That's an interesting commentary, but it certainly wouldn't lead to
calling Fluxus art "Elephant Art." By Farber's description Fluxus
would fit more in the "Termite" category. Does anyone on the list
know Alan Ball (the producer of "Six Feet Under"), or any of the
writers? We could ask them what the source was.
On Nov 7, 2008, at 7:58 AM, tamarawyndham wrote:
My friend found this when she Googled it-
http://www.drainmag.com/ContentPLAY/Essay/Patrick.html
"Laurette's manner of working equally recalls artist-critic Manny
Farber's characterization
of termite vs. white elephant art. In Farber's case, he was
addressing the cinema and
painting around 1962, but perhaps in Laurette's case he is the
resourceful postmodern
termite artist against the bloat and bombast of, say, America's own
pride and joy Matthew
Barney. To quote Farber, "the most inclusive description of the art
is that, termite-like, it
feels its way through walls of particularization, with no sign that
the artist has any object
in mind other than eating away the immediate boundaries of his art,
and turning these
boundaries into conditions of the next achievement."[12]Farber's
termite art is contrasted
against art "as an expensive hunk of well-regulated area."[13] Such
an instance of termite
art in Laurette's case is the Scattered Library piece of the late
1990s, in which the artist
proposed to lend a selection of his own books—ninety of them to be
exact—to the St.
Bruno library in Grenoble, ending up during that period as almost
3/4 of one percent of
the library's holdings."
--- In ma-network@yahoogroups.com, Reid Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> No need to blush ... Six Feet Under was a pretty good show. As for
> the writers, I think they were probably combining several different
> things when they came up with Elephant Art and Termite Art.
>
> On Nov 6, 2008, at 12:53 PM, tamarawyndham wrote:
>
> > OK, I'll tell you the context I heard it - it was on an old TV
show
> > (blush) "Six Feet Under" -
> > Claire is in art school and the teacher criticizes her friend's
> > sculpture as "elephant art"
> > Then he asks the class "Anybody know what elephant art is?" No one
> > says anything. Then
> > he says "It was invented by Fluxus artists. Anybody know what
> > Fluxus is?" No one says
> > anything. Then he scolds them for not reading.... he goes on to
> > call Claire's sculpture
> > "termite art"..... I assumed "termite art" was a made up thing,
but
> > I wasn't sure about
> > "elephant art" ... maybe they just made it up for the TV show...
> >
> > - T
> >
> > --- In ma-network@yahoogroups.com, Reid Wood <reidwood@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Some zoos have their elephants make paintings, which they
then sell.
> > > Don't know if this was the reference.
> > >
> > > Reid Wood
> > >
> > > On Nov 5, 2008, at 10:00 PM, Tamara Wyndham wrote:
> > >
> > > > I just heard a reference to something called "elephant art"
that
> > > > was something invented by Fluxus. I just tried to google
it, but
> > > > nothing showed up.... anybody familiar with "elephant art"?
> > > > Just wondering,
> > > >
> > > > thanx,
> > > >
> > > > Tamara Wyndham
> > > > http://www.tamarawyndham.com
> > > >
> > > > "No man who has managed to keep out of an office can be
called a
> > > > failure in life."
> > > > - Richard Aldington
> > > >
