cheap art

excerpts from peter's "cheap art" pamphlet turned pdf courtesy of jackie. (she always has such good timing.)

especially interesting to me after watching some clips from boys of baraka again in urbanism. and even though i've seen it at least 5 times, it still managed to piss me off. and leave me feeling a little helpless. i don't know. it's just so huge. stephanie plugged a mural project to the class afterward, and out of my own mental frustration with the limits of art, and without filtering, i gave her the "it's just a mural" card. which i immediately regretted. in these moments of doubt, i need to see the value in just moving, even if it's doing something little and even if ultimately the impact is a drop in the bucket. (and i'm trying to look at these hypocritical points of intersection and realize the factors/philosophies at conflict there.)

those excerpts were also interesting in context with the pyramid atlantic book arts fair that i went to this weekend. and the dichotomies that kept coming up, like: genuine/forced, interaction/isolation, high/low art, elite/everyday, accessibility/cost, open/closed. in the middle of a day of looking at all of these artists books, some thousands of dollars and requiring gloves to hold, there was a lecture about the democratic multiple in book arts. it was a nice break. (not to be a snob or anything, but i liked probably only 3% of the books there. the rest? not very innovative or fresh. awkwardly designed. extremely narrow audience. somewhat inconsequential subject matter.) the presenter asked for "something beautiful for free" or at least a "cheaper than chai price point." and challenged how much of the stuff they make was just advocating the art form. (hmmm...) it was interesting. maybe i was expecting too much of the artists book world. maybe i'm forgetting that this is already accomplishing something by being an art that moves from the museum wall into the (washed) hands of the people; that in itself should be enough of a departure, but it can never leave that language completely behind.

interestingly enough... the coolest part of the conference was finding this van out back that housed something called the "floating lab collective." (they were doing a banned books project.) i was so impressed. if that doesn't legitimize "community arts", i don't know what does.