Usually I just post links and then let people make comments about what they think .... but as I read through the Recycle LACMA blog, I was a little upset by some of the recycle choices the artist made ... I mean, deconstructing a Claire McCardell dress into two witches hats; are you serious? The Bolivian blanket into potholders?
I know, I know, the artist makes it clear that many items were sold for merely their opening bid, and that these weren't exactly sought after items. I think what tweaks me is that many of these items were wearable, or pretty amazing on their own, and then they were turned into items that are kinda ordinary or commonplace.
I guess we"ll see what happens when he is finished with the project. Whatever the end result, I do enjoy the idea of the before and after, and will check in periodically to see how it all unfolds.
3 comments:
Not everyone can be brilliant 100% of the time (like us...)
seriously, some of the stuff is great ( I lobe the lace screen door) and some is meh. That's kinda how making stuff goes sometimes.
Do you think it would feel different if it was stuff from a thrift store ( name label and all) instead of LACMA? Not being snarky or trying to make a point--genuinely curious.
I wonder if he's trying to make people cringe, in the name of art of course, to raise awareness about museum deacquisitioning. Because seriously I don't like any of the stuff he made and think most of it is completely unworthy of the original. I've found some special stuff at the thrift stores and certain things I can't even bring myself to alter. Vintage dishcloths from the 50's, for example, that I thought I'd turn into bags are so beautiful on their own that I occassionally take them out, look at them, love them, and then put them back. Which raises it's own questions about the usefulness of those towels, and I think he's trying to point that out in his "art" as well. But I don't think I'd turn a museum-quality turkish dishtowl into a waistbin, or any kind of vintage-fabric-anything into a dog bed (sheesh, does he even have a dog? no dog-owner in their right mind would do that). That's just a tad bit excessive, or cringe-worthy, and I think that might be exactly his point.
Yes, if the stuff was from the thrift store, it would bother me less, because I see many of the items as works of art that have been ruined. If the whole idea is to make me cringe, then job well done. If he is criticizing deacquisitioning, then I don't think that that is a valid critique, because at least the museum is giving other agencies the opportunity to buy and store/exhibit the materials they can no longer store. *sigh* Yes, they can't all be brilliant....
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