4,000 books

art installation of 4,000 books by Anouk Kruithof. but did he read them first?

(via BOOOOOOOOM!)

urban soundscape

here are a couple of photos of some fun artwork by David Billy, an artist in Brooklyn.

not sure how this fits into a serious definition of art, but it’s fun, and I think we could benefit by injecting more street art into our cities.  especially if it’s humorous.

via ignant.

a personal library

incroyabluh

book review: But Is It Art?

a thoughtful, inviting book dealing lightly but not flippantly with some of the major concerns in defining what art is and what it does.  Freeland looks at both classic and controversial works, across a variety of media, and weighs in on certain theories of art, always looking for a more comprehensive view that will serve as a guide for interpreting art.

one of the strengths of this work is that she presents difficult ideas in ways that make them not only intelligible but also relevant to the average museum-goer.  another is that she does not insist on a universal definition of art and seems encouraged, not dismayed, by the range of works that frustrate easy categorization.

I’m setting this book down more confident about my paltry efforts to think about what art is/does, and more convinced than ever of how necessary it all is — both the creation of art and its interpretation.

art at the end of the world

I came across this artist the other day, Cal Lane, whose work is incredibly moving.  she works with hard, unyielding materials and manages to create ornate decorations and true works of art.

I read on Art Milk that she aims to take hard, masculine items and turn them into objects of femininity and art.

as true as this may be, it seems to go further than that.  she gives mundane items a lasting beauty — items that were meant to move (and move things) are now stationary pieces of decoration and have an aesthetic value far beyond what their makers could have imagined for them.  moreover, with her “filigree car bombing” works — where burned and twisted metal, recalling violence and harm, becomes soft and ornate, even peaceful — she manages to make a strong statement in a time of violence and war.

but I also see in Lane’s work a vision of art at the end of the world, or art in some time of hard machinery and rusted-out metals — some post-apocalyptic world, perhaps.  even then we can find and create art, controlling and adorning the world we live in, regardless of the circumstances or the materials.  that’s what art has done; that’s what it always will.

a history of the universe

the icon remains

a thought from Julian Barnes when discussing this “Scene of Shipwreck” painting in A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters:

…the painting which survives is the one that outlives its own story. Religion decays, the icon remains; a narrative is forgotten, yet its representation still magnetizes (the ignorant eye triumphs — how galling for the informed eye) … Time dissolves the story into form, colour, emotion. Modern and ignorant, we reimagine the story: do we vote for the optimistic yellowing sky, or for the grieving greybeard? Or do we end up believing both versions? They eye can flick from one mood, and one interpretation, to the other: is this what was intended?

…

…the picture’s secret lies in the pattern of its energy. Look at it one more time: at the violent waterspout building up through those muscular backs as they reach for the speck of the rescuing vessel. All that straining — to what end? There is no formal response to the painting’s main surge, just as there is no response to most human feelings. Not merely hope, but any burdensome yearning: ambition, hatred, love (especially love) — how rarely do our emotions meet the object they seem to deserve? How hopelessly we signal; how dark the sky; how big the waves. We are all lost at sea, washed between hope and despair, hailing something that may never come to rescue us. Catastrophe has become art; but this is no reducing process. It is freeing, enlarging, explaining. Catastrophe has become art: that is, after all, what it is for.