Friday, June 27, 2008

Art for Art's Sake


I'm still musing about art this week. I'm not really great at anything, but I'm mediocre at a lot of different things when it comes to art, and find that even at my humble skill level I get enjoyment out of it.


I love all kinds of art-- paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages, even 'installation" art. When I find something that really speaks to me, I try to figure out why. You don't always get an answer. Sometimes the art remains in your head, and maybe that is all there is to it. Your own personal reaction to something is the actual "art." More-so than whatever it is you happen to be viewing.


Where am I going with this?


I can remember at college, there was a giant brillo pad hanging from the third floor open space down an open stair well to the first floor of the library. People made fun of it all the time, calling it "metal pubic hair" and even worse names. I think Giant Brillo Pad was an entry in a contest someone started to further call attention to this unfortunate piece of work. Others abused it by trying to bounce super-balls into it because they would stick inside of the thing. What joy this brought, I really can't say, but.... the thing certainly caused a strong reaction from people.


I just did a search to see if I could find it. No luck. You'll just have to picture this one for yourself.

(With or without the superballs inside.)


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed this post. I can picture the giant brillo pad. But I'm not sure if it's just because you described it so well. Or because I saw it with my own eyes. Either way, kudos to the artist for causing such an intense reaction. The best and most important art does provoke, I think. And here we are discussing it some 20 years (gulp) later. Well done, brillo artist. Well done.