Hidden beauty, art and ignorance
Feb. 17th, 2012 02:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fingertroubleIt's interesting how things come around again on Facebook (no I am not having that conversation thanks) - a note and a screengrab about the 2007 Washington Post experiment where a world-famous and highly regarded concert violinist played in a subway to prove a point about context and art:
I'm not really surprised that the kids 'got' that it was good and wanted to stop, or that most people just ignored it. Children have an innate wonder and curiosity about the universe, and notice all kinds of things until it gets beaten out of them. This is what as an artist I've tried to avoid, to keep that curiosity and observation - it's amazing how little people do something simple like looking up or down - there's all kinds of things on the ground people miss, or up above them. I always make it my business to look down, you don't know what you might find...and in my work, before I started wearing headphones and ignoring people I used to get the questions - 'Why are you taking a picture of that rubbish?' 'What are you doing?' 'Why?' 'Is that art?' - even with photographing although I tend to perfect the quick in/out nowadays.
But when I used to draw or paint it used to amaze me how people saw the world and interacted with it; such a narrow view of about 6 feet above and horizontal to the ground. And how forward they were in the judgements - sometimes and usually good, but not always. But as Mr Bell found in some situations the opposite is true. It's different sides of the same coin.
Take this photos:
Taken at El Escorial, I'd not processed this til a few weeks ago and scanned it yesterday. It was taken in El Escorial, with all this amazing baroque architecture everywhere, but I'm sure people thought it strange I was taking a picture of a bannister. Weird thing is, the film has all sorts of statues and architecture on it, a lot I went MEH and didn't even post. Usual pictures, usual views, seen one domed church you've seen them all.
But I LOVE this picture, it's the best picture other than maybe the picture of the inside of the dome or one of the statues. I love it because exactly what people don't pay attention to, it's the micro detail. I love making what people think is inconsquential or rubbish into something beautiful. Just a glimpse to remind them to look a little closer sometime, and a reminder to myself that the beauty is always there. It's what I've always had as my manifesto as an artist across all media, it's not turd-polishing, it's showing that there is beauty in most things and a big part of that is how you look at them and present them...but you do have to be open enough to see that a rusting tyre or rubbish on a beach or a piece of graffiti can be as moving as a sunrise or beautiful garden. Not the same, but equal.
I'm not really surprised that the kids 'got' that it was good and wanted to stop, or that most people just ignored it. Children have an innate wonder and curiosity about the universe, and notice all kinds of things until it gets beaten out of them. This is what as an artist I've tried to avoid, to keep that curiosity and observation - it's amazing how little people do something simple like looking up or down - there's all kinds of things on the ground people miss, or up above them. I always make it my business to look down, you don't know what you might find...and in my work, before I started wearing headphones and ignoring people I used to get the questions - 'Why are you taking a picture of that rubbish?' 'What are you doing?' 'Why?' 'Is that art?' - even with photographing although I tend to perfect the quick in/out nowadays.
But when I used to draw or paint it used to amaze me how people saw the world and interacted with it; such a narrow view of about 6 feet above and horizontal to the ground. And how forward they were in the judgements - sometimes and usually good, but not always. But as Mr Bell found in some situations the opposite is true. It's different sides of the same coin.
Take this photos:
Taken at El Escorial, I'd not processed this til a few weeks ago and scanned it yesterday. It was taken in El Escorial, with all this amazing baroque architecture everywhere, but I'm sure people thought it strange I was taking a picture of a bannister. Weird thing is, the film has all sorts of statues and architecture on it, a lot I went MEH and didn't even post. Usual pictures, usual views, seen one domed church you've seen them all.
But I LOVE this picture, it's the best picture other than maybe the picture of the inside of the dome or one of the statues. I love it because exactly what people don't pay attention to, it's the micro detail. I love making what people think is inconsquential or rubbish into something beautiful. Just a glimpse to remind them to look a little closer sometime, and a reminder to myself that the beauty is always there. It's what I've always had as my manifesto as an artist across all media, it's not turd-polishing, it's showing that there is beauty in most things and a big part of that is how you look at them and present them...but you do have to be open enough to see that a rusting tyre or rubbish on a beach or a piece of graffiti can be as moving as a sunrise or beautiful garden. Not the same, but equal.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-17 05:08 am (UTC)I like this and your other photos of late. Frankly the same touristy statue and old building photos bore me to tears after awhile. I like the microdetails, different angles/perspectives, etc.