An issue that has affected the plastic arts of virtually every culture over time is that of visibility, as art has a persistent tendency to be seen. Many attempts have been made to deal with this without any real measure of success. For example, glass as a medium was heralded as a remedy until it was pointed out that, while one could see through the glass, one could usually see the glass as well.
Other initiatives have been undertaken, including a number of experiments with fabric. The extinguishing of lamps has long been employed, as has the closing of doors and windows. These practices have often been criticized as effectively throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but continue to be widely employed. In the mid twentieth century, however, a paradigm shift resulted in at least one person puncturing a balloon in a museum and then declared the helium thus released to be a work of art. The event in question was greeted with the sound of one duck clapping
Recently a more effective approach has come to light. While still in its early stages, the methodology holds considerable promise. It appears that light can now be shunted around objects in a manner analogous to the formation of mirages. The net effect for the viewer is to see light emanating from behind the object as though the object were not there to intercept it, thus rendering the object virtually invisible.
There are those waiting for this new technology to come to market. An organization, called the Citizens’ Low Observable Action Committee (CLOAC, pronounced cloak) has already drawn up plans and marshaled resources to “devisualize” a growing list of art objects in the public domain, including a number of pieces here in Cleveland. It is anticipated that, as the technology becomes more affordable, cloaking kits will also become available for use in galleries and museums.
CLOAC is seeking to add new candidates to its present list, and would like to hear from you. I have reached an agreement with the group whereby your suggestions will first be shared on A&P, and I will then communicate them to the committee.
Jay,
For shame, for shame.
You really should have cloaked your remarks in a more serious way — black plastic, perhaps? Or at the very least clothed them so as to avoid offending delicate sensibilities.
Devisualizing of de exhibit by CLOAC makes me see cloaca — but that may be because I’m reading the dictionary.
Hard to believe the military allows this technology out into the public domain. But you can be sure that counter-measures will soon be adopted by disgruntled devisualizees.
June:
I stand revealed. When I was a child we used to say “cloaca” and giggle.
Steve:
I may have witnessed an actual military demonstration of this. Was on a flight out of LAX to Dallas when I espied a triangular aircraft moving relatively slowly far below us. It then took a sharp turn, suddenly accelerated and blinked out of sight. One option is that the plane simply turned edge-on to my line of view. Another is that a cloaking experiment was being conducted. I reckoned that it was military as a tanker was hovering the area.
People will figure out how to hack the devisualizing technology and revisualize something of their own. We could end up with a kind of furious,shape-shifting, 3-D graffiti.
Interesting, people cut into their paintings. What else do they do when they get bored?
One of my antibodies specifically stains C. Elegans’ cloaca. Nothing is unsavory to a scientist.
CMA, Canton Museum of Art, Country music associations…
Birgit:
They slash and burn.
I believe that the people at the CMA chose the Fontana piece in order to make visual comparisons between the cut and uncut areas. I would have to think that the experiment met expectations as there seem to be no telltale variations on the wall. But their choice of the marble surface is questionable as the patterns tend to complicate the data.
Chicago Maritime Authority, Cloaca Management Association; these CLOAC people tend to be secretive about the CMA…but it appears that they have a marble wall at their disposal.
As a point of information, there is a piece called “The Politician” out on Chester that CLOAC is considering. It once had working televison sets for eyes and various moving parts. Nothing works anymore, and the object in repose is unsightly. As an aside, the powers that be, put this mocking sculpture in a fairly remote location and close to some rough neighborhoods. It remains vandal proof after all of these years. Neither Tigger the Tagger nor anyone else has done a thing to it. It’s ugly but respected and I hope CLOAC reconsiders.
Birgit:
I’ll provide my best guess about CMA if you tell me who this C. Elegans is.
Caenorhabditis elegans,
tiny nematode (roundworm).
Scientific model system since 1970
First multicellular organism to have its genome completely sequenced. I took a brief look at it.
Yesterday, I visited a healer friend who has been trying to pack and move since last January, sorting out her herbs, tinctures etc. Her seemingly insurmountable task motivated me to clear out my basement today. I came across early Karl canvasses, none of them slashed.
Birgit:
My best guess is that CMA stands for Cleveland Museum of Art, but I doubt if they will confess to anything. Therein lies the Rub.
And I can see why little nematode has chosen C. for a first initial. Still, it must be tough when writing checks, filling out forms and the like.
Would that be Karl Zipser? I’ve been confused but unwilling to pry.
Yes, it was fun looking at them – Bethesda and E Lansing, 20 years ago.
Meaningless work is obviously the most important and significant art form today. The aesthetic feeling given by meaningless work can not be described exactly because it varies with each individual doing the work. Meaningless work is honest. Meaningless work will be enjoyed and hated by intellectuals – though they should understand it. Meaningless work can not be sold in art galleries or win prizes in museums – though old fasion records of meaningless work (most all paintings) do partake in these indignities. Like ordinary work, meaningless work can make you sweat if you do it long enough.
— Walter de Maria, Boxes for Meaningless Work, 1961
Sunil:
Does your comment suggest that you have some candidates for CLOAC?
The artwork of Walter de Maria was the first thing that entered my mind on reading about “person puncturing a balloon in a museum and then declared the helium thus released to be a work of art”.
No, I do not have any candidates…
Sunil:
I can’t say if Walter is our helium guy. He’s a might-be, but I can’t find any reference to such a thing.
I must say that the folks of A&P are more accepting than I would have guessed. While my post is subversive in tone, and may offend some sensibilities, it presents some valid issues. Here’s a few off-the-tops:
1. The work is already compromised. I’m trying to remember her name, but there was a sculptor in Cleveland who made a name for herself by stacking things, like chipboard and paving stones. She did a broadly-conceived thing, using a lot of railroad ties and acreage in the flats. The project is now a parking lot for earthmoving equipment and the ties look like erosion control. I doubt if this was her intention. In this case the work didn’t disappear, but rather stopped looking like a work of art.
2. The work requires maintenance for which there is no provision. Downtown walls in the seventies were covered with large painted murals. It wasn’t long before they began to fade and peel. A few remain and the others were covered by another cloaking material- paint. They had been put up with no thought to their survival. Moreover, the urban environment is dynamic and one cannot expect a work of art to remain in place forever.
3. The thing is just godawful. There was an example in NYC. I think it was Richard Serra who put up a pattern of steel walls in a traffic circle. I only saw pictures and can’t speak from firsthand knowledge, but the work was criticized as an unwelcome intrusion of cor-ten rust and a visual nuisance, compromising drivers’ ability to see. It was removed. It could have been devisualized, had such means been at hand. Of course, folks walking smack into an invisible steel wall would not have been amused.
Jay,
The deficiency of a clear directed creative response to overwhelming events like climate change, the divvying up of the arctic into economic profit making zones, the little understood war we are fighting over in Iraq, or the naked appropriation of global cultures in the name of consumerism clearly means that artists have stopped thinking about making work that serves a purpose, a meaning, a function.
This does not mean that it is dead – it just means that we are going through a stasis in the creative world before artists make work that can be reflective and be capable of registering change and its effects on the society.
I did realize the subversive tone…
Sunil:
Why don’t you expand this theme into a post? I’m serious – it’s a good item of discussion.
I would think that terms like relevance, utility, appropriateness, importance would fit here. And I believe that the discussion should encompass a broad scope of artistically-oriented activities.
If I am correct, you are asking what a mere artist can do in the face of all that. A simple response would be that images have changed thinking, and by extension, the course of events. You may have seen that image of a naked and burned little girl running down a road in Vietnam. That one picture did more than a horde of hippies to turn the American public against the war. Soon after WWII a political cartoonist by the name of Herblock, came up with a depiction of the atom bomb as a dirty thug, and thereby began a process of demystifying the nasty device. Yes, it was the subject matter speaking, but also the vivacity and sheer visual power through which its voice was heard.
Jay,
Again, isn’t it sad that you draw the examples of creative outpourings that are atleast 30 years old. All of the events mentioned by me above relate to pressing conditions today and provoke little artistic response from the great artists of the world. Or maybe I am missing the whole thing…
Agreed Al Gore’s movie did make a beginning in fostering the debate on global warming and Michael Moore’s movie ‘Sicko’ (even if parts of it are questionable) talks about the healthcare issue… but the examples are few and far between and I have to count them on the fingers of my hand…
And we claim to be living in a decade where we are confronted with multiple matters of universal importance and feel more ‘digitally connected’ than ever…
I recently went to a drugstore to get eye drops for my mother (who was visiting us from India and hence had no insurance). She suffers from ocular hypertension and needs the drops daily. I paid about 200 dollars for 2 milliliters.
Sunil:
I would assert that political cartoonists continue to influence opinion. It’s art in the public domain, rather than in galleries, that is having an impact. Some Danish cartoonists might agree with me.
This one goes way over my head…
Hello!
I’m a student from Holland, and I had to find some art for an assignment on school. But I have a question. Is this really from Lucio Fontana, or is it just a re-make? And is the name really Concetto Spaziale?
Because I found some other art with the same name..?
I hope you can help me!
Suus
Dear Suus:
Just so we are on the same page, are you referring to the invisible painting in the photograph? As far as I can see, Lucio Fontana made only one painting titled Concetto Spaziale.
Jay,
The authorities are putting a good face on it, but it appears an entire section of the Pompidou Center has been hit by CLOAC.
Steve:
Steve:
Just don’t try to sell me an empty box of Cracker Jacks. Who in the hell is going to pay to see such a show? And cutting edge? How about maintenance on that strange building depleted the budget and somebody had this bright idea for a show that wouldn’t cost much of anything?
Karl, if you’re still in Europe, I might urge you to do me a favor. I can’t remember the name of the movie, but it involved prisoners of war digging an escape tunnel. They would haul out the excavated dirt in their pants legs, whereupon they would pull a drawstring and deposit said material in various parts of the exercise yard. If you would, could you do likewise and create a little earthwork somewhere strategic when the guards aren’t looking? I really appreciate your doing this for me.
Jay,
The movie is The Great Escape.
Are you asking Karl to build this earthwork in the Pompidou Center? To create an anti-void?
Steve:
Great Escape it is.
Karl cannot deny me this simple request. Affirmative on Pompidou. I will not tender a puerile and scatological suggestion, which would have been for somebody – not Karl – to deposit something else, thus placing the Center in danger of being called the Poopy-doo. (enunciated in the manner of Betty Boop)