Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 19:11:53 +0000
From: "steve.devos" <steve.devos-AT-krokodile.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Duchamp stripped bare by Steve and Geof, even


Hugh

The slow transformation of the UK health care system from one based on 
Universal payments (made through National Insurance which only employed 
or self-employed people paid ) - towards a part privatised system in 
which the elements which capital an easily make profits on - began 24 
years ago and  has increased in recent years. One result of this has 
been the almost complete disapearence of National health dentists - most 
everyday dentistry has  become completely privatised, hence the queues 
you refer to below. The issue with the NHS generally is not dissimilar - 
if the system worked as it was initally planned to 'free at the point of 
delivery'  then there would be no need for the privatised companies to 
exist... (hence it cannot be allowed to function as it could).

It may appear bizarre to an american that the slowly failing privatised 
industries are being slowly taken back into public ownership, this week 
aspects of the ralways. Next week....

regards
steve

hbone wrote:

>Steve/All,
>
>I didn't comment on the source of all hospital funds,  Some used to get free
>volunteer assistance for nurses.  Now, they are owned by health insurance
>corporations who squeeze the nurses pay, and import nurses from poor
>countries.  Charitable institutions as well as for-profit corporations
>accept taxpayer funds.
>
> We have about $100 billion of annual "corporate welfare" subsidies ,.  I
>don't know how much the health insurance corporations receive in subsidies,
>but they are famous for cheating the Federal Medicare system as well as
>their patients.
>
> I favor a single-payer governmental health-care system, but my confidence
>was shaken a few weeks ago when the NY Times showed a picture o about 75
>would-be U.K. patiesnts waiting in line for an opportunity to get a dental
>appointment.
>
>regards,
>Hugh
>
>
>
>
>Hugh
>
>that's interesting - I didn't realise that most health care in the US run by
>religious orders in the 70s and 80s - I'd heard that the state withdrew most
>funding during the reagan era, didn't realise that they ran on pure charity
>grounds...
>
>steve
>
>hbone wrote:
>
>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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