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Art for a Time of Crisis

sorry nancy, again i must disagree. yes there are many artists out there that have been history making innovators, but if we put EVERY uncreative artist in this category then we are doing the world of art a major disservice. i love jackson pollack. i love marcel duchamp. i do not love julia karll. i love other present day artists that are innovators. miss karll is not one of those. her work is the same work that has been done for YEARS from other artists that are "protesting" the war on iraq.

this is innovative AND creative AND thoughtful:
http://neveryetmelted.com/wp-images/HewittQuadJunk.jpg

and so is this one:
http://www.olvera-street.com/assets/images/AltarIraqForever04.jpg

and this one? it seems pretty familiar to another piece that miss karll has done:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/114/312458874_e332a3f344.jpg?v=0
you know, the piece with the gloves. except this piece was done before 2006.

and this piece? a CREATIVE use of the cranes, not just piling in some big pile on the floor, which i'm sure thousands of other artists have done in this time, just not deemed it worthy enough to actually put out there:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2383/2093278915_e837d9c6b8.jpg?v=0
that is crane use that is INNOVATIVE and again CREATIVE!

and her videotape sculpture that is described as, "expression of her 'reactions to world events, a product of time focusing on news reported violence' that it is a reflection of 'how society receives information about war and violence through the media.'"
how come she used just SOME defense department training tapes? i mean if we are to take this piece seriously shouldn't all of the tape be used from some sort of military activity? not just "some" of it, the rest of the VHS tapes was most likely picked up anywhere and everywhere she could get them. if those videotape pieces should be taken seriously at ALL as protest art, then it should have been made of all military/iraqi reportage tapes. otherwise it's just a big VHS tape blob that has virtually no reference the the war.

i'm sorry, i completely agree that there are many artists that have been labeled as "new uncreative artists" that many people find very creative and innovative but please don't put miss karll on that pedestal. it gives other innovative artists a bad wrap, a feeling that virtually ANYONE could be classified in the innovative grouping.

to miss karll, in my opinion you need to start using your brain more and not take the easy way out.

Posted by betsys | July 15, 2008 7:51 AM

Art for a Time of Crisis

i'm sorry nancy for disagreeing with you although you did write a very well thought out article. i'm so sick of "artists" that have no real talent and no creativity using the war and some of the horrors of our current time as a scapegoat for their own lack of creativity. i do not personally care for miss karll's work. i could do that. in fact my own daughter is at home copying "bad news about the war" for her middle school current events class. i mean come on. anyone can do what she's doing, many many many people have (some call themselves artists, many do not). and some of the quotes from her offend me and let me see how highly miss karll thinks of herself.

"Julia says that assuming the human race survives this time, she wants to have been the recorder of these horrors."

aren't newspapers themselves recorders? isn't the internet and tv their own recorders? who needs to read it written down again on a big long scroll. i mean seriously. again, my twelve year old daughter is doing that and i know for a fact she has no idea who miss karll is. so i'm going to say my twelve year old is the recorder of these horrors.

"She records her own response to that information and seeks to connect to her audience, "to find one other person that feels the same way I do." She hopes to "evoke a visceral response initially with the beauty of the craft and secondly in the realization of the subversive content within the work."

oh come on, who doesn't feel this way? "to find the ONE OTHER PERSON That feels the same way". that's ridiculous. there are thousands, millions of people that do. maybe if the artist would have done this work straight after 9/11 i could maybe MAYBE take more stock in her work and the quotes you have put on here.

sorry to write so much about this, i have just had a big conversation about this with my father and how much these new uncreative artists put so much stock in what i would say is "scapegoat art".

again your article is well written i just wanted to share my difference of opinion.

Posted by betsys | July 7, 2008 10:02 PM