Is This Really What Art Has Come Down To?

[RATTER15]

https://www.facebook.com/Cashmo.Offiziell/videos/883194235027298/


What a bloody load of total nonsense!!!

[jno]

because people swanning about in tutus is so much more like real life?

[Svejk]

makes you think, don't it.

[jackthehat]

Not the sort of thing I'd want to spend much of my time watching admittedly but I suppose there must be an audience out there who would.

[wolf63]

I am hoping that there is an underlying story being told.

I don't consider that to be art and would, probably have no idea what was going on.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm unsure about the "come down to". Seems to me there has always been "art" forms that are best described as something weird you may look at/watch. Often so strange that you find it difficult to drag yourself away as you are so gobsmacked at the weirdness that you await it to improve.

For sure it attracted your attention. But the big problem is allowing those who call themselves "artists" to define what "art" is; which tends to amount to whatever it is they've produced.

It's a show. It could be argued that it is art, for it caught the attention for a bit; but it is hardly fine art. Or IMO proper art (which I've no desire to try to define here). It's folk using their dance skills on crutches and skateboards and the like, probably because they can make a living out of it.

[VHG]

Well it does look very weird.

However people thought Beethoven a madman when he wrote some of his later works, and Picasso's early abstract art was laughed at.

When Rite of Spring by Stravinsky was first shown as a ballet there was a near riot due to the unconventional nature of the dance and music.

Now Rite of Spring is considered a masterpiece, so much so that John Williams "stole" part of it for the Jaws theme.

You can compare them here

http://www.whosampled.com/sample/23055/John-Williams-Main-Title-(Theme-From-Jaws)-Igor-Stravinsky-The-Rite-of-Spring-Part-I%3A-The-Augurs-of-Spring/

[jno]

very interesting, VHG.

[Sir Alec]

Best laugh I've had in ages!

[trt]

Its complete madness Ratter, and I think the art world has become a laughing stock, since that silly cow with the unmade bed, or was it the inside house, or the sheep in that liquid?

[weecalf]

Now a video of Davy beck sleeping that was pure ? Art

[Buenchico]

You missed the choreographer's earlier work then, I take it ;-)

"Marie Chouinard is a 55-year-old Canadian choreographer whose work is known for its sexually voyeuristic content. Early performance events saw her urinating and masturbating on stage and auctioning herself off for the night to audience members"
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/may/16/body-remix-goldberg-gustavia-susan-darren

The Evening Standard review probably got it about right:
"She could be saying something about pointe-shoe dancing being a type of fetish, and beautiful though it is, the dancers are often in pain. She could also be alluding to ideas of choreography controlling the dancers to set the audience free, but either way, her means are inept and the result laughably bad"
http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/marie-chouinards-having-a-laugh-7419818.html

[andy-hughes]

I have always tried to be wary of dismissing art simply on the basis that I don't understand it, or that it holds no appeal.

If I take that argument into my own field - popular music - there are masses of albums and bands whose work leaves me completely cold, and I can see no redeeming features in their material at all, but they are massively popular, off the top of my head, Coldplay, Kanye West, Elbow, Blur, the list goes on and on.

But the connecting point is - although I don't like or enjoy the output of these artists, there are millions who do, so they obviously hear and appreciate something that does not reach me.

So, in regard to the video clip - it looks odd, and not at all entertaining to my eyes, but that does not mean that I can see that it is bad art, or that it is not art at all.

[jomifl]

I'd have to watch it all the way through to come to a judgement ..but that won't happen. Didn't people once go to lunatic asylums to watch this kind of thing?

[Retrochic]

I don't think its odd at all. Its like a video Salvador Dali would have made if he could have. To laugh at it is to not be willing,or perhaps able,to understand the thought process behind the work. Like an abstract painting or modernist work it needs to be looked at more than once to start 'getting' what the artist means. I think its very thought provocative.

[melv16]

Was it art when a cleaner came across an installation piece in an Italian gallery and chucked it in the bin, thinking it was rubbish? Made me chuckle,though.

[andy-hughes]

Retrochic - // I don't think its odd at all. Its like a video Salvador Dali would have made if he could have. To laugh at it is to not be willing,or perhaps able,to understand the thought process behind the work. Like an abstract painting or modernist work it needs to be looked at more than once to start 'getting' what the artist means. I think its very thought provocative. //

Interesting response.

I agree, to dismiss something because you don't understand it is shallow, and also loses the possibility of seeing something if you look a little more closely.

I love the notion of Dali and video - what a missed opportunity that has been.

Having ingested hallucinogenic drugs in my youth, I completely 'get' Dali!

[Retrochic]

Andy Dali is one of my favorites and he did dabble in short films - Un Chien Andalou for example.

This Art video for me is partially about constraint, inability to become a true individual in a world that promotes being 'in the in crowd'. Also it hints on the constraints of dance itself -the very hard self discipline that dancers go through to appear light and effortless. 0.35 into the piece is he 'moving the goal posts? 1.03 to me reminds me of the lengths some fans go to in football worship....maybe I'm just on the same wave length as the Artist who is French Canadian!

[andy-hughes]

PiedPiper - //It's a bit like the emperors clothes. If you say it's crap it is because you are thick and don't get it//

I don't think that is true,

Not understanding something does not mean you are stupid - it just means that you don't understand it - that is no-one's fault.

Equally, it does not mean that art is invalid because you don't like it, or see the message portrayed.