[lit-ideas] Re: Must we appreciate a work of art 'on its own terms'?

In a message dated 2/25/2009 5:54:14 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Still think it's a serious question: add  'To what extent' at the beginning 
if preferable.
 
----
 
No, the whole conception is, shall I say, sloppy:
 
 
And in any case, I thought you would say, "no". I.e. that to _no_ extent  
must we appreciate an object d'art on its terms.
 
I mean, have you _tried_? Expand.
 
Marcel Duchaump has this urinal. He called it 'ready-made'. If they don't  
tell me it's _object-d'art_, I wouldn't even _look_ at it, or spill out of it. 
 
Second, they cannot _force_ you to do anything! So what kind of a question  
is that, rhetoric?

Have you been to the Turner Prizes recently? Is that  it?

Imagine if they (the judges) were asked:
 
   Instructions for submission of votes
 
   1. The names of the artists have been deleted for you
       to be able to appreciate the  objects-d'art on their own terms.
 
   2. But if you find this impossible, here is the  blacklist:
 
                     Rupert Jones --- born Cardiff, he presented his canvas, 
"Tiger Bay". It's a  collage, and what he sees from hiw window. He calls it 
'post-Welsh'.
 
                     Shantua Bar-Hillel -- she is of Birmigham. She did the 
eggs-in-the-basket piece.  She identifies with the post-colonial 
post-deconstructionist  'retro-guard'.
 
    3. The porn video is by one Andrea Merkx and we think  the prize should 
go _there_. 
         She has recently yielded  her American nationality to become a 
trueborn Brit, so
         it's _our_ thing to do.  She was born in 1978 (so she's no chick), 
of Albuquerque 
        New Mexico, and as you can see  from her ethnicity surname, she is 
not an
        Anglo-Saxon  precisely! She defines herself  as "an artist and 
musician living  in 
        Surrey". She received her BFA  from the University of Old Mexico in 
2000, 
        and her MFA from Reed College in  2006 (under R. Paul, sotto voce 
dissertation:
         "My Life as a MTV  post-artist"). In this object-d'art, she says, 
she is 
        mimicking early (let's say  1970s) video - from artist-made to MTV 
proper, only to
        points to the limited   construction of herself in popular culture 
and 
        the essential narcissism  she revels in, in the myth of the artist as 
        autonomous producer. 
        Indeed, she paid for the  packing, postage and handling (with care). 
        Experimenting with video in  looping, repetitive formats [how many
        positions does she actually  display?] her object-d'art draws from 
        a decade (it shows -- it's worn  out) of experience playing in rock 
        bands in the Home  Counties. She has exhibited and performed at 
        venues in Teddington  such as "Swiss Cheese Problems Solved" ,
        Contemporary Art, The Armoury  Show, Jack Tilton  Gallery, 
        Queen Elizabeth  II Foundation for the British Arts, as well as 
       the Bowery Ballroom (next to  Chinatown -- Yost's been there) 
       and Irving Plaza. She is a born  winner"
 
Cheers,
 
JL

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