And isn't nature wonderful, But is this Art?

[the_siobhan]

So an OCAD (Ontario College of Art & Design) student does an art project that consists of putting a fake pipe bomb somewhere outside the Toronto Art Gallery. It has a note on it that says, "This is not a bomb."

He calls into the gallery and tells somebody that there isn't a bomb on the premises. He makes a couple of youtube videos (one and two) of a fake explosion.

Somebody discovers the fake bomb and the cops are called. The building is evacuated. An AIDS fund raiser scheduled for that night is canceled - causing a loss of approximately a third of their operating budget for the year.

The artist is charged with public mischief. He is also suspended from OCAD for academic misconduct.

The question is. Is it art?

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Art, sure. Trite, tired, and predictable, but Art. A performance piece rather than an installation, though.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

My first question was: did the OCAD student do it on purpose, to disrupt the AIDS benefit, so that he could later say "Oh, but it was just an art project, geez!" and have a legitimate excuse to have done so?

*sigh*

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

He said he had no prior idea and that he felt bad about it when he found out. Mind you, I don't think it occurred to him to check. The art gallery frequently hosts high-value fund raising events.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

Especially during the holiday season - it's gala central at every major event venue in town.

Two OCAD faculty members have been suspended - it remains to be seen whether they knew about the student's intentions.

Is it art? I'm hard-pressed to say yes. I have no qualms about saying that it was a fucking stupid thing to do. I wonder if this guy also finds it funny to make bomb jokes while going through airport security.

a little off topic

[sickboy.livejournal.com]

but I remember coming back from Mexico and I had my backpack completely stuffed and while standing in line I said, this thing feels like it's going to explode. I came very close to missing my plane after that.

As for art, I guess what one person thinks of as art might strike someone else as thoughtless and ignorant. I suppose if anyone thinks it's art, then it's art to them. Whatever anyone's opinion about it is, it's a shame that valuable charitable funds were wasted.

Re: a little off topic

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to say it counts as art if it includes the arrest and suspension.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

By my personal definition of art (an imaginative work or performance intended to evoke an emotional response), yeah, it's art.

But it isn't only art; it has consequences. And artists don't have stay-out-of-jail-free cards.

[entropymage.livejournal.com]

Sure, it's art, demonstrates the innate thoughtlessness of the artistic mind, devoid of integrity as it inversely climbs a downward Escheric spiral into a limbo of penitentiary where the limitations society artificially places on misanthropic post-preantinondeconventionalism is unredeconstructed into a puerile mechanism devoid of thought, emotion, and intensity.

The assembly-line of license plates and assraping simulates the unbreakable circle of life from which "This Is Not A Bomb" detracts, but I mean, it's an out-of-context junk piece derivative of womb envy...

Was anyone expecting more?

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Sounds like somebody spent too much time in "art appreciation" class. (-;

[entropymage.livejournal.com]

Close! My wife's been taking art history classes. Looks like she's been rubbing off on me.

Waitaminute.

That last part was probably too much information.

Now no one will want to come back to my studio and see my rubbings...

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't you at least check the schedule to see what kind of a point you're making? Wouldn't you clear it with the gallery like you would any installation? Also, I'm sorry but you can't get all Magritte on the anti-terrorism squad. They won't get it. Period.

Art, to me, requires some kind of intent, some direction and thought. This suggests neither. Sure, it was an attempt at art. You can call it art if you like, but it's pretty poor art if it is.

Posting pictures that said 'this is not a bomb' would have been far more amusing. Or even 'this is a bomb'. Paintings of bombs. Sculptures out of trash. Children's toys. People. A bubble machine.

In the end, though, the guy is not an artist. He's an entitled jackass who can't plan, can't perform, can't predict. A fiasco isn't necessarily performance art.


ETA:
What we seem to have here is a rich white boy who thinks he's really smart and meaningful. Maybe his family can be nice and meaningful by making up CANFAR's $100k shortfall. Yeah. It's not art for me because I'm not willing to let someone say that kind of jackassery is art. That would just give him what he wants.

"as supporters applauded the ‘‘art’’ from the scion of one of Iceland’s most prominent families."
(source: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/11/30/defending-the-rom-fake-bomber.aspx)
-----
OCAD has suspended Mr. Jonsson and his production class teachers pending an internal investigation. OCAD president Sara Diamond said the teachers had no idea that the class project involved planting something at the ROM. She said the student “crossed the line”

Friends who attended court to support Mr. Jonsson denounced the “witch hunt” that has followed him.

“It’s art because it makes us think,” said Daniel Epstein, a U of T student. He said his friend was not trying to deliberately shut down the AIDS benefit. In media interviews, Mr. Jonsson has regretted ruining the AIDS fundraisers, but said he did not know it was to be held. He did not blame himself for the fallout.
(source: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/11/30/bail-for-bomb-hoax-artist.aspx)

[grimjim.livejournal.com]

If the point is deconstruction of the term, what isn't art, ultimately? Even the "witch hunt" is art too!

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go make art. It's all the artistic fiber I've been eating. <.<;;

I'm just not willing to pat some entitled jerk on the head and say 'yeah, that's art'. You know, if he'd done it on purpose to contrast the fear of AIDS with the fear of terrorism and the irony of charitable donation being hailed as a form of heroism... if he'd MEANT to disrupt the CANFAR dinner, even if he was doing it with a homophobic intent... I would be more willing to say, 'yeah, that's art'.

Ceci n'est-ce pas une œuvre d'art.

[grimjim.livejournal.com]

He should have read Baudrillard first. Fail.
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Baudrillard/Baudrillard_Simulacra.html

Go and organize a fake hold up. Be sure to check that your weapons are harmless, and take the most trustworthy hostage, so that no life is in danger (otherwise you risk committing an offence). Demand ransom, and arrange it so that the operation creates the greatest commotion possible. In brief, stay close to the "truth", so as to test the reaction of the apparatus to a perfect simulation. But you won't succeed: the web of artificial signs will be inextricably mixed up with real elements (a police officer will really shoot on sight; a bank customer will faint and die of a heart attack; they will really turn the phoney ransom over to you). In brief, you will unwittingly find yourself immediately in the real, one of whose functions is precisely to devour every attempt at simulation, to reduce everything to some reality: that's exactly how the established order is, well before institutions and justice come into play.

[the-macross.livejournal.com]

no... THIS is Art.



I thought you knew.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Win

[the-macross.livejournal.com]

I can see through time.... and as far as I dare to look.... that joke is ALWAYS funny.

Re: And isn't nature wonderful, But is this Art?

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's art. but unfortunately it apparently didn't make the artist think very carefully about the consequences, and that's making me think the artist is an idiot. which makes me less inclined to think about his actual art.

maybe he'd like to make some commercial art next to repay the fundraiser. i always ponder what would be a good punishment in cases such as this.

[reddragdiva]

Of course it's art, as much art as everything else is. It's certainly as much art as the severe kicking I deeply hope he received.

[shara.livejournal.com]

I have a bit of a Kenneth Clark opinion of what art is, so my answer would be a resounding "no".... but I suspect most people nowadays would disagree with me.

IMO when art becomes defined as "anything that anyone claiming to be an artist says it is", the term has lost all and any meaning. I like reasons, and "art" hasn't had any since roughly 1936.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Is that a definition that is actually used?

[http://users.livejournal.com/cincinnatus_c_/]

I like reasons, and "art" hasn't had any since roughly 1936.

Hum. My problem with a lot of recent art is that it's more reasons than art--the material is just a vehicle for the concept. Like this here ROM-non-bomb.

(So, 1936 ... Picasso?)

[shara.livejournal.com]

Pollock. ;)

[zenmonkeykstop.livejournal.com]

It's not art because it fails to communicate anything beyond itself. And he's an Icelandic twat. There is no way in hell that it could have (or should have) been treated as anything other than a bomb threat, and if he didn't realize that then he obviously didn't think about it very much.