What is art? I am now realizing as an artisit, this is a question I will continue to face all my life. And honestly, I get more and more confused about the answer each day. Today we visited the Tyler Gallery which was displaying the work of the Tyler Photography Grad, Emily Rooney. Aside from Rubens mentioning the artist was a photographer, I would have never guessed. If I remember corectly there were a total of two pictures; the rest of the installation consisted of ceramic, sculpture and film. I will say I was intrigued by the ceramic approach she took since this is the medium I choose to work in however, other than that, I was left confused. It's a little frustrating when people around you are psyched on the work you're looking at and talking about how good it is when you don't really "get it". I'm not knocking Emily's show. I think the most important part of art is that what you make has an effect on you, it's a piece of you. I just don't know how to seperate the things that were layed out in front of me from a collection of meaningless 'stuff' I could find in someone's house. I've always struggled with the question why can't people just make things to make them. As I get older I realize there actually is a reason behind everything, whether it was intentional or not. I wasn't able to get a clear grasp on Emily's message today. Is there even a message? Maybe her show is just up for interpretation. My concern however, doesn't lie in what the message behind this work is trying to say as much as it does with the possibility of me being incapable to notice it. Are people really always able to see a deeper meaning in work or do they just bullshit themselves into thinking they "get it"? Do not take this response to mean I wish all art was straightforward and laid out in front of me. The beauty in Emily's piece comes from the fact she was able to express herself, her thoughts, her opinions in her own way. That in itself is such a gorgeous thing. When you ask me to analyze her show in terms of whether it's symbolizing racism or equality or religion, my answer is I have no idea.
http://www.temple.edu/tyler/exhibitions/
