PARIS OR MAYBE HELL @atomiquebomb - Tumblr Blog

Page decorations for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1899 edition.

frankly I think a lot more people would be open to postmodern art if we all stopped pretending you had to be very smart to understand it and start acknowledging that the starting point for deriving meaning from it is frequently ‘this is stupid bullshit’

spitblaze

To clarify- it’s not just ‘this is stupid’ and then you’re done, finding the meaning in something that seems meaningless can usually be found by starting with that base feeling, ‘This sucks.’ Okay- why does it suck, specifically?

‘This is just a vaccuum cleaner, it doesn’t belong in a museum’. Okay, follow that thread- why is that weird? Is it the elevation of normal commercial products to be put on a pedestal? Does that sentiment remind you of anything? How does that make you feel?

“This is just splatters, anyone could do this.” Anyone could, couldn’t they? Anyone can create things, anyone can make these movements and gestures. Dancing does the same thing, doesn’t it? How do the splatters imply the artist’s movements? What does it say about them?

“This person made a mobile out of twine, flower pots, and pictures of cats. How is this art?” What mediums do you define as ‘art’? Paint? Marble sculpture? Photos? Why are you so sure that this is what art is? Doesn’t this remind you of the kind of crafts a child would make, or maybe a first-time DIYer? Is that intentional? Does the construction or material evoke any other emotions?

This isn’t an end-all be-all, of course- among many other things, there’s postmodern art that’s just for a show of mastery, there’s art that’s commenting on a very certain time in history or about something within the art community you may not be privy to, and there’s art that’s simply about creating and the creative process. It’s hard to approach a full narrative with just a single sentiment. This can’t cover every single topic, obviously.

That being said, it’s just as important to note that in many cases, there’s no wrong answers in art or interpretation. If your takeaway is completely different from the artist, as long as you don’t try to insist that the artist has no real say over their work’s meaning, that’s totally fine. A large part of non-representational art is reliant on emotions, and emotions are informed by your experience as a human being. Your interpretation is just as right as anyone else’s. And you don’t even have to LIKE everything- I hate Jeff Koons and his stupid balloon dogs! Cremaster makes me incredibly uncomfortable and even if that’s the point it’s still uncomfortable enough that it makes me not like it! You can just not like certain art, it’s not all-or-nothing it’s good or it’s not.

TL;DR- if you have a hard time ‘getting’ art, try listening to your base reaction to what you’re looking at, and then ask yourself why it makes you feel that way, and why it’s constructed the way it is.

semifinaldestination-deactivate

#Cats

shirkers2018dirsanditan

i know i have said this a million times but i don’t understand how you are unwilling to forgive people for saying the wrong things but claim to be a prison abolitionist. the bedrock of abolition is forgiveness, or at least in the system it seeks to create. we are asking, essentially, how to we move past transgressions, serious transgressions, without condemning a person to subjugation? often, subjugation that lasts their entire life? how do we seek to provide consequences, redemption, and healing from harm, all while placing that harm in context and without doing more harm in the process?

if you are asking, as is often the common crime at the center of online abolition dialogues, that women forgive their rapists, or at least be fine with them walking around freely, why is it ridiculous to expect you to be forgiving of much lesser transgressions? if you cannot forgive or endorse forgiveness in general, in the case of the latest celebrity fuck-up, rita moreno for being dismissive and defensive toward the concerns of afro-latinos, people in her own community, especially as a marginalized person herself, then why should any woman abide by not calling the police on her abusive boyfriend? why should she have to think about his safety? if you are not going to forgive, say, doja cat for literally being self-hating and self-harming (let’s be honest), why should women be forgiving of men who sexually harass them? if you are not willing to forgive letitia wright for posting an offensive video, why should women forgive catcallers? or be concerned about them at all?

i keep saying this, i know, because every day there is a new woman we should be unrepentant toward because she was careless or rude or cruel or unthinking or uncaring or non-empathetic, or hateful - states of being that everyone will be at one point or another - but at the same time there is a neverending list of systemic and structural male cruelty and terrorism that we should simply just move past, lest we be carceral. but which is it? should we be forgiving or should we be unrepentant. i do not seek to support any movement in which men are afforded forgiveness above all, but women are condemned regardless

i mean, right now, we are talking about chimamanda ngozi adichie, a woman who did nothing wrong and who was actually harmed, who people are arguing is an evil person, a murderer, a bigot, irredeemable, and unworthy even of self-defense. yet, many of the same exact people are willing time and time again to DARVO women on abusive men’s behalf. and i am just saying it does not add up to me

julienbakerfavormp3-deactivated

‘Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn’t really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn’t about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it.”

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale