Art is sometimes overwhelming. Life as a whole can become overwhelming Jean Segura Jersey , and at times I do find myself caught up in its whirlwind of drama. Being the person that I am, being faced with it, I tend to question the things that I don聮t understand, and sometimes I questions the things I understand the most, the things that I am certain of the most, like art.
After one of our regular seminar sessions at college I found myself contemplating a piece of work we were presented with that afternoon: three canvases painted yellow placed on top of each other on a wall of a gallery Mike Schmidt Jersey , a creation seemingly effortless, yet was declared to us and to the whole world as a masterpiece, something of given value, an example we should measure up to. It stirred a lot of controversy in the room, the most diverse response I have ever witnessed on an art related discussion amongst my classmates. Some could not help but demean it, others dismissed it as something pathetic Philadelphia Phillies Jersey , something a child could produce in one day, while a few glorified it. However I sat there disappointed with my not knowing how to assess it, with my not understanding how it could seem credible and worthy of admiration to many.
From that day on, viewing such pieces of art became very thought provoking for me. When I visited the college聮s library, I came across a book on Tom Friedman聮s work. One of his pieces, untitled 1995 Matt Chapman Jersey , caught my eye; it was a chewed piece of bubble gum that has been stretched to stick to both the ceiling and the floor. On the spur of the moment, this piece of work seemed insignificant and dirty to me. Why a chewing gum as an art piece? Something very accessible to all, something we chew on and spit on the side of the streets day after day. Why would he want to present such a trivial thing as a work of art? I just did not get how such an artist would find recognition and fame. It made me reflect on art again. What is it? Who defines it? Who creates it? And where do its parameters lie?
As I read about it I discovered that it all lies within the concept, the value of it lies predominantly in the idea, the philosophy embedded behind it. This particular piece of work 聭untitled?1995, was one amongst several others of his featured in an exhibition in 1996. Each individual piece was an illustration reflecting on one angle of the bigger picture he was exploring.
His work in that show was seen collectively as an exploration of the relationship between ideas; ideas that he did not mention the content of Stephen Piscotty Jersey , but ideas that I see representing general ones, representing thoughts in their raw context. How do they interact with one another? Do they exceed to strengthen, or do they branch out and complicate themselves?
The bubble gum piece visually tackles the concept of ideas drifting apart from each other, hence the action of being stretched. It also shows how further and further away the idea has moved from its original state. The relationship is then depicted to have become thinner and thinner until its connection is no longer detectable and defined. It has also been said that this particular piece carried further meaning, as in it Friedman saw the relationship his other various pieces of work have with each other, their increasing independency and their evolving further apart.
Reflecting back on this piece of work I have become more appreciative of such work Rickey Henderson Jersey , and learned to search for meanings to pieces of art that I fail to comprehend at the first glance. However, still bearing in mind the subject matter of this work (ideas and their relationship with each other), I have come up with an interpretation of my own that could be relevant. What if the stretched piece in between the ceiling and the floor expresses a feeling of holding on rather than moving away? This idea could also reflect the ambiguity, contradiction and spontaneity that exists in the way we think and develop ideas. I also believe that he is an honest, simple person, who reduces or compares the meaning of life to a thing Oakland Athletics Jersey , smaller than him, something tangible, something our hands can play around with, like a chewing gum in Friedman聮s case. To me it is his expression of control over his life. In my opinion he is making life seem as trivial.
Friedman is one artist that has approached art in ways that are beyond the conventional painting or sculpture, and, as I have come to find out Aaron Judge Jersey , this is one of the features of modern art as a whole, in which conceptual art belongs.
Conceptualism is a form of art that questions conventional art. It sets to project a concept to the viewer through a piece of work, in which the value of it lies firmly on the intellect and the idea behind it rather than the representation of it. In fact the physical appearance and the aesthetics of it is frequently of little or no importance. Like the works of art that are classified under conceptual art, the movement in itself is open to controversy, many do no want to stick labels or definitions to it, others reject it as not art. Dellin Betances Jersey , . Lucie-Smith, 1995