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Post by Platypus on Jul 26, 2009 18:36:13 GMT -5
An interesting article on an art exhibition in New York. The artist has created a work using all the clutter in from the Mother's house. She was a Chinese woman who grew up with the motto 'waste not want not'. The clutter is arranged around a house frame which I take to be a life-size model of her home. I wish I was in NY to see it. It is very intriguing how he has made an art-work by grouping all the objects in neat displays and showing the beauty in his Mother's collection of ordinary stuff. www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/7084/song-dong-at-moma-ny.html"beijing-based artist song dong's solo exhibit 'project 90' at the museum of modern art in new york includes his installation 'waste not'. the work consists of the complete contents of the artist's mother's home, amassed over fifty years " This is a very moving account of how Song Dong used the art project to help his mother deal with her clutter and her husband's death. It really brought tears to my eyes. www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/arts/design/15song.html?_r=1 |
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Post by Peach on Jul 26, 2009 18:55:30 GMT -5
Wow - this is so tastefully done. Neat clutter. His mother would be proud. Artful clutter... Thanks Platypus  |
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Post by grungygeorgie on Jul 26, 2009 19:25:32 GMT -5
Thanks Platy, I think I am actually going to take the bus in the city
to see this.I have not been in NYC since 9/11.This is just to interesting
for me to miss!Thanks for posting.gg
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Post by moggyfan on Jul 26, 2009 19:26:55 GMT -5
It freaks me out a little to see all those little tubes of Colgate!
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Post by Morningstar on Jul 26, 2009 19:36:33 GMT -5
Wow - the exhibition is amazing. However, I am even more moved by the love of the artist for his mother that shines out of the NY Times article. That he found "a third way" to both rescue his mother from the potential of having her home and safety net ripped out from under her, and preserve her possessions in a "safe" and honorable way that enabled and gave her permission to move on and continue living. The loving and tender way the items were removed, sorted, folded and arranged. What finally broke me was the neon sign Song Dong created and hung above the collection - “Dad, don’t worry, Mum and we are fine”.   MS |
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Post by gettingsomewhere on Jul 26, 2009 20:00:34 GMT -5
Thank you Platypus for sharing this. It is a wonderful example of a son's love.
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Post by bigtimetroubles on Jul 26, 2009 20:04:53 GMT -5
I guess I was freaked by the toothpaste tubes too...who saves empty toothpaste tubes? Okay somebody simply could not part with them...his mom....thanks platy hugs bigtimetroubles
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Post by clutterfree on Jul 27, 2009 3:39:57 GMT -5
The power in it is where the stuff came from--obviously a much larger home than the building frame there. It feels slightly exploitative to me, as if he's putting his mother on display. And that probably says more about me and my views toward things than him. Though maybe he needed it to heal.
It's a heartbreaking display that looks like a very well organized garage sale/trash bin to me, not art. For those who get something out of it, though, it's art, as sure as a Kandinsky is to me.
I could never go--just looking at the pictures makes me uncomfortable.
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Post by theroyaldump on Jul 27, 2009 10:45:34 GMT -5
Seeing that photo disturbed me and made me uncomfotable too. Art? I suppose so but I have the same thing and it would be called art by no one. It is just junk and trash. I got more the feeling that he was saying "Look at the crap my Mom left me with". Maybe I just don't understand, maybe I don't get it.
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placemat
New Member
Joined: June 2008
Posts: 17
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Post by placemat on Jul 27, 2009 22:02:49 GMT -5
^^ It's not the same style of art as a painting or a poem, but more of an action that causes thought. In his mother's house I'm sure the toothpaste tubes were not neatly arranged on a board. Making what was very likely chaos into a colorful, ordered place could be a way for him to show his mother's beauty using the trivial possessions that she had - maybe they didn't associate them with shame, or maybe they did and this is a cathartic experience for the artist and a way of revealing the vibrancy and order that can exist in a person beneath all their stuff? I don't think it's possible not to "get" art... it's just that not all of it is anything we'd want to look at or think about. I'm not entirely in love with this exhibit either for a number of reasons, but I can think of a few interpretations that make it at least interesting...  |
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Post by Meme on Jul 27, 2009 23:10:36 GMT -5
hmmmmm- I think the idea is beautiful and the collages that I did see I wish you could come to my house and see how I arrange my clutter stuff- which I suppose is clutter only because I call that- most folks that do come are fascinated by the shelves and how they are arranged etc. I remember some one telling that I was artistic but of course - it is work to me to keep it all done- sigh my floors are clean- my sinks are clean- no piles on the furniture- the table gets cluttered but it is clean underneath- it is just that I have too much to take care- some day I will take some pictures and then you will understand I did write about this before- and maybe on my blog and I am starting to realize that the squalor is in my mind- I am starting to see the sparkle in my home - yes- I get messes like everyone- and the house does get chaotic but 90 percent of the stuff is clean--- I could eat off my floor if it were not for Dogman doing for me--  I loved this story because it gave me freedom to say- hey, maybe I am ok...... I do not keep garbage but I never have soon I will truck around with my camera and see how it looks- this art simply tells some ones story and if the worst could be said about her being a keeper of things - well- that is a pretty good legacy= I want to be known for more than a clean house- I have never seen a tomb stone saying '' she was a bad housekeeper'' . |
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Post by clutterfree on Jul 27, 2009 23:14:03 GMT -5
I think not getting art is just a matter of taste. If you don't get something that someone else calls art, it's just not art to you, and that's okay.
I love abstract art, yet I look at most of Jackson Pollock's paintings and I see a big old mess that I want to wipe up. Two paintings of his strike me as art--they strike whatever it is in me that finds something profound, beautiful and more than it appears. His most famous paintings, however, to me, look like well-used dropcloths.
Art is so completely subjective. And that's part of what makes it so fascinating.
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Post by Platypus on Jul 28, 2009 21:50:59 GMT -5
Hi Clutter free, The Australian Art Galley bought Pollock's "Blue Poles" in 1973 for $US2mil and everyone derided the gallery, the painting and the artist, said it was the craziest waste of money they had ever seen. It is now one of the most popular exhibits in the gallery and worth over $200mil. When I first saw newspaper photos of it I thought it was intriguing. I finally went to the nation's capitol in 1996 and viewed it. In real life it was awesome, powerful, strange and I dont know why. It is one powerful work. nga.gov.au/Pollock/index.cfmI know that a lot of idiocy (and sometimes downright reprehensible cruelt where the "artist" should be put in prison!) is presented as art these days. But in the end I think it is simply 'what you like is what you like'. This work or display will give a very different experience to different people. I like the what it says about transformation, that with his Mother's help they transformed her clutter into a work of art. I admire his Mother's courage. (She was still alive when this was done and helped him do it.) The thought of putting all my stuff out for the world to see would be too terrifying. I don't know if it is cultural or to do with living in a time of want, but the 'waste not' attitude seemed to be a virtue for his parents. I know elderly people who had been through the WW2 in Britain with rationing etc, and they don't waste anything. Hmmm, I hope I get to see Blue Poles again one day. |
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Post by yearning4order on Jul 29, 2009 13:01:25 GMT -5
Wow, wow, wow Platypus, thank you so much for this. Just as some people like oil painting and others like watercolor, I am one of those people that generally enjoys installation art. One of the things I like is that a part of the installation art process is to get people to think, so for everyone here who has said "Ugh, that's not art!", I would say it's been an effective piece.
I'm also in the camp of really treasuring the artist's approach to working with his mother's hoarding, and seeing some of it within the context of the cultural, political, and economic upheaval he and his family survived. Just as many of us noted on other threads that trauma is at the root of our squalor, it does not seem to be too much of a suprise that his mother's hoarding behavior could have its roots in the trauma of surviving the imprisonment of a family member which turned her wealthy family into a poor one, and the later imprisonment of her husband for 7 years. I would imagine that would be enough to drive anyone to a number of coping mechanisms.
The article in the NY Times was especially fascinating in terms of explaining more about the context of Song Dong's upbringing.
I loved the video at the MOMA site, where he discussed the work with the curator. Especially poignant was the way he talked about his mother without judgement. In fact, neither he nor the curator even approach the topic of "Wow your mom was messed up to do this, don't you think?" There is no time spent on moralizing or "judging" the mother and her actions and this was incredibly powerful for me.
That coupled with her words, faced with the challenge of how to begin letting go of a lifetime of accumulation, "For you I can do anything."
My clutter won't be shown in an art installation piece anytime soon, but I really love the way this installation has proceeded. Sometimes the coolest thing about the installation work is not how it looks or if it's truly "art" or not--but how it is accomplished. That is the most artful piece of this.
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Post by Arid on Jul 29, 2009 13:24:02 GMT -5
To me, the display itself is meaningless unless one knows the background story. The accompanying articles explain the tremendous amounts of loss, stress, and danger this woman experienced throughout her life. It's no small wonder that she became a hoarder!!! It is well-known that hoarding/squalor often follows a specific event or experience in a person's life. In my own home, there still are plenty of magazines, junk mail, unfinished projects, etc. from 2003--that's the year that my brother died a slow, agonizing death. I have several nicely organized albums, projects, etc. BEFORE 1986. In 1986, my son was born! I no longer had the time, energy, or concentration to keep up with the same things that I did before he (thank you, God!) came into our lives. (My son is WELL-WORTH any amount of untidiness that he brought into my life!! !) I think that this display is a riveting visual example of the effect that stress and trauma can have on a person. I see nothing disrespectful in what the son did. I do not consider this to be the same as the guy who posted pictures on-line with the heading, "My mom is crazy. . ." Arid |
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