[Leica] 6 Degrees and B.D.

[Gary Elshaw <gary.elshaw@vuw.ac.nz>]

At 1:38 PM -0800 15/2/2000, B.D. wrote:
>  >...Calling something inaccessible does NOT say something about the viewer -
>  >it says the artist has failed if his or her mission was to make a public
>  >statement. If the work was meant only for the edification of the artist and
>  >three of his/her best friends, it belongs in a private home, not a public
>  >venue.
>  >
>  >This thread reminds me of a beloved high school English teacher who once
>  >made the statement that if a poem's meaning is "hidden," the poem is a
>  >failure. Same thing goes for "inaccessible" works of visual art.
>  >"Inaccessible" is, in this case, a synonym for "crap."


At 7:01 PM -0800 15/2/2000, B.D. wrote:
>No, Rob...I did get it...and was amused by it...I guess my Six Degrees joke
>just wasn't all that funny..oh well..I guess I'll just quit for the day and
>go make a Kevin Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwhich.... :-)

Thank goodness for that! Someone finally decided to rid the world of 
Kevin Bacon. Good move B.D., you've also helped rid me of an 'artist' 
i never liked. I also admire your courage and fortitude in having the 
ability to eat him. I'll grin here at the thought of his passing :-)

Art's a funny thing ain't it? I've been intrigued by the diversity of 
opinion the list has illustrated, but so far as i've noticed, no one 
has really said anything about the fact that there are different 
types of spectator. Jim made a statement about there being specific 
galleries he doesn't visit anymore. Fair enough. Art is more and more 
created with a certain spectator in mind. In part this has to do with 
the commodification of art, and different schools of artists working 
with different traditions. No Geddes fan is going to admire very much 
about the avant-garde, even though Geddes does owe a large percentage 
of her living to it. Over the last couple of years there has been a 
big push of Man Ray and Lee Miller photography/film, and the thing 
that has amazed me the more i look at their images is how their work 
has been distilled and diluted by contemporary artists. I don't mind 
that, especially if it makes people explore some history of art in 
whatever medium. The fact is, there is nothing static as far as 
artistic reception goes, yesterday's cutting edge is frequently 
today's commercial for baby wipes.

A lot of my post-grad work has involved dissecting Jean-Luc Godard's 
films--I'm currently dissecting all of Godard's 1968 films for my 
Masters thesis. Frequently Godard refers to things i just don't 
'get', both visually, aurally and textually. I go away, think about 
it and read a lot taking cues he might have submerged in the text of 
his film, and eventually find out something i never knew before. 
Because you don't get it doesn't mean the artist has failed, it often 
means they're trying to communicate something you haven't experienced 
yet; or you might have to do some digging to find out what the hell 
they're on about. What i used to think was obfuscation was frequently 
my own ignorance of either experience or knowledge. That's why i find 
art enriches my life, and why i also know that i'll still be finding 
out all of things i never knew about until the day i die. And for 
that i sigh, and say a very large-Good.

Please excuse the rambling.
All the best,
Gary



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There are, of course, those who would argue that it's unhealthy to 
read a children's author past the age of, say, 24. Big people are 
supposed to reserve their enthusiasm for real estate, business plans 
and zero-sum games played by linguistically-impoverished men with 
hairy knuckles. This, in my view, is real nonsense. A world in which 
it's uncool for grownups to care passionately about books -- 
children's books, any books -- would be infinitely scarier than a 
world with telepathic avocados or real estate agents from outer space.

- ---Paul LaFarge on children's author Daniel Pinkwater

Gary Elshaw
http://elshaw.tripod.com/
http://elshaw.tripod.com/photointro.html
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