Depending on who you talk to,
the 40 foot sculpture in front of Baltimore's
Penn Station is either a work of art or an
expensive abomination. The work is called
"Male/female," and it's both, which probably
already tells you why it is very disturbing to
many people. The work's size and location
put it in company with some other very large
civic works of "art" which have caused similar
outcries in other major metropolitan areas.
I grew up in the Cleveland
area, and one of the relics of my childhood was
a piece of art called "free stamp." It is, in
essence, a very large rubber stamp, turned on
its side, with the word "free" on the bottom. If
the Statue of Liberty, say, were trying to get
that book of hers renewed at the local library,
and Godzilla's much larger great aunt was the
librarian, she might use that bit of art to
stamp the back jacket of the book with the word
"free." Surprisingly, most Clevelanders could
find no use for the thing. And so when it was
first installed in front of a very public
building downtown a great howl of protest came
in from all sides--or at least from the ones who
do not regularly visit art museums, and were not
happy at all when part of the museum came to
them.
This is most people, in fact.
Since the free stamp was basically a really
gigantic representation of a common item, there
was a great deal of head scratching over how
such a trivial piece of hardware could be
rendered so much larger than life and plopped in
front of a public building in the middle of
downtown. If I remember correctly, the artist
who wore out his fertile brain coming up with
the design had also been responsible for, oh, a
gigantic stapler in Chicago or a huge paperclip
in Toronto. Don't quote me on it, but it was
something to that effect. His medium, if you
will, was taking common household objects,
supersizing them, and leaving them in very
public places. This type of thing has been quite
trendy in the art world over the last
half-century, and a lot of people will tell you
that these so-called artists have quite simply
lost their marbles.
The item in Baltimore doesn't
have too much more style than the items just
mentioned. It is not a realistic model of a
human; it is more like a stick figure. Or a
chalk outline. It is meant to be very simple and
bold. Simple and bold is really "in" in the art
world these days. In its entirety the piece
consists of two flat "gingerbread people" placed
perpendicular to one another and intersecting in
the middle. In that middle is one neon heart
which they both share and which is the only
colorful portion of the exhibit. It glows at
night.
Something that rudimentary
almost has to be symbolic of something, which is
an annoyance to average Americans. Every time a
work of art pops up there will be somebody to
tell us what it means. This readily
distinguishes the ones who "know" from the ones
who don't "know," or the rest of us.
At the opening ceremony of
the 2004 Olympics I saw an interesting exhibit.
A man was very adroitly walking across the top
of a rotating cube suspended a hundred feet in
the air. The announcer cut in and informed us
that that artistic moment symbolized man's climb
toward civilization-- because a man climbing on
a hovering cube doesn't cut mustard unless it is
really just code for a really grand
cosmos-shaking vision. Fortunate for us that the
commentator didn't quiz us on this, he just gave
us the answer key. The rather patronizing
assumption from which this view of art springs
is that the viewer would never be able come to a
sufficiently edifying interpretation on their
own, which may well be the fault of the art
itself, or that there is only one "proper" way
of interpreting it. It also plagues people who
think that the last half century in art has been
an assault on common sense because, one wonders,
if every work of art is merely a representation
of something else, why not just come out and say
it, and save the rigamarole? If what you are
trying to get at in the long run is simply a
basic truth about mankind, why take the long way
around?
Despite the laconic
explanation, I still found the cube intriguing,
which is not an adjective that has gotten itself
applied to the "male/female" statue. Many people
call it "ugly" which automatically disqualifies
it, in their opinions, since art is supposed to
consist of "pretty pictures." Art is supposed to
be something you can stand in front of and say
simply "that's nice" before moving on to do
something that really matters. That's pretty
hard to do with a massive, androgynous statue
that doesn't quite remind us of anything we've
seen before.
One way or another, this
object is now mandatory viewing for anyone
traveling uptown along Baltimore's main artery,
North Charles street, particularly if you have
to catch a train. And it is causing a lot of
debate. Which is just fine with some people, who
figure that debate is practically what makes it
art in the first place.
Challenging people's basic
assumptions hasn't always been considered the
hallmark of great art. For a long time, art was
something that required a great deal of
discipline and perseverance. It was a craft. It
showed us what was beautiful in the world and in
our own souls. It was a demanding mistress. It
is hard for someone who has spent years learning
his craft the hard way to consider that putting
a great big stapler in Times Square deserves
mention as a work of art. Surely this is
too easy.
Obviously there is an element
of hucksterism about things of this sort.
John Q. Public could smell that right away. John
Q. did not like being told that he did not have
the artistic vision to comprehend the importance
of the supersized sledgehammer on Main Street.
As a person who has spent years learning the
technical craft of playing a musical instrument
and patiently harvesting the insights of the
imagination it is tempting to join the voices of
those who think that this is not art, it is a
put-on.
Except for one thing. I happen to be a big
fan of one rather undervalued human
activity: thinking. Having to deal with
something that doesn't conform to our
expectations may cause us to reevaluate
those expectations, or at least to realize
how fluid some of them are. How things we
assume are universal or immutable perhaps
aren't. It helps us to adapt. Having
everything called art conform to something
we've already seen and liked doesn't do
that. In other words, art should be a little irritating,
some of the time.
I was at my local Subway
a couple of months ago and noticed that they
have determined to improve their image a bit
with a simple word-choice. They don't refer to
their employees as simply the people who make
your sandwiches. Oh no. Now they are "sandwich
artists." I don't think that the people who ask
you to choose between three types of bread are
sharing an artistic vision. And just because
they are capable of making your sandwich with or
without tomato doesn't make them Van Gogh. But
obviously, the folks at Subway realized that to
many of us, whether or not we've had any contact
at all with anything that could really be called
art in the last year, the term "artist" invites
awe. Which is why the music industry likes to
pass the term out like free pharmaceuticals. Now
everybody who sings for money is a "recording
artist." About the only people in the
music industry who do not get referred to as
artists are the actual artists. The
functionaries have taken over the title. It's
good marketing.
Some of these "artists"
couldn't actually write one of the tunes they
sing to save their lives because they don't know
anything about how music is constructed.
Some of them can barely carry a tune. Now if we
call these persons, and the ones who make your
sandwiches, artists, is there not room for the
guy with visions of gargantuan hardware
terrorizing Metropolis?
There
is one difference. And I am reluctant to
share it because I am not really sure the
"male/female" sculpture is really worth the
approbation. But the designer went out on a
limb. He wasn't satisfying a consumer demand
with a time-tested, profitable, and safe
little item he could sell over and over. He
didn't conform either (except perhaps to
members of his own artistic clique). Sure,
you are saying to yourself, how hard is it
to take a thumb-tack, make it really huge,
and stick it in front of the Prudential
building? Any nitwit could have done it.
But, really now, honestly, could you? You wouldn't, I'll bet.
Because you think it would be silly. It is a
little too far from normal. Your friends
would laugh at you. Social norms are just a
little too strong for you. The prospect of
swimming upstream just doesn't hold any
appeal.
But somebody did. They
redefined our world. Just a little. And maybe
not for the better. Maybe without trying too
hard. I don't know if they deserve the title of
Artist with a big "A." But I'd rather it be him
than the guy who doesn't know when to quit with
the mayonnaise.
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