Thursday, February 17, 2005

If THIS is art, what ISN'T?

Is this really art, some woman gnawing her way through apartment walls for a conceptual "art" project with the LMAK galleries in Chelsea, NY. Whatever. It reminded me of a piece (if it can be called that) I saw at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago a couple years ago. The "artist" had bought several hundred old photographs from garage sales and estate sales. Some were of family vacations, others were candid shots, or school portraits etc. The photos were all pinned to the wall in a space about 10 feet by 8 feet, but with the picture side turned into the wall so only the white backs faced the viewer. That was it. The artist didn't even come to the gallery to arrange the photos; the gallery workers put up the entire "piece". There obviously was no right or wrong way to pin each photo other than to make sure the picture couldn't be seen. What is the friggin' point of such "art"? Conceptual art is for "artists" who can't create real art, but can't write either. They're like the million and one wannabe script writers that haunt hollywood saying they have a great idea for a movie they just need someone to help them write it. Right. Anyone can have an idea, but getting the idea on paper in such a way that people want to read it or into a physical piece of art that doesn't suck is what separates the wannabes from the pro's. Most conceptual artists are just wannabes.

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