Crop circles - Art or No Art :)

As I was researching for my story about how humans could be the ones who are aliens to the planet, I came accross the ever so intriguing phenomenon of crop circles. And not too late in the research I came accross this website created by the, oh so mysterious crop circle makers. Yes, that's right. They are works of art. (I recently saw a documentary on the National Geographic channel that did not cover this aspect of crop circles)

http://www.circlemakers.org/case_history.html

They even have a beginner's guide to making crop circles. Although, at some level, I am disappointed that no one from other planets is interested in meeting us.

Enjoy!

Art or No Art

Yesterday I visited the Queen West Art Crawl -- a street festival where artists from different disciplines exhibit their art-work and hope to sell some. This led me back to a thought that appears occasionally in my mind. What is art and why does something, that might appeal to me may not have the same effect on someone else and vice-versa?

I have been also mulling over the question of what is “abstract art”. There are some modern artists whose work produces an inexplicable effect and there are others whose work I hesitate to call “art”.

I once saw a documentary about a 5 year old prodigy who paints abstract art:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3701484.stm
The documentary clearly showed two schools of thought: Artists who go to great lengths and details for realistic painting and the other that find expression of a feeling through a bunch of what may seem like scribbles to an untrained eye (scribbles that even a 5 year old is capable of). (I am no “art guru”, hence the humility in the choice of words. :))

I was once visiting the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) that has some interesting pieces and one of them was by Yoko Ono. I couldn’t understand it. It was a needle mounted on a glass pedestal. It was supposed to express anti-war or peace sentiment. I was confused.

There are things that pretend to be art and there are some that are clearly traditionally artistic. This led me to do some research in this subject and I came across a website for “fluxus” art. I like how they don’t hide behind the heaviosity. Please read:

http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/
http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/dhiggins-childshistory.html

Here are some abstracts that one may find debatable:
http://www.abstractmodernart.com/AA_Site/pages/misc/gallery.html

To summarize, I think all art is an expression or an impression of the artist’s mind. However, some seem to be planned, purposeful pieces and others seem more like accidents and yet others could be what they call “happy” accidents – they are accidents but they create a dramatic effect.

And some are nothing but scribbles pretending to be “art”.

These are my thought anyways. I would love a good debate over this and sort things out.

Waiting for Godot

I was in New York this past weekend. I have always wanted to see a Broadway show although most of the "big" shows make it to Toronto. This time I chose Waiting for Godot (Written by Samuel Beckett, Directed by Anthony Page). I had read the play before and seen its menial creation in Marathi. So, this time I was interested in watching a contemporary treatment to this classic play.

The Roundabout Theatre Company presented the tragicomedy with a focus on the comic aspect of it. Just as I believe that beauty is an essential part of art, I believe that entertainment is essential part of any type of creation especially performing arts.

I believe this version of the play achieved the most. The presentation seemed completely honest to the script without making it sound heavy and unnecessarily deep. I agree with the director that the script itself calls for humor. Humor in its most simple and factual form. To me the most profound and humorous line was in the end, "We'll hang ourselves tomorrow. Unless Godot comes". How many times have we felt like dying during a period of depression and never actually coming to doing it!

The play itself is of course genius because of the way it is written and like one of the actors said during the discussion that, it seems more and more true as you get older. It is not realistic, but it is true.

I loved the fact that it was treated exactly as the script demanded. If you have read the play, you will know that after a while you start thinking "What the... !" And you laugh at yourself and then you continue reading out of curiosity to find out who is Godot! That is the beauty of the creation.

Apparently when Samuel Beckett was asked who Godot was, he had answered, "If I knew it, I would have put it in the play", without hiding behind pretense or heaviosity! :) This was very clear in this creation because they have not tried to make anything more of it than already is. It was presented in a very factual, down-to-earth manner which I enjoyed.

Although the second act is the repetition of the first act it is the genius of the playwright that makes it not only bearable but also entertaining and in fact adds to the humor. The utter senselessness of our being that sometimes seems to be stuck in habitual and ritual chores, driven by hope, is what I saw in the play.

I would like to end this impression with the following lines, that I feel sum up the play well... "... you see the whole country of the system is juxtapositioned by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere because you are a sophisticated rhetorician intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity.... " My Indian friends would remember this famous line in Amar, Akbar, Anthony. :)

Crossing the Fine Line

Reference: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090507/entertainment/entertainment_germany_ethics_exhibition_people

I feel, there exists a fine line between what can be called art and what not. To me, anything that makes you want to throw up, cannot be art.

Although I can understand that to a scientist or a biologist or a medical student, an opened up real human body might be beautiful. However, I feel that kind of appreciation of beauty by a scientist must be accompanied by respect and reverence towards the creator etc... Otherwise it borders on perversion.

It seems as though something in these brains that create such “art” must be a tad askew!

I have always heard about Body Works – the exhibition by Gunther von Hagens – and every time I tried to make up my mind to go see it, simply out of curiosity, my mind has discouraged me to do so.

I am simply not into dead bodies, I guess.