Government funding of the arts: For or against?

[JB88]

one of the greatest public art works of the 20th century...a conceptual masterpeice.

imho.

[FBBone]

Heres another one, PRIVATELY funded.  If they can do it........................... .

[JB88]

the vietnam memorial IS privately funded...AND it is maintained by the national park service.

a nice balance methinks.

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the gates project is christo...not a huge fan of his work but i completely admire his effort and scale...hes an interesting study in pulling things off.  

he once draped the entire Reichstag in silver fabric.

very clear vision that guy.

james turrell is another big one.  he's carving out a crater in arizona to create a perfect sphere where the sky meets the earth.

[FBBone]

Originally posted by JB88
the vietnam memorial IS privately funded...AND it is maintained by the national park service.

a nice balance methinks.

Thats my point, if THEY can do it with private funds........................ ..

Also, I have no issue with the Parks Service performing upkeep on monuments.
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Originally posted by JB88
the gates project is christo...not a huge fan of his work but i completely admire his effort and scale...hes an interesting study in pulling things off.  

he once draped the entire Reichstag in silver fabric.

very clear vision that guy.

james turrell is another big one.  he's carving out a crater in arizona to create a perfect sphere where the sky meets the earth.

I agree it's interesting to look at.  I'm just glad taxpayer money didn't finance "The Gates".  He did, however, get to use public lands for his "little" endeavor.

[JB88]

me niether.  (park service)

as for christo, that's what public land is for...

to be used by the public...and it's various entertainment contingents.



there seems to be some misunderstanding of my point.  i have tried to reiterate as best i can, but it seems to get missed in the translation.   i am not "for" arbitrary arts spending.  i much prefer the private sector...but i do believe that there are places where the government can, and should support the arts...better stated...where the government should "do business" with art.

[FBBone]

88, I think we'd probably agree on more about art than we disagree, with the exception of it's Govt. funding.  I also think a lot of individuals WOULD willingly contribute to "art" that they find tasteful.  Art is subjective.  I would never want my $$$ to go to an artist like Andres Serrano (of pisschrist fame, for those that don't know).  He seems to be inflammatory just for the sake of being inflammatory.  That would be, in my opinion, synonymous with somebody creating a giant "crop circle" that spells out the "N" word and calling it art.  To some it may be, but I'd rather not fund it.  But a giant hole in the desert, thats intriguing, and I might be inclined to support it based on the scope of the project.

[JB88]

thats why i am opposed to individual funding.  serano and maplethorpe are only part of the blame though...the administrators were as much at fault as anyone and they should have been axehandled if they werent.  they made alot of good people extremely uncomfortable.  ive seen both artist's works and i can say that niether were good for public funding.  not even close.  it was an afront to the society that supported these artists and somebody should have known better.

maplethorpes work was incredibley well executed...the lighting, the printing and the toning were sublime.  he was definately a gifted photographer...but the whole whips sticking out of a mans butt thing...well, its understandable that people got outraged.  i found it nauseating and skipped the rest once i got to it.

it was very "look at this...its scary in your face"  

whatever.


seranos work is wayyyyy over rated.  he's a big crutch with a nametag.

they were a product of the excesses of the 80's, the same era that brought us the paintings of julian schnobel...he's the one who glued plates to canvas's and got richer than rich doing it.  now he has a guy that runs all around the world gluing the plates that fall off back on.  

the 80's were a breeding ground for bad art.

[JB88]

fun memory:

i once concieved of work which would exist both at the smithsonian (on the wall where old glory had been hanging.. it was being repaired at the time) it was also to have existed online.

the idea was to create a projection (and a webpage) of an american  flag whose stars and stripes and blue field were all composed of text.  the text would be input from both a terninal on site and/or online connections.  the question, which would be answered by the participants and then placed into the flag would be something like "what is freedom?...or, what is liberty?

the idea would be to leave it open and without censorship.  

as text is input by a user, old text is scrolled away....or added to a random que to reappear at another time.

one could also go online and access archives...say...10:15 am 2 years prior.

dunno why i'm mentioning it here...but i always liked the idea.

i also concieved of an idea to recreate the constitution in frost and keep it in a temperature controlled case such that if it dropped so much as a degree...or if the power went out for more than a second...it would be gone.

[storch]

Originally posted by JB88


i admire a good weld.  i'm not the best, but i am proficient in stick and mig welding. i would like to learn how to tig weld someday.  i know that it is a difficult thing to master.  

i digress.

88

cortando huevos se aprende a capar.  roughly stating you learn by doing.  don't be afraid of the process, burn some rod.

[JB88]

not afraid of it at all sir.

just never had access to tig welding and tig welding accessories.

[storch]

that changes things.  once get accustomed to tig you will never go back to mig.  lincoln recently released a pulse on pulse mig welder that when combined with the cobra gun produces tig quality welds with mig speeds but a 250 amp machine costs about $5k.  I bought one anyway, just to say I have one.    I'm a kid in a candy store when it comes to tools.

[JB88]

nice.