Paid a visit to the Art Gallery of WA today, to view an exhibition and also to celebrate a birthday of a dear friend in our group…
I won’t mention the name of the artist because to be blunt I thought the works were quite hideous and grotesque although on a small (very small) positive note they did make food for thought. All I could think touring through the exhibits is how on earth the artist was getting funding to put out the work, because the works were very costly and labour intensive. They were sculptures, mostly very realistic “monsters” made out of silicone and adorned with real human hair and glass eyes to look like horrible deformed creatures out of a very unethical geneticist’s chamber of horrors of cloning/genetic experimentation gone wrong… just shudder-ous (not a real word, just describing my reaction) Our tour guide was excellent, raising discussion questions about the future of genetic research and experimentation into issues such as cloning and surrogacy and how far we human beings are prepared to go in these areas, and how much more accepting are our children of scientific “fiddling about” with the natural order of things than the current generation. These are issues that I, with my scientific background, am already fairly familiar with and have already had some debate …
Viewing this exhibition has made me wonder about the point of art, all over again. Beauty or politics? Political art is so far removed from artistic art that I wonder if we should find some other category for it to reside in… I personally thought this artist’s talents would be put to better use for humanity manufacturing limbs and prostheses for landmine victims (say) or amputees and that is the pragmatist’s view… but then the scientific debate is important, and how important is the art in the role of stimulating that debate? There was no beauty and we are accustomed to expecting some beauty in our art. I do like some beauty, sorry.
A definite feeling of spring in the air, today is practically hot! Am feeling a bit too wintery in this outfit even… I’m starting to think about the upcoming Self Stitched September. Should I try to go all self stitched, or (as is my usual habit) incorporate a few store bought basics? Maybe I’ll start out going all self-stitched and see how I go. And as for taking my photo everyday… this will be a time challenge. But I’m still excited about it.
Details:
Dress; Burda 8511 with some modifications, purple silk hessian
Cardigan; Country Road
Belt; had since a teenager
Tights; Kolotex
Booties; Django and Juliette, from Zomp
Bag; Gucci
Definitely food for thought. You looked very classy by the way.
I wanted to let you know that I've got some pics up on my blog from the photo shoot of the retro-looking skirt I just made along with a quick and easy tutorial of how to make one in under 25 minutes with just leftover material and no pattern. Come by and see if you get a chance.
Trudy of Sewing With Trudyhttp://sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com/2010/08/photo-shoot-of-retro-skirt.html
The purple dress is really pretty.
I'm too much of a pragmatist myself to really "get" art, unless it is portraying something in the natural world that is already pretty, or something like Thomas Kincade – if he is really even considered a serious artist.
Well, I'm looking forward to a breath of fall here – probably at least another month away for us!
I think I'm doing the "lite" version of SSS, though probably occasionally will have the whole thing – and I'm not too sure about the photo every day either…
My family tease me about my distaste for modern 'art'. So much of it is pretentious or self indulgent! But I did enjoy a recent visit to the White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney. This gallery promotes modern art from China. Every room had worked that challenged, surprised and entertained. Worthy of the term modern art.
PS – loved the purple dress and am curious about silk hessian. Is this dyed raw silk?