Comments on: Urban Decay

By: fiona

fiona — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:34:54 +0000

Thanks Aisling! I agree. There is so much beauty that surrounds us wherever we are. It’s our job to point it out to people! I’d be interested to see your work!

By: aisling o'connor

aisling o'connor — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:29:44 +0000

Always cool to find someone who sees thinks like i do but communicates them in a totally different way. I also take all my insipration for my paintings from the streets and the everyday, commonplace objects people pass by without noticing. Its refreshing that in and overly urban world not everyone longs for snow capped mountains and lush green valleys but can view their immediate surroundings with the same romanticism as is lavished upon the formal landscaps

By: Adrienne O'Toole

Adrienne O'Toole — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 18:37:18 +0000

I love to hear of someone being that awake to their senses and being that sensitive to beauty. And the beauty of decay is a very delicate thing. The Japanese have a great traditional sensitivity to this and even have words for it - I think they call it Sabi-Wabi when they see the beauty of something no longer beautiful.

But I must protest mildly. The things you are seeing aren’t “art”, what you are seeing is “beauty”, a strange and magical quality that human beings are gifted to be able to glimpse. Things have to be made to be art, because the word art has always been related to artefacts, to skill, to craft and endeavour.
Art is something made, but beauty may be found.

I am, actually, quite opposed to what has been made of Duchamp’s readymades. I think when he put a urinal in an art gallery his comment was a crude and harsh criticism of galleries themselves and they tried, as a riposte, to absorb his comment and turn it back into some ossified and overvalued moment in history, which is what galleries are good at.
But I think Duchamp was right, galleries are the sort of toilets of culture, where art is petrified and abused and washed of meaning and stuffed with pomposity by some ghastly act of academic taxidermy.

So I hope those raw objects you spot keep inspiring you, and I hope you can find better homes for your art than the hallowed mausoluea of museum halls.

XX
A

By: suzie q

suzie q — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:21:27 +0000

Love this! Fascinating project, and one that I can relate to in a tiny way at the minute - I just found Keri Smith’s ‘wreck this journal’ site and am suddenly seeing everything as Art! Incredibly liberating, and excellent fun! I hope you get a lot from this project - you certainly seem to be making the most of this course and I’m thoroughly enjoying trying to keep up with you! So glad to be able to - thank goodness for Flickr & blogging!

Enjoy!