Jamie Beck's High Brow GIF
- “New York photographer Jamie Beck has turned the GIF into a respected art form, presenting an interesting path for future use.” writes Rebecca Greenfield for The Atlantic. Yes, all those other GIFs were tacky and low brow, but now that this one looks like a video loop it’s “high art”. A better criteria for evaluating the merit of a work would be to ask what this manipulation adds to the meaning of the original work. Instead, the established status of one medium is used to elevate another. I am reminded of a video “painting” spotted at the Pulse fair two years ago, which animated the eyes of its sitter. I hated that too. Link via: Tom Moody
- Also, can The Atlantic not find anyone to write about art intelligently? The magazine reports that the Army canceled a Northern Virginia public art project this week after complaints about its $600,000 price tag, adding that it wasn’t a great project to begin with. While it’s true that America could invest in better art than the fairy riding frog sculpture proposed, did this really need to prompt a photo essay on all the bad public art the country has spent money on? Surely this does more to get good art defunded than it does protect us from the horrible stuff. Further, why on earth was Schwarzenegger’s bear not mentioned? The state of California is broke, and the governor buys a bronze bear without consulting anyone.
- Dealer and Internet entrapraneur Jen Bekman gets a gianormous write up by NYPress’s Jerry Portwood. My favorite quote from the feature:
From the start, Bekman's motto for the business has been “Live With Art, It's Good For You,” which she knows can cause eye rolling among the culturati. “I feel like I have to defend it because it's such a pat, almost cheesy statement. But I really believe that people's lives are better because they have art around them,” she says. “I find it infuriating that art—which is such a joyful, emotional thing—is so fraught, that a lot of people have negative feelings around it. And some of it a mistrust of artists and the mistrust is: Are you trying to fool me?”
- Prospect Executive Director and former Senior Curator for The New Museum Dan Cameron has a similarly cheese-y statement on his facebook page:
Art is the center of my life. I think art changes people, consciousness, and, ultimately, the world itself.
- I like him more for saying that too.
- Recently discovered: This 1999 article by Kevin Kelly describing property as more social endeavor. He takes the logic a little far — groupon might allow people to purchase lumber at cheaper prices, but I question a future in which raw materials become shared goods. Still, it’s a great piece that made me happy.
{ 2 comments }
Thank god i’m not the only one thinking this about jamie beck…i thought i was taking crazy pills.
god bless tom moody
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