Saturday 27 March 2010

Intellectual snobbery reviewed


I have struggled with a problem for awhile now, and I think it is now time to talk about it. Okay, it's not all that serious but there have been internal debates within my head and it is frustrating. To me, what makes a good artwork, a respected structure, is the thoughts behind it. I am a big fan of conceptual-based anything. Understanding how a thought, a concept, an idea in a particular context (place, time, era) - something abstract in one person's mind ... become realised and can be shared. It is such power.

Over the few years in uni, with every project I have tried to make every single thing that I design and put down on paper mean something. No mucking around, no nonsense. Everything that is there is for a valid reason. It gets difficult, as you can imagine ... but it is the only way I feel comfortable and satisfied with my work at the end.

No mucking around, no nonsense, nothing arbitrary.

It is hard for me to enjoy things that are purely decorative, especially in architecture today where sustainability means minimal wastage. Come on guys, why plonk on a ten metre cantilevered roof when it isn't necessary and only means more materials and inefficiency in terms of structure.

I know I should take it easy - not everything has to mean something. I should calm down and not be so frustrated. Good news, then. Today I have made some progress, thanks to an article on Rupert Bunny in today's The Age (Saturday, March 27th, 2010). The author Andrew Stephens examines both ends of the pole - those who are a fan of Bunny and those who aren't. The latter accused Bunny of being "too decorative, too much a slave to fashion".

... hang on a second, I don't want to be one of them - it's terribly cynical. Its put me in my place.

Stephens then writes, "As for his being decorative -- well, what precisely is wrong with visual pleasure?". The director of NGV, Gerard Vaughan continues by saying, "Was he an inventor? No; never in fact", but that does not stop him from enjoying the artworks themselves ... "the pleasure of paint and colour and light ... gorgeous and luminous".

I have learned today that it is ok and completely valid to enjoy something that is purely decorative, even if something is "light on intellectual content".

Rupert Bunny: Artist in Paris is showing at NGV Australia (Federation Square) until 4th July.


Image from modmove.com

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