-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
On Wednesday 29 May 2002 21:19, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> It is so amazing in a city that has one of the most vibrant arts
> communities in the nation with a plethora of wonderful artists - and
> what the corporate world here wants to fund as public art is a visual
> art equivilant of muzak!!! Truly pathetic...
I have to agree that the Target and Ryan proposals are pretty sad ideas of
what it means for something to be art as opposed to simply a commercial--
I don't mind the works themselves, but I don't really want to see them on
public land. Nor do I want to see corporations given tax money for any
purpose, especially making art.
Given trends in the art world over the last 80 years, a big dog and a
large hardhat are not really much worse than some of what has been called
art-- after all, they're both distinctly reminiscent of all of
Oldenberg's oversized everyday objects and bring also to mind stuff like
Warhol's soup can. And in the end "real" art is there for its own sake--
not to remind people of where to shop. I can't speak to whether most of
this modern art, whether designed by a corporate ad department or a
starving artist was subsidized or not, though. But I can say I think
people overestimate how much money the arts community gets from tax
funding.
If Target wants to build a giant dog, they have a large atrium in the new
store we helped them build where it would fit nicely. I realize that's
subsidized land, but the interior space hardly feels like it belongs to
the public. That's clearly TargetLand. Even the shape and design of their
new store is an artistic expression of commercialism. Which means the
building will always be a Target ad even if the store eventually closes.
But Mary, why so many detractors about Mary? People love the Mary statue.
I work across the street and whenver I go out for a break there are
always people stopped at Mary to take pictures or simply give it a good
look-see. If that's what the people want, well... I can't make their
choices for them. There is lots of art all over downtown and that statue
gets more attention than any of it, from what I can tell. Maybe because,
in spite of being 100% about a TV show, Mary isn't some vague modern art
nonsense that people can't connect with.
- - -- Michael Libby (a Fine Arts degree holder, and a resident of North
Minneapolis' Cleveland neighborhood).
- - --
______Michael_C_Libby__{_x_(at)_ichimunki_(dot)_com_}______
| my website: http://www.ichimunki.com/ |
|____ public key at http://www.ichimunki.com/public.key ____|
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org
iD8DBQE89riF4ClW9KMwqnMRAkLWAJ0QQisa6IEd5YwmQfM+h1y/mUKe/QCePJFJ
EFrA40Fh1ZQK7yylU1l9sQM=
=N9gN
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
_______________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
