I'm not an artist by any means( merely try to improve my photography skills and share the contents with those I snap), but art is important so wonder what frame of mind he was in at the time or more likely what context he meant it in. Thank you for sharing about him.
Serra belongs to that rare group of artists whose work has actually killed someone. This could lead into a joke about the impact of his art, but I won’t make it.
I like Serra’s work. And books cannot do it justice. It’s experiential and site specific. It has to be encountered, sometimes walked through. The same can be said of Christo’s (whose art has also killed someone), but I can look at a book about Christo and get the feeling. See the beauty. A good book on Christo will show their process in the form of preparatory collages, which I like as much or maybe more than the work itself — in fact I’ve never seen a Christo wrapping in person.
There’s something about both artists’ work that speaks to the lack of utility in art. In fact they both frustrate the spaces they’re in. They make them less useful by obscuring them and/or filling them up. Yet they add to them, make them an experience.
When I read that quote by Sera, I wondered if it isn’t a bit of internalized Protestantism. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a story called “The Artist of the Beautiful.” In it, a craftsman creates a mechanical l insect, but he sees it as a trifle, something decadent, next to the work of the blacksmith that he knows (and if memory serves is/was also a romantic rival). It’s not a useful thing, in the traditional sense. Hawthorne felt like that artist, I’m sure. How truly useful were his words?
I think this could be what Serra is responding to. After all there’s a whole class of artists called product designers, who make things we do use. Some make them more beautiful.
I frequently use “art” as a verb. I often use the gerund form: “I’ve been arting.” To me it carries that all-important sense of play, far more so than the seriousness of “making art.” That sounds tedious and self-important. And potentially useful.
I'm not an artist by any means( merely try to improve my photography skills and share the contents with those I snap), but art is important so wonder what frame of mind he was in at the time or more likely what context he meant it in. Thank you for sharing about him.
I was just writing on these same themes myself. Ironically, it takes a lot of work to return to that state of play, but once there it's very worth it.
Personally I find art to be very useful, even at the most basic level, that of entertainment and decoration it's useful.
Serra belongs to that rare group of artists whose work has actually killed someone. This could lead into a joke about the impact of his art, but I won’t make it.
I like Serra’s work. And books cannot do it justice. It’s experiential and site specific. It has to be encountered, sometimes walked through. The same can be said of Christo’s (whose art has also killed someone), but I can look at a book about Christo and get the feeling. See the beauty. A good book on Christo will show their process in the form of preparatory collages, which I like as much or maybe more than the work itself — in fact I’ve never seen a Christo wrapping in person.
There’s something about both artists’ work that speaks to the lack of utility in art. In fact they both frustrate the spaces they’re in. They make them less useful by obscuring them and/or filling them up. Yet they add to them, make them an experience.
When I read that quote by Sera, I wondered if it isn’t a bit of internalized Protestantism. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a story called “The Artist of the Beautiful.” In it, a craftsman creates a mechanical l insect, but he sees it as a trifle, something decadent, next to the work of the blacksmith that he knows (and if memory serves is/was also a romantic rival). It’s not a useful thing, in the traditional sense. Hawthorne felt like that artist, I’m sure. How truly useful were his words?
I think this could be what Serra is responding to. After all there’s a whole class of artists called product designers, who make things we do use. Some make them more beautiful.
I frequently use “art” as a verb. I often use the gerund form: “I’ve been arting.” To me it carries that all-important sense of play, far more so than the seriousness of “making art.” That sounds tedious and self-important. And potentially useful.