Boing Boing has a post complaining about the Dia forbidding people to take photographs of The Lightning Field. I'm basically onside with letting people take pictures of art, but Cory Doctorow neglects to mention anything about the fact that The Lightning Field is not just a roadside attraction, but a bona fide work of art made in 1977 by Walter De Maria (who also made The Earth Room and the Broken Kilometer, also owned by Dia). In fact he neglects to mention Walter De Maria at all! If it was my art I'd say go ahead and take pictures, but please give a little credit where credit is due.
UPDATE: Greg made this point much better than I did.
Not sure if this adds much to the discussion, but here's more on the "it's not just a roadside attraction" from someone who has been there.
Thanks a lot for the link, Jim. That's a real nice piece of art writing (by Ethan Zuckerman), and I found out a bunch of stuff I didn't know. Like for instance... I was reluctant to leave my truck and camping supplies behind and asked to follow behind the Suburban to the site… but my request was denied, as it would have enabled me to leave without staying overnight, and de Maria explicitly wanted to ensure that visitors to the piece experienced it over a full day, seeing it in bright light, sunrise, sunset and night.
"Before becoming famous for Earthworks such as Lightning Field, de Maria was a painter, notorious for standing behind patrons and slapping them hard across the face if they didn't look at his work long enough. 'Bastards need to have the full experience of the piece,' he would say." --Theodor Adorno
yeah well, I take your point. I'm not a big fan of the big famous artist/author exerting his genius aura on everybody either. But I still think a site like Boing Boing should make note if something they are taking down a peg or two is a historic piece of art or not. I'm not sure why I feel that way. Maybe when push comes to shove I'm just nervous about that piece of history, the one when making conceptual art was unusual and sort of brave, slipping away from us. Also I have a big soft spot for De Maria cause his work was the next big art crush I had as a teenager after Edvard Munch.
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Boing Boing has a post complaining about the Dia forbidding people to take photographs of The Lightning Field. I'm basically onside with letting people take pictures of art, but Cory Doctorow neglects to mention anything about the fact that The Lightning Field is not just a roadside attraction, but a bona fide work of art made in 1977 by Walter De Maria (who also made The Earth Room and the Broken Kilometer, also owned by Dia). In fact he neglects to mention Walter De Maria at all! If it was my art I'd say go ahead and take pictures, but please give a little credit where credit is due.
UPDATE: Greg made this point much better than I did.
- sally mckay 4-12-2006 7:25 pm
Not sure if this adds much to the discussion, but here's more on the "it's not just a roadside attraction" from someone who has been there.
- jim 4-14-2006 1:21 am
Thanks a lot for the link, Jim. That's a real nice piece of art writing (by Ethan Zuckerman), and I found out a bunch of stuff I didn't know. Like for instance...
- sally mckay 4-14-2006 6:10 am
"Before becoming famous for Earthworks such as Lightning Field, de Maria was a painter, notorious for standing behind patrons and slapping them hard across the face if they didn't look at his work long enough. 'Bastards need to have the full experience of the piece,' he would say." --Theodor Adorno
- tom moody 4-14-2006 8:02 am
yeah well, I take your point. I'm not a big fan of the big famous artist/author exerting his genius aura on everybody either. But I still think a site like Boing Boing should make note if something they are taking down a peg or two is a historic piece of art or not. I'm not sure why I feel that way. Maybe when push comes to shove I'm just nervous about that piece of history, the one when making conceptual art was unusual and sort of brave, slipping away from us. Also I have a big soft spot for De Maria cause his work was the next big art crush I had as a teenager after Edvard Munch.
- sally mckay 4-14-2006 8:13 am