Art as phenomenon…
Posted by Terry Nelson on May 6th, 2007
In the 1960’s it would have been referred to as a ‘happening’. Today it is art.
Pictured: A previous ”exhibition” of the artist’s work - naked people paving an avenue.
A record 18,000 people took off their clothes to pose for U.S. photographic artist Spencer Tunick on Sunday in Mexico City’s Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire. - Reuters
Spencer Tunick does this stuff.
Pictured: Today’s “exhibition” in Mexico City.
“This event proves that really we’re not such a conservative society anymore. We’re freeing ourselves of taboos,” said Fabiola Herrera, a 30-year-old university professor who volunteered to strip, along with her boyfriend. - Reuters
- Art , Fashion , Mass hysteria
May 6th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
18,000 idiots in a city of millions and she thinks she’s speaking for the vast majority.
May 6th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
When the definitive history of Mexico is written, no doubt these pictures will be prominently featured as being representative of the peak of Mexican cultural achievement.
May 6th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I know I should be aghast or feel shame for them (and the “artist” that put them up to it) but is it wrong of me to kind of chuckle behind my hand like a second grader? Seriously, all those white butts are not so “artistic” as they are just plain funeeeeee
May 6th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Laura - I know! It is so the Emperor’s New Clothes on a grand scale.
May 7th, 2007 at 1:47 am
I took part in the Gateshead one in UK 2006. For the participants, I assure you, it is an intensely liberating experience. There is nothing sexual and nothing to snigger about. To experience the genuine bonhomie among the participants is a life enhancing experience. The very positive comments from all those who took part is very reassuring. I’m sure we all feel genuinely sorry for all the bigots who post snide comments about us and Mr Tunick. Is it Art? Well I’m not quite sure even yet, his poses tend to be stereotyped - I think he should use more imagination there. but I’m glad I was there. Take a look at a portfolio of Ingres if you’re in doubt - its all been done before!
May 7th, 2007 at 7:26 am
Mr. Bean, Thank you for sharing your experience and the perspective concerning Ingres.
I would be much too self conscious to ever participate in sucn an event.
It does seem to be the emperor’s new clothes as far as art is concerned however.
May 7th, 2007 at 8:25 am
“intensely liberating experience…” From what I am not too sure. I knew a young woman once who also found it very “liberating” to shed her clothes in dramatic ways and commune w/the natural environment —cliffs over look’g oceans, wooded forest etc, and then sharing these photos that she willfully planted in between her travelogue slide shows. To my mind this behavior border on one of an exhibitionist.
May 7th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Terry: I wouldn’t be there either. My absence would elicit waves of gratitude from the world as I would bring little of naked beauty to his art.
May 7th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Basically it is an unconscious protest of original sin and concupiscence. Augustine went too far with concupiscence thanks to his forgiven but unresolved libido.
And now here’s the delayed pendulum swing. So that it is more a protest stand-in than art. They are saying that they are above concupiscence whereas Ausustine saw all sexual urges as under concupiscence ergo the asking for the debt as venial sin if one were not willing children (”Marriage and Concupiscence” chapter 16)(a position rejected by the modern Popes).
Have you noticed that one can fake whole types of art but one cannot fake specific implementations. You can fake music with a radical concert of sporadic noise; but you can’t fake playing the clarinet. You can fake art but you can’t fake anatomical nude art done with charcoal. You can fake poetry by having four words on the page; but you can’t fake doing a traditional structure of poetry. You can call rap… music because you cannot carry a tune; but at least it’s poetry at times.
May 7th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
The only thing I’ll be impressed with, done en masse, is when every knee shall bend…
This is (literally) only an exhibition of assinine mob mentality.