- How did you feel performing Maintenance Art in the area around the USU?- It was different to connect with the art not only visually but physically by cleaning it.
- How are Mierle Laderman Ukeles cleaning the steps of an art museum and Richard Serra flinging molten lead against the walls of an art museum different? How are they the same? Are one or both “art”? Are one or both “not art”?- They are different in the sense that Mierle Laderman Ukeles is cleaning the steps while Richard Serra flinging molten lead against the walls of an art museum is creating more of a mess rather than maintenance like Ukeles work. Both can be seen as art in their own ways as Ukeles’s art highlights the art of everyday maintenance and Serra’s work shows a different more reckless side of art.
- Was Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Maintenance Artperformance at the Wadsworth Atheneum “art”? Did the fact that her performance was at an Art Museum make it art? What if instead, she had simply gotten hired as a janitor at a factory somewhere and performed that job for 6 months? Would that have been art? What makes an act “art” or “not art”?- Ukeles performance is seen as art simply because it was presented as such. She believed what she was doing was an art and presented it to the public as such much like anyone who is proud or wants show off their skills calls it their “art”.
- Is an object or an action Art or Not Art because of some intrinsic property of the medium? Or because of the intention of the person performing it? Are all paintings on canvas art because paintings on canvas are exhibited in art museums? Is all house painting not art because we don’t exhibit painted houses in art museums? Can a painting on canvas ever be not art? Can painting a house ever be art?- Art is what you make of it. If someone’s wants their work to be perceived as art it can be even painting a house. art work displayed at home or in a museum (or anywhere for that matter) can be seen as art if that’s what the creator wants it to be. A painting on a canvas is usually seen as art and most artists like using that platform so in my eyes the only situation in which art on a canvas cannot be seen as art is if the maker decides they don’t want it to be. With that said art is also in the eye of the beholder as someone may look at a art pieces and not see it as art but someone else can whether that was the creators intentions or not.
- Has Mierle Laderman Ukeles, or Jennifer Lopez, made you think differently about “Women’s Work”? Is “Women’s Work” ever art? If yes, when? If no, why not?- Women’s work is art if the woman/women creating it intended it to be seen as art.
- In class we discussed the woman who cleaned Donald Trump’s Star on Hollywood Blvd. Whose Star would you get down on your hands and knees to clean?- I would clean Robert Downey Jr.’s Hollywood star
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