Artistic Differences in Madison (CT) (barf alert)

The Hartford (Commie) Courant ^ | Thanawala | Sudhin

[cgbg]

MADISON:

If it were up to William Bach, Victoria would not be allowed near the Stop & Shop supermarket parking lot. In fact, she'd probably be thrown out of town

...Bendig says most people know little about art, and selecting art requires expertise. An anonymous, highly qualified group of five art professionals...chooses the sculptures.

"Anytime you deal with art in the community, it's impossible to have consensus" said architect Duo Dickinson, who called the sculpture a "gift" for the town. "That's part of what makes art great. It makes people think about what is beautiful and what is not beautiful, what their community is and what it isn't".

[cgbg]

This article has a lot of quotes from liberals making fools of themselves. The architect is my favorite. He is a character straight out of Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead".

I would highly recommend that area farmers visit the arhcitect's house and dump cow dung out of their pickup trucks on this guys front lawn. They could call themselves the "Redneck Art Collective". They would just be starting a dialogue about what is art, you know. ;-)

[dighton]

Monday 25 October 1999

Tate protesters wreck artist’s unmade bed

By Sam Wallace

TRACEY EMIN’S work My Bed, shortlisted for the Turner Prize, was attacked yesterday by two men who repeatedly jumped on it and drank from the bottles of vodka which form part of the Tate Gallery exhibit.

The men, naked from the waist up with Chinese characters painted on their chests, were wrestled to the ground by curators and a member of the public. A visitor said: “Everyone at the exhibition started clapping as they thought it was part of the show. At first, the security people didn’t know what to do.”

Police later released two men without charge. Yuan Cai, 43, from Stoke Newington, north London, said he had planned the action because the first time he saw Emin’s work he thought it was strong but still institutionalised.

He said: “We want to push the idea further. Our action will make the public think about what is good art or bad art. We didn’t have time to do a proper performance. I thought I should touch the bed and smell the bed.”

Mr Cai, a correspondent for Chinese arts magazines and newspapers, had words such as “Communism”, “Anti-Stuckism”, “Freedom”, “Idealism” and “Internationalism” written on his body in Chinese as well as English. He said his actions were themselves a piece of art named “Two Naked Men Jump Into Tracey’s Bed”. Although he was not a contemporary of Emin, Mr Cai confirmed that he was a student of the Royal College of Art, from where he graduated in 1991. He had also gained a BA from Maidstone College.

J J Xi, 37, from Camden Town, said he wanted to push the work, which was not interesting enough, further to make it more significant and sensational. The words on his body included “Optimism”, “Idealism” and “Anarchism”.

Mr Xi, a graduate of Goldsmiths College, University of London, said: “I had three security guards on top of me. I think the way they treated us visual artists was ignorant. We are planning more demonstrations but we would prefer to keep them secret.”

The Tate later confirmed that “an incident” had taken place, but said that the artwork would be back on display. He said: “The work has now been restored and the exhibition will open to the public as usual at 10am tomorrow.” The spokesman refused to discuss what had been done to “restore” it.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 1999.

[harpseal]

Madison is very close to where I live and I am though the main street of that town often. Most of the pieces of sculpture are not all that bad. Some are absolutely ridiculous like Victoria. Much of the "art' is definitely not a good blend with the classic New England architecture of Madison but I must admit I like the giant paper airplane now stuck to the side of a building accross the walkway from the New Haven Savings bank. I preffered it whenit was in a tree. There is a bronze Horse that is almost classical in nature, a mermaid, a large frog, and an abstract cow made out of a huge buthcher's block with a cleaver for its head.

I for one am not overly impressed by the art in Madison's mile The majority of the sculptures are avsolutely unfathomable by anyone. If the townspeople do not like the art on public property there is a petition process that would force a referendum on the issue.

As to the private property sculptures that is up to the homeowners.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Here's the problem....

Bendig says most people know little about art, and selecting art requires expertise.

Bendig, however, says the very point of the Mile is to introduce art to people who would not go to a museum courtyard or sculpture park, but who must be confronted.

In other words, everyone is entitled to an opinions, as long as it's Bendig's. Elitist a**h***.

[x]

Bendig, however, says the very point of the Mile is to introduce art to people who would not go to a museum courtyard or sculpture park, but who must be confronted.

That's certainly a fine arrogance.

The article doesn't make absolutely clear whether this is a permanent or temporary exhibition. It might be fine to have a summer or winter exhibition of sculptures. I suspect people would get tired of them if they were permanent, even if the sculptures were moved around. Before you buy a sculpture, you'd better make sure it's something you can live with for a good, long time.

There's something of a circus- or kitch-aspect to the whole thing. Too much art in one place can be worse than none. And artists' or arts bureaucrats' ideas of what "fits in with the environment" can be very different from most people's.

[driftless]

You've figured out their scam. To me modern art is a gigantic con game, a mass duping of the gullible "hip" segment of society. And only the "artists" and the art critics know the worth of the "art" such as it is.