Saturday, October 13, 2007

Is it Art or just Freak Science?


Technology took a real turn this time.
A 61 years old performance artist shocked the world with his work for art. After spending 10 years searching, he finally found a surgeon from Trent University who is willing to perform this outrageous operation. In 2006, Stelios Arcadious got the ear implanted in his left arm after being grown in the laboratory. What is his reason for the implantation? He believes art "should be more than simply illustrating ideas."
Well he certainly proved his point hasn't he? Is having an ear implanted in the left arm of a human consider as organic art? To some professional artists this might be be case, but I believe for the rest of 99.9% of the population who is "too abstract" for Art , this is simply a freak show.
This isn't the end for Arcadious. He is planning to implant a microphone inside the ear too. He wants people to listen what the ear hears. "It is more of a relief at present than an ear but it is still recognisable as an ear," he said. It's Art people! Try to understand!
Now, looking back in history the world has faced a decent amount of obsessive artists: Van Dough's rage for art resulted him amputate his ear, Jackson Pollocks million dollars random splats of paint, Michael Duchamp's "Fountain" (it's basically an upside down urinal. These types of unusual ideas were famous during the Contemporary Era), and many more. Since I took an art history class last year, I was introduced to many fanatic artists. I remember this one photo I saw of an artist crawling on top of an canvas while covering in paint. It was Art...because the book says so. It's true that artists are known to push boundaries, but there is a limit for boundaries. Physically mutate yourself with a third ear in the arm is NOT the way to go.
Society really needs to set boundaries to Art. If not, another fanatic artist might start to amputate human body parts, staple them on canvas, splat some paint and would call it Art.

1 comment:

bullseye said...

yeah I agree the art community does need to draw a line on what is acceptable art and what is just craziness.