Althouse: Found art.

November 10, 2014

Found art.

Out on the bike trail... which generally looked like this:

21 comments:

Heartless Aztec said...: The Creeper Trail - 17 gentle beautiful miles downhill to Damascus, Vs. Then dinner and s play at the famous Barter Theater in Abingdon.; 11/10/14, 1:14 PM
dhagood said...: a metaphor for much of modern art?; 11/10/14, 1:15 PM
gerry said...: A disquieting tableau, I must say.; 11/10/14, 1:19 PM
hombre said...: The first photo looks like the aftermath of Obama's inauguration.; 11/10/14, 1:31 PM
Jim in St Louis said...: It is not art till you sign it.

Of course your photo has your name attached so the photo is art, but the found object itself is just trash.; 11/10/14, 2:08 PM
Jaq said...: It is the selection that makes the art. This was proven with a urinal in an art museum a long ways back.; 11/10/14, 2:17 PM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: And yet another perfectly good English word/concept, 'art', gets willfully fucked up. Very nice.

Even as satire, that is subversive. Just sayin, because someone has to.; 11/10/14, 2:18 PM
RazorSharpSundries said...: First thing is it looks very cool but the litter is bad, very unkindly to nature and others out for a non-garbagey walk. Then, I think of the scene from Casino Royale where Bond is strapped naked to the chair with no seat to it and is whipped from underneath by a heavy rope. God, what horrific scenes take place in those Wisconsin woods under cover of darkness. I hope it was dark.; 11/10/14, 2:25 PM
Jim in St Louis said...: Hello Tim-
The urinal was signed. It was a named piece, that is what made it art. The museum valued it and paid cash. The one down the hall that you piss in is just a functional fixture. The museum valued that too and paid cash, just not as much.

Art is communication through medium. The found object concept only works if the artist shares his find with the audience. Althouse's photo does that. The pile of crap in the woods is just a pile of crap.

Sort of a dead cat in a box idea. Its not art till someone sees it.; 11/10/14, 2:27 PM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: Even as satire, that is subversive. Just sayin, because someone has to.

And I said that because a main cause of the several decades slow march of Progressive-ism is because we good people have just stood silent while they absolutely butt-ef'd the English language, breaking and subverting the necessary close bond between a word and the concept it is meant to bring to one's mind.

This is no small thing, people.

I realize Ann was just making a joke, "piss christs" and such having been produced, but still.; 11/10/14, 2:31 PM
SayAahh said...: It is Clint's empty chair as verified by the midterm results.; 11/10/14, 2:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Looks like a Wisconsin fish boil.; 11/10/14, 3:40 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: In GA we call that trash. Because we're rednecks, I guess. Trash is usually left there by white trash, and the proper procedure is to clean it up. If you're not trash.

Art this ain't.; 11/10/14, 3:44 PM
chuck said...: That could cost the artist up to $500. These days most artists should probably pay fines if they display their work.; 11/10/14, 4:19 PM
mccullough said...: Looks like someone got waterboarded with Rolling Rock beer; 11/10/14, 4:32 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "First thing is it looks very cool but the litter is bad, very unkindly to nature and others out for a non-garbagey walk."

Yes, it's among the last remaining garbage out on the Seminole Mountain Bike Trail, which was made on county land that some people had been throwing crap out on for many years. Meade could tell you more about it. He worked as one of the volunteers. Getting the glass out has been difficult.; 11/10/14, 4:42 PM
Curious George said...: Rush Limbaugh is threatening a defamation lawsuit against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

This will be fun.; 11/10/14, 4:59 PM
alan markus said...: At least they did not call him a "thug"

Obama emerged from his car chewing gum; he's a well-known user of Nicorette, the smoking-cessation gum. But Chinese Internet users, accustomed to the highly formal standards of their stiff party leadership, quickly characterized the leader of the world's most powerful nation as an impolite "idler," or careless "rapper."; 11/10/14, 6:51 PM
alan markus said...: Yes, it's among the last remaining garbage out on the Seminole Mountain Bike Trail

For a second there I thought you misspelled "Garage"; 11/10/14, 6:53 PM
Caro said...: Trash. Is. Everywhere.; 11/10/14, 8:03 PM
Clyde said...: Obama's empty chair has taken a real beating in the past couple of years.; 11/11/14, 8:13 AM