Okay, rip my shit, if you can do something good with it. I'm totally cool with that, but that makes your stuff fair game as well. It's only fair. that goes for anyone.
As for validity of artistic creations and expressions, the martial arts explanation is great, and the almighty drunken pinky-flick is great if it connects, but most folks don't master the drunken pinky-flick until they have the flying round kick, the iron dragon punch, and the spinning triple Buddha finger down in their sleep.
Unless I'm way off, (in which case I'm definately on the wrong planet) the purpose of art, and what really defines a piece of work as art, and not just a collection of materials in one place is the ability to invoke some sort of feeling, whatever that feeling may be. The feeling itself is always up to the individual, be it awe, revulsion, etc.. The fact that it inspires feeling at all makes it art. Are we in agreeance? The quality of a piece may be defined by who strong the feeling is that it invokes, if any. Do we agree on this point? So the question is: Is a piece of work judged by how strong the feeling that it invokes in one individual is, or by how many people it affects at all?
Anybody can walk into a room and shit on the floor make most of the other people in the room will feel something, typically an urge to leave, and puzzlement at the shitter's motivations, but is that art? Not in my book. It may be a protest against whatever is going on in the room, or maybe it's some sort of perverse turn-on for some, but art it ain't. Maybe if he's writing chinese characters, and creating brilliant poems, maybe I could see it a little differently, but even then that's some grey territory.
Come on people. What the fuck is up with this super liberal politically correct bullshit? A framed nike poster with a business card on it? Fuck that. The Cistene Chapel frescoes are more like it. Call me closed minded, archaic in my thinking, whatever. I don't care. I'm not going to sit here all day and argue these silly somantics. Recontextualization? It's weak. If you've stooped to just recontextuallizing something to create your attempt, it seems to me like you're lacking in individual ideas from within. That to me is weak, any way you slice it. Where do you draw the line? If you've got to ask, then maybe you need to work on more of your OWN source material before you go grabbing stuff from others. So if that makes me an asshole, or closedminded, then I'm guilty as charged, but you know what? I've actually gone and seen a lot of these pieces you're talking about as arguments. I gave it a chance, and the shit just doesn't work as art for me as art. I tried. I didn't go to school for it. I just went and saw it. The way I figure it, if you have to go to school to get it out of you, maybe it wasn't in you in the first place, and you should explore yourself further, rather than just following some trend.
You think I haven't made my share of dance floor rockers? My latest release sold out in a under two weeks from the day it hit the shelves. If you go to any mainstream clubs, chances are you'll hear it, if you haven't already. I'm not gonna go touting names, but just be aware that I'm not so full of shit, and unaware as some of you may paint me out to be. I've formed my opinions from my own experience, not from books of others stuff. You can argue about conceptualization all you want, but at the end of the day the folks that have put in their time, and honed their skills are going take one look at it and go 'yeah, cute. Ho-hum.' because it's just an excuse for not coming up with better. Any master of the drunken pinky-flick will be able to tell you that it only works in very specific circumstances, and you'll never land it on any but the most ignorant, unsuspecting or weak of opponents or those actually wanting to get hit. That may be the majority of the population, in this case, but so what? Can't you come up with better?
Admittedly, Koons did a fair amount of research into theory and technique, and sought out some serious artisans to do his work for him, but does that make him a great artist? I think it's more like DJing in the visual realm. So are DJ's musicians? You tell me.
Ape