I don't think it is violence that makes me object to Serra. I like other violent things quite a bit, like hockey and anime. But I do object to the import, the call to respond as if in the presence of something sublime. Rightly or wrongly, I find Serra's sculpture coercive and my reactive response is to say "I don't care about your big rusty thing," rather than to admire it. I have the same response to super feminine movies about people getting cancer and falling in love in Paris and such...sure I have buttons you can push, but just cause you've managed to manipulate my emotions doesn't mean I have to place any particular value on the experience. Because of this reaction, I can sympathise with the philistine detractors of the Tilted Arc. (...and I should mention that I feel strongly that bisecting a formerly functioning public space is antisocial in the extreme. To insist that some kind of enforced fine art experience is more important than where you eat your lunch every day, now that's objectionable. )
(please ignore me if this is all too naive) - do you feel James Turrell manipulates the viewer? I think I am trying to understand if it is the manipulation or the material that is being objected to.. I understand that the work is imposing (which I don't think is always a bad thing, sometimes I am thankful to be imposed upon), but I also have never felt his work interferes in my living. I choose to step into the spiral. Does size equal import? Is his work cliched maybe? In that one expects how they will feel - if they know his work?
addendum:
I do get y'all and do understand. I get the masculine, "big dick art", imposing, manipulative, violent. I guess I just don't mind it as an experience. That's all.
fair question. I dont have any trouble w/ serra right up till the end, where he seems to back off from a career trajectory w/ a reflexive reversal that to me seems to pander to unvalid critisim. if it wasnt for the big crater project i dont think turrell would even be on the map. nice big and sublime nature/art experience. but wiring mood rooms for light and sound shows gives me serious doubt that he has anything on the ball at all. just me 2 cents/ like you say one dont mind being waltzed around if you think they know what their doing.
I bring up Turrell because Sally's post made me think more about how I react to Turrell than Serra. while I really like some of his work like crater, I find the "mood rooms" manipulative and actually somewhat insulting (PS1 room excluded, but there is nothing "artificially" manipulating me there).
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- sally mckay 4-19-2004 8:08 am
(please ignore me if this is all too naive) - do you feel James Turrell manipulates the viewer? I think I am trying to understand if it is the manipulation or the material that is being objected to.. I understand that the work is imposing (which I don't think is always a bad thing, sometimes I am thankful to be imposed upon), but I also have never felt his work interferes in my living. I choose to step into the spiral. Does size equal import? Is his work cliched maybe? In that one expects how they will feel - if they know his work?
- selma 4-19-2004 9:54 pm [add a comment]
addendum:
I do get y'all and do understand. I get the masculine, "big dick art", imposing, manipulative, violent. I guess I just don't mind it as an experience. That's all.
- selma 4-19-2004 10:29 pm [add a comment]
fair question. I dont have any trouble w/ serra right up till the end, where he seems to back off from a career trajectory w/ a reflexive reversal that to me seems to pander to unvalid critisim. if it wasnt for the big crater project i dont think turrell would even be on the map. nice big and sublime nature/art experience. but wiring mood rooms for light and sound shows gives me serious doubt that he has anything on the ball at all. just me 2 cents/ like you say one dont mind being waltzed around if you think they know what their doing.
- bill 4-19-2004 11:20 pm [add a comment]
I bring up Turrell because Sally's post made me think more about how I react to Turrell than Serra. while I really like some of his work like crater, I find the "mood rooms" manipulative and actually somewhat insulting (PS1 room excluded, but there is nothing "artificially" manipulating me there).
- selma 4-19-2004 11:49 pm [add a comment]