The Gates in NYC

[NAD]

http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/tg.html

Each separate "gate" would be merely a relic of the artwork and not a work of art. Seven thousand, five hundred structures together in Central Park IS a work of art.

Oh jeez. I was on the fence between either liking or disliking this, but that sentence made me think "nope, it's all horse puckey." I consider myself open to new art forms, but this just makes me think:

This dude gets the thumbs up from me though: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=8&u=/ap/20050225/ap_on_fe_st/somerville_gates

 

[lurch70]

i still need to see this .. not sure if it is still up.
was not into this idea myself (please leave nature alone) .. but people are saying it looks fantastic.
the main reason they chose to do it in the winter was the lack of foliage on the trees.

 

[lurch70]

Went to see this yesterday, as it was the last day. It looked better than I expected. The splash of color it addded to the otherwise grey winter park was remarkable.
The date I was with did not quite appreciate it and had the "please leave nature alone" attitude I thought I was going to have ... but it overall looked harmless and made for some fun walks and a lot of smiling faces in NYC.

 

[MFJ]

I was actually talking about this "project" with some friends at school today. We all basically agreed that it is a cool idea, but totally unneccessary.

 

[lurch70]

is ANY type of art necessary?

did you check out the next thing they are working on?
http://christojeanneclaude.net/otr.html

 

[NAD]

I think bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor need to save modern art.

 

[MFJ]

is ANY type of art necessary?

That was my initial argument, but it really depends on what you believe "neccessary" to mean. It's debatable, and I'll probably end up high-jacking this thread, but I don't believe any art to really be "neccessary", it is merely an expression- a beautiful and important one.

 

[NAD]

I prefer my art to have some sort of symbolism or importance, but then again sometimes stuff just looks cool and that's good enough.

I'll probably end up high-jacking this thread

Ruh-oh, here comes another good in-depth slightly off-topic discussion at RC!

 

[MFJ]

Art absolutely often has a genuine sort of symbolism or importance, but it is truly not "neccessary". We're getting to literal. WTF HAVE I DONE OH NOES!!111

 

[NAD]

Oh I see what you mean. Using that logic, nothing is necessary outside basic shelter, food, and water. That means no beer. Anything that leads to no beer is bad. VERY BAD.

 

[lurch70]

i think art is necessary ... but I can certainly do without artists

 

[Demonspell]

If there was no art, would there be any reason to preserve those necessities. Life without art is emptiness. As for The Gates, I saw it and view it more as unorthodox design than a work of art, but didn't see it as defiling nature. Maybe if it was someplace less inhabited than Central Park I would however.