section
1. If you are interested in the relationship between photographic images and reality, Abraham Zapruder has a conundrum for you. –Errol Morris’s twitter feed
2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others. –The Dunning-Kruger Effect
3. Portraits of those who sit across from Marina Abramovic during The Artist Is Present.
4. The last days are marked by hallucinations: bears, wolves and aliens prowl the roadside; asphalt cracks rearrange themselves into coded messages. –a profile of Jure Robic, ultra-endurance athlete
5. They’ve watched so many times, full of their clear juice, hanging from small striped boxes, gushing like ants, picking at the hands of unsubtle blind people, nibbling right up to the police hem. –Atonement Century Machinery (Frivolous Ridership) by Fortunato Salazar
6. The photographs of Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game killer.