Slog - Comments on Does Sculpture Exist? Or The Search for Traction http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t When I started researching this essay about the Olympic Sculpture Park, I found myself thinking, hmm, sculpture—what's that again? Nobody really uses the term much anymore. Everything is an installation. Or a site-specific work. Or multimedia. "Sculpture" was like something you buried in a trunk years ago and forgot about, and rediscovering it, taking it out, and turning it over in your hands is a surprisingly refreshing thing to do. In a podcast that's going online tomorrow morning with former Stranger staffer and Western Bridge director Eric Fredericksen, he talks about visiting the sculpture park for an early tour with... Copyright 2008 Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:35:49 -0800 Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:02:32 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Noel Black Jen, you may also enjoy these for a chuckle:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36211486@N00/sets/462348/

]]> Noel Black http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c591536 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c591536 Arts Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:22:12 -0800 Comment by annie How does a net provide traction? I have never stepped, skidded, or otherwise engaged in frictional interaction with a net. But maybe that's just me.

I am not happy with the idea that what you label the work (other than the decision to classify it as art and not craft or utilitarian object) has such an enormous impact on the work itself. What's wrong with "installation"? Drawing a line between sculpture and installation at least attempts to communicate something; rejecting a perfectly good word in favor of "setup" is just pissy.

]]> annie http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c591551 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c591551 Arts Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:37:45 -0800 Comment by dmk I've listened to that podcast a couple of times, and I think you might have erroneously attributed the quotes; I believe it was actually Charles Long who derided installation art, and the grossly arrogant comment about sculpture has Rachel Harrison written allover it-I really think that it was she who said it.
I have to say though, reintroducing some delineation to the mediums is refreshing. I am TIRED of installation art. And I actually get the 'net' comment-there is something to be said for parameters. But, to assert that anything other than the viewer completes a work is horse****.

]]> dmk http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c592476 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c592476 Arts Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:33:48 -0800 Comment by B Mully Jen - would love to get your comments on the discussion going on over at the Olympic Sculpture Park photo group in Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/36699021@N00/discuss/72157594479395673/

http://thestranger.com/blog/2007/01/sculptr_on_flickr

]]> B Mully http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c592541 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c592541 Arts Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:40:35 -0800 Comment by George Metesky It's rare that you get two writers - in this case one quoting another - so specifically ignorant about their chosen (even professed) focus.

The point of reference here is the hardly obscure essay "Art and Objecthood", by Michael Fried. A nearly thirty year old essay, it should be said.

In attempting to oversimplify and co-opt Fried's central, landmark thesis on what he termed "theatricality", Burton gives uninformed Graves just enough rope to (publicly) hang herself with.

]]> George Metesky http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c593229 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c593229 Arts Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:54:59 -0800 Comment by David Grill Does any object exist as art without the viewer? I am old enough to have been taught that the function of art is communication, regardless of the medium. This sense of the word communication covers everything from sitcoms to Kurosawa, from Archie to Proust, from Post It notes to air raid shelter signs. Without a viewer, the process of making art is onanistic: satisfying but not communicative.
What makes discussions like these interesting is the tension between intent and perception. This is the crux of the experience of art as culture, and the history of art in the past century can perhaps be seen as a dialog seesawing back and forth between the intent of the artist and the perception of the viewer. There are a variety of argumentative positions on the importance of intent, but without the perception of the viewer I don"t believe you have art.

]]> David Grill http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c593294 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/01/does_sculpture_exist_or_the_search_for_t#c593294 Arts Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:02:32 -0800