OK, there is this guy in my art class who does conceptual art and his latest piece was a performance piece... Our brief was 'My inner journey'... Sopme random usic was put on. He was tied up in a straight jacket (sp?), he sat on a chair and tape was put over his mouth. A clear plastic bag was then placed over his head and a piece of fabric was tied around is neck, sealing the bag. He then sat there while we watched. Condensation formed in the bag and soon there was no air left in the bag as he sucked in for more air. Eventually he blacked out and fell off the chair. The his helper ripped the bag off his head, and then he screamed...he then got up and stood up in front of us and said, "My Inner Journey." I know he is gonna get a good mark, but I believe it will be because our teacher will be too scared to criticise his work and be looked at as though he doesn't understand the type of art... Any thoughts?
Hack shit. I know I'm a bit out of art school but I remember the desire to break all of the rules and be shocking. What I have learned over time is that the greats don't ever break the rules. Instead, they bend them. It is not the audience's job to figure out what you are up to. It is your job to lead them somewhere they have never been. But if they are unfamiliar with the path, they won't follow you. Think of one of the greatest musical minds in the 20th century; Brian Wilson. Sure, the Beach Boys had the garbage like Barbara Ann and Little Deuce Coupe. But when Brian wrote pet sounds, he combined the Beach Boy's strongest point, their harmony briliance and combined it with complex chord structure, new instrumentation and poetic and sometimes contraditory lyrics (I'm still not sure if "God only knows" is a celebratory or tragic song). These were things never seen in rock and roll but all were in some way familiar to their audience. By bending the rules, he rewrote them. That's what a good artist does. If you teacher gives this bullshit artist an "A", then he is a hack too.
Thanks for your reply and time... My teacher most certainly will give him an "A", if not 100%. This guy's other artwork was footage of animal testing and slaughtering, with Christmas Carols playing in the background. If thats not cliche then whatis?! Its so unoriginal and it wasn't even executed that well...yet he got 100%
I could see that working well, depending on how ironic the carols themselves are. But there is no excuse for a teacher rewarding poor craft. If it was a strong concept and bad implementation an 85% is as far as I could go. It's a whole lot better than mister "look at me, look at me, I'm in a bag" So what are you showing?
Yeah, but the fact is that in Art theory we had learnt about a mixed media piece relating to The Treachery of Images, which consisted of a real stoning in a township with Beethoven's fifth symphony, which is related to 1st world elegance. My classmate's idea is simply not very creative imo. I'm actually doing architecture next year in varsity, so I've decided to design structues and build small models of them. I'm currently making a car showroom...I'll post pictures when I'm finished.
Ok, I just did this in a rush for tomorrow's marking...I still need to add alot of detail and buy the correct cars! Basically, its inspired by the shields of the Zulu fighters.