melpetrinack

In regards to curatorial and institutional practices, there is an element of selection involved in creating art exhibitions which could be misconstrued as intervention. However, curation is a process of organization yielding a clearer and more cohesive image or story. The ideal exhibition has a clear intention and theme and all the artworks included build on or speak to the central topic. Some galleries may censor, which is definitely and issue, but for those institutions that don’t, the artwork selection process is about providing the audience with a clear story – a logical, cohesive and collective statement through imagery.

As an art student on the cusp of graduation I can honestly say I appreciate your argument for objectivity. How would professors be able to effectively and efficiently grade artwork if objectivity did not enter into the act? Would it be fair to say that objectivity and subjectivity do not have an antagonistic relationship in regards to the art realm, but an interwoven connection?

Aspects of intentionality are also important however I often wonder if it matters who defines the intention. Does an artist have to define a creation as art or could an audience? Does it take a collective or a community to define an art object or only an individual? All these questions are open-ended.

I agree completely with your comments regarding societies ‘we can have it all now, so why don’t we’ attitude. I am however more intrigued with your use of the terms ‘text’ and ‘art’. When I think of television shows or films I do not think of text, I think of imagery in motion and characters. I realize scripts are written in order to guide these forms of entertainment yet the imagery of text is ultimately not the final product perceived by viewers.
Moreover, as a visual artist I struggle with the increased pace at which consumers/viewers require new information. How is a painter, sculptor, photographer, etc., supposed to hold their ground creating intriguing static objects when they are in constant competition with fast paced ‘flash’ entertainment like film? To be obsessed with a television series nowadays seems probable and even acceptable but to be preoccupied with a painting or sculpture appears odd and uncommon. Apparently the average gallery visitor spends only 5 seconds or less observing an art object, is 5 seconds really enough to absorb all the details in Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’?

I truly appreciate you connecting Aristotle with an element of contemporary pop culture. Not often enough are relationships established between philosophers of the past and characters created for modern entertainment.