Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 11:38:42 -0500
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: Duchamp stripped bare by Steve and Geof, even


Geof/All,

Among the newer poets I admire Gwyndolyn Brooks for sheer power although I
don't recommend her.

Also, your dedication to those  who suffer from autism.

It's incredible that only two of three decades ago health care was a
religious imperative.  Large and small cities were proud of their
denominational hospitals in which very young women were proud to be
volunteer
assistants.

regards,
Hugh

~^~^*~^~*^~*^~*^~~^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*^~*~


>
> Eric,
>
> Those hard rock candies remind me of a few things.  First there's this
fragment
> of a poem by Gary Soto:
>
> Outside,
> A few cars hissing past,
> Fog hanging like old
> Coats between the trees.
> I took my girl's hand
> In mine for two blocks,
> Then released it to let
> Her unwrap the chocolate.
> I peeled the orange
> That was so bright against
> The gray of December
> That, from some distance
> Someone might have thought
> I  was making fire in my hands.
>
> ...Soto is no T.S. Eliot, but I like it.  There's an intensity to a peeled
> orange.  Juiced glass.
>
> So, too, I like a book by Kenneth Maue called The Water In the Lake.  It's
a
> book of "happenings," which I've since discovered owe something in their
spirit
> by people like Allan Kaprow and Richard Long, the latter is an artist that
> arranges branches, mud, and icicles in straight lines and circles on
walks.
> But to Maue, one of the "happenings" he suggests is this:
>
> Choose a book from your collection and put it in the freezer.  Whenever
you
> move, be sure to keep that book on ice.
>
> I think Don Delillo's White Noise is good for this, and I am increasingly
> amazed--though I haven't read the book since I was an undergrad--how
timely
> such aspects like the Airborne Toxic Event are to the current political
> scene.  "The Most Photographed Barn in America" also lends itself to this
> discussion of the avant-garde and ready-made art.
>
> No doubt much of my interest in happenings stems from the 10 years I
worked at
> three different summer camps.  Seven of those years were spent working
with
> children with autism, Down's syndrome, cerbral palsy, and deaf children at
a
> speech and hearing 6-week live-in university program.  The various
exchanges of
> context over interpretation was very much part of the activity design.
Lining
> pinecones, wrapping oak trees with all the jump ropes, and the tactile
cold of
> making ice cream in coffee tins.  Oh, yes, and lots of the early Chaplin
> shorts.
>
> Temple Gradin, who graduated from ASU and has autism, went on to design
more
> humane ways of slaughtering animals.  Given my experience at SRC, I can
say
> that children with autism have a much different sense of space and sound,
and
> it is fascinating to see how Temple re-shaped the cattle industry.  To be
sure,
> there's much that could be said about the politics of eating meat,
particularly
> with respect to its impact on the rain forest and public health.  What I
am
> saying is I agree with Eric that theory, discourse, and politics are
important,
> and I can see how people like Temple or Duchamp are not removed from
> this "scene," but I am drawn to these "happenings."
>
> best,
>
> geof
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Quoting Eric <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net>:
>
> > Steve and Geof
> >
> > My copy must have been a knock-off. I don't have any 3D glasses, but I
> > didn't pay the current market price either. (Personally I don't know why
> > the glasses would be necessary. There weren't really that many
> > illustrations.)
> >
> > I promise to get into Duchamp's TRANSformers, but first I'd like to
> > 'delay' things a bit.
> >
> > I recognize that from a radical political perspective, there is a
> > problem with avant-garde movements insofar as they limit their scope to
> > the institutional art world. That is why I quoted T.J. Clark, which I
> > think is a pretty devastating remark. Since Clark was involved with the
> > situationists in some slight capacity, he certainly understands the
> > issues that are at stake here.
> >
> > I also think art has a place though even when it isn't revolutionary,
> > and think the Dadaists and surrealists had their own limitations. I also
> > admire what they did, but don't think it really goes beyond what Duchamp
> > accomplished.
> >
> > I had a chance yesterday to attend the local contemporary art museum in
> > the city where I live.  In some ways, it was a pretty sad experience.
> > Each room had older guards who looked like they might have been
> > retirees. They wore t-shirts that said 'fear no art', but their frail
> > bodies seemed to belie this message. They slumped in their chairs and
> > seemed merely bored and listless. There was certainly no sense of joy
> > and spontaneity in their demeanor, no real sense they actually wanted to
> > be here in this setting.
> >
> > The crowd of attendees appeared only slightly better. At least they had
> > chosen to come here on a Saturday when they could have chosen something.
> > Unlike the guards, it wasn't merely a job for them, but for the most
> > part they seemed far too serious and dutiful about it all. The
> > contemporary art museum occupies a vague indeterminate space somewhere
> > between a bank and a cathedral and it seemed most of visitors weren't
> > really sure which one of these was primary.
> >
> > I was still able to see a number of pieces that made an impact on me.
> > One piece in particular impressed me. It was by a younger artist whose
> > name I forgot to write down and now can't even remember. The work could
> > certainly be described as a readymade, however. It featured two old
> > wheelbarrows that had a worn patina like those old peasant shoes painted
> > by Van Gogh, which were valued so greatly by Heidegger. One of these was
> > filled with new, brightly colored round Christmas ornaments, all of the
> > same type, plain, without any special ornamentation, but in several
> > different colors - red, blue and green.  The other wheelbarrow was
> > simply filled with popcorn.
> >
> > The incongruity of these objects placed together certainly made for a
> > surrealistic moment. It was also a joyous one. The playful quality of
> > the piece reminded me of one of my very favorite pieces of art, a work
> > 'created' by the now deceased artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres.
> >
> > This was a work incredibly simple in both its design and execution. In
> > the corner of the room on the floor there was placed a pile of brightly
> > colored wrapped hard candies, the kind you'd find in any drug store.
> > They weren't there merely to be seen, however. Visitors were invited to
> > take a piece of candy away from the pile since the candies were
> > periodically replenished.
> >
> > In a rarified art world filled with security sensors that buzz if you
> > get too close to the art work, this fact was simply amazing. It changed
> > the entire nature of the usual aesthetic transaction.
> >
> > It was a strangely transgressive act just to be able to reach down, pick
> > up a piece of candy, unwrap it, and place it in your mouth. It also
> > seemed like an incredibly generous act, tender and intimate, a gesture
> > that somehow engendered a sense of community and undercut all the
> > modalities of the way art is usually approached.
> >
> > I don't know if Felix Gonzalez-Torres was directly influenced by Duchamp
> > or not, but in a way it doesn't really matter since Duchamp created the
> > context in which such radically different types of art such as this
> > become possible. As Ed Ruscha once put it, "if Duchamp did not exist, it
> > would have been necessary for someone like him to be invented."
> >
> > I recognize this bright pile is far from revolutionary, but sometimes
> > the journey of the long march through the institutions begins with only
> > one step or, even, just a piece of hard candy.
> >
> > Theory and discourse are important. So is politics.  But I think there
> > is still a place for art, despite all the institutional problems. The
> > situtionists thought art could be transcended by more intense life and
> > perhaps somewhere on another planet this is so.  But for now on this
> > earth, art creates a space that would otherwise not exist. Duchamp had a
> > hand in morphing the topology of this space and for this reason I
> > believe he remains important. Despite what Danto and Hegel have said,
> > art is very far from being dead.
> >
> > eric
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
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> >
>
>
>