"The point is, that every piece of art changes your whole perception of the rest of the world for the rest of your life. And it's not a joke! And if it doesn't, then it's not art, it's a commodity."
-Lawrence Weiner
I strongly agree with this quote. Art in and of itself embodies an artist’s interpretation of the world in general. Art is full of opinion and controversy. Art is something that is hard to judge because it is really all about perception and how the viewer sees a piece of work. Art is meant to make people think and to see new things that they may have never even thought about before.
This quote makes me think of my experience in the foundations program at Tyler. Every project and critique is a new learning experience. Every time I produce a new work, my point of view is altered, and every time I see other students’ work, my point of view is altered even further. As my point of view is constantly changing, I look at the world in a whole different light. I believe that that is the point. Art is not produced simply to look at. It is produced to make people think in new ways. It’s kind of like how when I produce a new piece, my view of that work changes completely when I’m finished it from when I am actually working on it. And then when I bring my work in to be critiqued, my view is further changed because I notice new things that I didn’t see before that. And every time after that, when I work on something new, I think back to my previous work, or to other works I’ve seen done by other artists or other students and I accommodate those memories and understanding into how I take on another project. Art produces a cycle of experience, taking from experiences and changing the way we perceive everything. I think that such a notion is the whole point of art in general. Art conveys meaning and through meaning, we experience new thoughts, ideas, emotions, etc. Without those experiences, art is meaningless. Art would be nothing but a material item. And in that case, it simply would not be art anymore.
I don’t think art can be both art and a commodity simultaneously. I think that art can only be art. A commodity is something solid and concrete that can be used. Yes, a commodity helps us in some way, as art does as well. But the purpose of a commodity is to help complete a task. The purpose of art is to help the viewer see things differently. A commodity does not exist as an art form. It does not convey some sort of meaning that changes our perception of the world, and that idea is what draws a fine line between art being a commodity and still being art. Although I don’t think art is a commodity, I do think that art and commodity can be a dichotomy. A dichotomy contains two opposed groups that each have unique characteristics specific to its own group. Art and commodities are somewhat similar to each other because they are both useful and contribute to the world. They may balance each other out because a commodity could be argued as a form of functional art in some cases. But when I think of commodities, I think of something that you can buy off the shelf at a store, or something that you can trade… something material or something that works to get a set end result. I think of something that was made in a factory. When I think of art, I think of something that was produced in a studio, something hand-crafted, something that was worked on for hours upon hours, something that had a lot of thought put into it. From an artist’s point of view, it is important to think of what meaning a piece of work is going to convey to the viewers. Thinking about meaning is part of the artistic process. It is in the nature of making art to change a viewer’s perception. A commodity doesn’t really have artistic process or purpose in it. A commodity is just kind of there to be used. Maybe I have interpreted a commodity wrong, but that is just what I think.
-Lawrence Weiner
I strongly agree with this quote. Art in and of itself embodies an artist’s interpretation of the world in general. Art is full of opinion and controversy. Art is something that is hard to judge because it is really all about perception and how the viewer sees a piece of work. Art is meant to make people think and to see new things that they may have never even thought about before.
This quote makes me think of my experience in the foundations program at Tyler. Every project and critique is a new learning experience. Every time I produce a new work, my point of view is altered, and every time I see other students’ work, my point of view is altered even further. As my point of view is constantly changing, I look at the world in a whole different light. I believe that that is the point. Art is not produced simply to look at. It is produced to make people think in new ways. It’s kind of like how when I produce a new piece, my view of that work changes completely when I’m finished it from when I am actually working on it. And then when I bring my work in to be critiqued, my view is further changed because I notice new things that I didn’t see before that. And every time after that, when I work on something new, I think back to my previous work, or to other works I’ve seen done by other artists or other students and I accommodate those memories and understanding into how I take on another project. Art produces a cycle of experience, taking from experiences and changing the way we perceive everything. I think that such a notion is the whole point of art in general. Art conveys meaning and through meaning, we experience new thoughts, ideas, emotions, etc. Without those experiences, art is meaningless. Art would be nothing but a material item. And in that case, it simply would not be art anymore.
I don’t think art can be both art and a commodity simultaneously. I think that art can only be art. A commodity is something solid and concrete that can be used. Yes, a commodity helps us in some way, as art does as well. But the purpose of a commodity is to help complete a task. The purpose of art is to help the viewer see things differently. A commodity does not exist as an art form. It does not convey some sort of meaning that changes our perception of the world, and that idea is what draws a fine line between art being a commodity and still being art. Although I don’t think art is a commodity, I do think that art and commodity can be a dichotomy. A dichotomy contains two opposed groups that each have unique characteristics specific to its own group. Art and commodities are somewhat similar to each other because they are both useful and contribute to the world. They may balance each other out because a commodity could be argued as a form of functional art in some cases. But when I think of commodities, I think of something that you can buy off the shelf at a store, or something that you can trade… something material or something that works to get a set end result. I think of something that was made in a factory. When I think of art, I think of something that was produced in a studio, something hand-crafted, something that was worked on for hours upon hours, something that had a lot of thought put into it. From an artist’s point of view, it is important to think of what meaning a piece of work is going to convey to the viewers. Thinking about meaning is part of the artistic process. It is in the nature of making art to change a viewer’s perception. A commodity doesn’t really have artistic process or purpose in it. A commodity is just kind of there to be used. Maybe I have interpreted a commodity wrong, but that is just what I think.
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