Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Mosaic Mask
In the lecture this week we looked at La Venta and pieces of art that had been discovered there. One such art form is shown on page 31 (in the 4th ed.) of the Miller text. It is suppose to be an abstract mosaic mask made of serpentine blocks. It is a beautiful piece of work but I don't understand how it's considered a mask. I see nothing but blocks organized in rows and columns to make up a design. Maybe I am not looking hard enough, maybe I am missing something but I don't really understand the point of making a piece of art and then covering it up with clay and rocks. I wonder what the artist was thinking. Was this a ritual practice?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
yes, yes, yes ...in our culture the product becomes far more important than the process(at least in earlier conventional art, by the time the Abstract Expressionists came to the fore they identified with non-Western cultures and ALSO underscored teh process.) When we look at other cultures we have to suspend our definitions of art as art --something to comtemplate, something aesthetically pleasing something to look at, as art for many non-Western cultures do not think of their artifacts as such. They are offerings to the Gods, they are REAL in every possible way, they are extenions of their world.
For them, PROCESS was the essential aspect.
When approaching another culture and/or another era's art ...suspend your expectations as not doing so will always have you --consciously or unconsciously --judge the other's work as inferior according to frameworks you are familiar with.
Entertaining the idea that art is sort of a passage to the supernatural is when we begin to widen our universe. I personally do art for it's own sake, or my own sake, I should say. I don't do art to see it sold. I do it because there are things in my that I can not ever say with words. Only the art can fully express what I'm saying. It's also self-exploratory. I find something new about myself when I do it. It's my form of meditation. Sure, my friends and family absolutely love my work. but I don't do it for them. If I did it simply would simply come out differently. And maybe that's okay too.
I also found the concept very interesting. They were more concerned with the process than the end result.
Possibly as an offering to the super natural that did not need to be displayed.
Post a Comment