 |
| ? |
As for Beuys, I am still not totally sure what he was saying... What I got was his idea that everything in the world can be seen as art, and that life itself is art. I think that is a very poetic thing to say, and I agree with him to some extent, but at the same time that seems like kind of a cop-out thing to say... But now we are coming back to the ever-present question: WHAT IS ART? Again, that is a question too big for this blog post.
I thought that Beuys' constant use of felt and fat is really interesting. It was fascinating to hear about how he was rescued by Tartars from a plane wreckage and how much that experience has affected his art pieces. It seemed to me like he was creating sculptures that sort of idolized the materials that had surrounded him and saved him from the cold. These materials must have imprinted very heavily into his mind when he went through such a traumatic experience when he was younger. Would he have become such a distinctive artist had this experience not happened?
In the video we watched a woman was asked about one of Beuys' pieces and she thought that part of the point of it was to be a little confusing. Ambiguity is something I would like to try to avoid in my own work. Since I am making an informational documentary, I have a specific message that I want to get across to the audience. In addition, there are a few language obstacles I am trying to overcome, so I have to make my message as straight-forward and understandable as possible.
I am on the same page as you because I am not so sure either of what I really think of Joseph Beuys myself. I mean, after watching the documentary, I was intrigued by some of his work, and how he utilized felt and fat to represent symbolic meaning. Not only that, I also enjoyed how he left his work open to interpretation. Though his work may have had personal meaning to him, he did not specify it to the viewers. Rather than labeling his work or giving it a description, he allowed the audience to self interpret the work through their own perception.
ReplyDeleteAs for the "What is Art?" question, I believe that in today's world, art has become everything. It is like we are in the Fluxus movement again! We always see artists creating artwork out of the most outrageous materials at times, and still be able to pull it off successfully!
I agree with you on the style of the video. It is really strange and looks like a cheesey experimental film trying to try out all the cool visual effects. It also looks like a English learning video to me because of the phrases they put on the screen every once a while.
ReplyDeleteHalpern's use of the once cutting edge linear video editing character generator and feedback effects read today as distracting rickrack. Though difficult and specialized then, they have been assimilated into digital video editing programs that can apply them with a click or two of the mouse. The combination of poor sound quality and poetic subtitles apparently (from how our audience reacted) made Beuys' now historic reflections difficult perhaps more because they were hard to hear than that the ideas themselves were hard to understand. A cautionary tale!?
ReplyDelete