It Was Raining Outside And They Were Promised Sandwiches
Sshh. Art is happening. Today it’s the art of Ms Nika López, seen below, as she “establishes an intimate relationship” between herself and nature. Specifically, an indoor pile of dirt. Thereby, of course, permitting us to behold,
The connection with the earth, the immersion of bodies in matter, the transformation from inside to outside, the tracking of a body that multiplies and distributes energy to people.
You see, Ms López describes her mission as nothing less than “expanding the consciousness of human beings.” As will doubtless become clear.
Other, equally deep and riveting works by Ms López can be found here.
I have to admit I sped up through some parts.
Did the children witnessing this have to write a review of the art when they returned to class? Certainly the teacher would give glowing grades to the few kids that saw this as the artist did, and for the other 19 kids who saw this as borderline idiocy and without merit, would be graded harshly.
I’m certain of it. I took art class in hight school, back in the 70’s.
As bad as the “artiste” is, what about those slack-jawed dummies sitting around watching her as she creates her “art”…
If you are a nutter, especially a female nutter, and definitely a racially ethnic female nutter, you will find educated, but still brain dead, wealthy people supporting this shite. Just look at how famous, and possibly obscenely wealthy Tracy Emin is. In a real universe, anyone who exhibited an unmade bed or a collection of used tampons would find themselves making the acquaintance of men in white coats. Rather than being art, it is an example of lazy, untalented, people conning the liberal elite.
No, Daniel, Colbert isn’t close to the worst of it.
In 2002 Elmo, the puppet Elmo, testified.
Yeah, you win. I got nothing.
Wasn’t Kevin Clash accused of molesting a teenage boy or something?
I just realized my brother and I were performance artists when we were 5 and 7. Our performance ended with Mom hollering at us and my older brother spraying us with a garden hose. Luckily for us we did our art outside. Had we done it inside the house things probably would’ve turned out different.
@champ: Since the election, Walters claims that many of her white colleagues suddenly feel emboldened to inquire if she’s an affirmative action hire, suggest she’s in collusion with other black faculty members, and question her authority.
And a bang-up job she’s done dispelling all those thoughts that she might be (1) drunk on her authority, (2) colluding with other black faculty members, and (3) an affirmative action hire by;
(1)suggesting the use of her position for political activism is correct, writing in a journal with an appeal to her own authority, and encouraging an iron hand in the classroom;
(2) writing in an explicit intersectional advocacy journal with calls for minority action; and
(3) being a dean at a *relatively small* Catholic university in Texas when a black woman of activist aims and *great academic accomplishment* can nearly write her own ticket to a professorship in a more “Correct” environment.
Such a dreadful thing her colleagues are no longer completely afraid to express what they’ve had reason to suspect for some time, the bastards.
I just want to hand her a shovel.
My childhood self would never have failed to hit a target like that with a rubber band.
If I might offer a minor digression, I believe artistic talent lies in being able to provoke a reaction in one’s audience – interest, at a minimum.
If feeling nauseous and disgusted counts, then that surely makes Rocío Boliver the 21st century Michaelangelo. She gets buck nekkid too.
If feeling nauseous and disgusted counts, then that surely makes Rocío Boliver the 21st century Michaelangelo.
Ms Boliver’s menopausal offerings can be savoured here.
Instead of addressing her concerns with her colleagues personally, or reporting them to HR, Walters instead chose to chronicle her frustrations publicly, in the hopes of raising awareness and suggesting coping strategies to other faculty of color.
First off, that’s even higher levels of passive-aggression than I’m used to seeing in Minnesota, which is notorious for this sort of thing. Second, I question how highly her fellow faculty of color are going to value her suggested coping strategies, given that she’s already proven herself incapable of dealing with her colleagues like a mature professional. I mean, it’s hardly likely that every faculty member of color can vent their frustrations in this peer-reviewed journal — there’d be precious little space left over for all of the other very important research on Women, Gender, and Families of Color.
One would hate to see cutting-edge research like (rummages through last fall’s table of contents) Diasporic Filipinx Queerness, Female Affective Labor, and Queer Heterosocial Relationalities in _Letters to Montgomery Clift_ go unpublished for want of column inches, after all.
Tim Blair’s take on #NeverTrump…(good read)
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/touring-trumpland-and-finding-it-largely-trumpless/news-story/5b3c30350b0d24acf0d808c6bc56faac
I’m not going to watch that, but I am going to mention the scene in Jurassic Park where the female protagonist shoved her arm into a mountain of fresh Triceratops-shit.
Perhaps next year Ms. Lopez will up the ante.
“…expanding the consciousness of human beings…”
I don’t believe that my consciousness has expanded following exposure to Mx López, although I must confess to uncertainty as to how this might be measured. Perhaps I’m not really human.
You can’t fool me, she just stuck her head in dirt and arted
Subtitle: “Don’t look now, I’ve soiled myself.”
No, wait, that should be – “Look! Now! I’ve soiled myself.” Simple editing mistake.
This topic got cross-posted to Instapundit, which resulted in the following …
… which made me laugh.
I couldn’t help think about what a waste of money her education was. Wonder who paid for it…
And I bet Thanos lets her live.
It Was Raining Outside And They Were Promised Sandwiches
All-night open bar?
All-night open bar?
I’ve often thought that the audience for these things, such as it is, is more intriguing than the purported artists. A combination of Dunning-Kruger and chronic narcissism can explain the performers, but what about the people watching? Are they trying to impress each other by pretending to see some merit in the flummery, or do they actually imagine that they’re being treated to a deep and radically mind-expanding aesthetic experience? And which is more tragic?
I don’t think a return to realism is an answer though Jabrwok. Photography has that end of the market seen up. Not because it’s necessarily better, but I can get a really nice photo for a fraction of a painting, if what I want is realism.
When I go into shops selling art or design, they often have items I think are beautiful, sometimes thought-provoking. They also have dreck too, but that could be said of clothes shops. But then, they have to sell to survive.
Provided you avoid art museums and performance art, there’s plenty of beautiful works to be seen. They would be derided as “decor” by snobs, but I’m long past caring what snobs think.
I’ve often thought that the audience for these things, such as it is, is more intriguing than the purported artists.
The photographers are the best! The seriousness with which they approach the work, capturing the event for posterity, history even! The click-click-clicks and flashes add to it. And yet the polyanna in me can’t help hoping that at least one is there for laughs. I’m kinda hopeless that way.
The poor lady was struggling so hard to carry that dirt with her bare hands, and not one of those spoiled brats watching her offered or tried to help. What is the matter with the work ethic of young people these days?
Are they trying to impress each other by pretending to see some merit in the flummery, or do they actually imagine that they’re being treated to a deep and radically mind-expanding aesthetic experience?
In the Before Times in my peripatetic academic career I was for a while in an art school, and having dealt with this lot, the answer is both. Of the two, the latter are the more tragic both because they truly believe, and because they perpetuate the dreck. The former are generally just there to get the free booze and/or into someone’s pants.
I don’t think a return to realism is an answer though Jabrwok. Photography has that end of the market seen up. Not because it’s necessarily better, but I can get a really nice photo for a fraction of a painting, if what I want is realism.
You are missing a bit of the fundamental philosophy of the folks at Jabrwok’s link.
If you want a “realistic” picture of a flower to hang on the wall, yes, a photo can be easier and cheaper (though there are tools and programs that can make a photo look just like a painting). However, you cannot take a picture of Pygmalion and Galatea without setting it up in a studio with all the expense and expertise that entails. Photos by recognized artists are not always cheap, an original Ansel Adams, if you are into realism, will set you back anywhere from 4-70,000 frogskins.
Photography also does not always equal realism, Jerry Uelsmann used the techniques of “realistic” photography to make very surrealistic images – all in the darkroom, long before anyone dreamed of Photoshop.
Getting back to the folks at ARC and “realism”, they rail a lot against “Modernism”, but that is too catch-all a term as it drags in everything from the obviously talented and capable such as Frank Lloyd Wright or Thomas Hart Benton to garbage like the senorita sticking her head in the dirt. If you read through their whole article, they rather sum it up as:
However, I think the folks at ARC would likewise fit into “realism” anything that encompasses most of their 24 points. Several moons ago for the princely sum of 80 Francs (ten clams US at the time) I purchased three watercolors from a street artist in Paris which would meet many of their criteria, even though they are not literal “realistic” representations of that which they depicted, and, as you point out, there is a lot of that sort of stuff out there, I think the ARC guys just want to get it back into museums, rather than a “painting” done by some nitwit who shot paint balls from her nether regions.
Oh No! I skipped to the end and ruined the story.
Monica Lopez Doltz, bwahahaha!
…vegan and feminist So she’s just having dinner then?
Nika, you go get a broom and clean this mess up. Right now. If this isn’t cleaned up by dinnertime, you are grounded, young lady. And I mean it.
Does she do this in manure also? Seems like a difficult way to make friends.
Sacha Baron Cohen is one. You may not like him, but he’s a genius.
I beg to differ. His schtick is to ridicule, in particular, white Christians, which may not be unrelated to his problems with his own ethnicity. Besides, he is excruciatingly unfunny. In a civilised society he would be dismissed as a exhibitionist.
For an example of his toe-curling vulgarity in action, observe the way he is rapidly summed up by Donald Trump:
https://youtu.be/XyxuWpol8lc?t=118
Between “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “The Princess and the Pea,” Hans Christian Andersen is proving more prescient by the day.
It is extremely problematic that in this day and age, artistx feel free to go out in blackface.