Is this art?

[AKady]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...11&ito=newsnow

I just have to question somethings I hear people refer to art and I was wondering what everyone here thinks.

[Aaron Schroeder]

Yes it's art. It's fun art.

[Julianna]

It's fun, but I wouldn't call it art. What is artistic about it? Crafty, yes, but I don't see the artistic merit.

[Merlion]

It is fun. I think it takes some trial and error effort to make a large folded vessel that can support a person and stay stable and afloat.

He happens to be an artist. I don't think it really matters whether or not this vessel is art, does it?

[Blacksun]

Amusing, neat idea, would have liked to see it, and will probably use it the next time we have a paper boat race down the local river.... But I would not qualify it as art...

[evaldart]

I wouldn'y call it craft, the charm of it is that it looks like it was made by a 50 foot tall 7 year old. So many temporary things qualify as art and performance/event/happening...I dont see why it couldn't be art.

[Duck]

AKady
I'm kind of a newbee to art and that’s one of the first questions I had to put to bed. To me all art is entertainment, in this case it's kinda cool that the artist is part of the entertainment too, of course if the paper boat sprung a leak and sunk with him in it----well that would be even more entertaining wouldn’t it.

[ironman]

Hi, Yeah, that's the best piece of (duh!) I've seen in a long time.
Have a great day,
Jeff

[evaldart]

Originally Posted by Duck

AKady
I'm kind of a newbee to art and that’s one of the first questions I had to put to bed. To me all art is entertainment, in this case it's kinda cool that the artist is part of the entertainment too, of course if the paper boat sprung a leak and sunk with him in it----well that would be even more entertaining wouldn’t it.

Duck,
Well I keep trying to put that one to bed but it always wakes up and crawls UNDER the bed, jumps out to scare the shit outta me in the middle of the night. Maybe one day it will go to sleep.

And while my art has no doubt amused some people I couldn't say it ever "entertained" them. It just won't dance. But some hot slag in my Redwings certainly has me cuttin' a rug now and then...and THAT is entertaining for sure.

[MSC]

Clearly, it is a craft and one that floats even

[ExNihiloStudio]

Check out the article called
"An Artist and His Sub Surrender in Brooklyn"

at NYTimes.com published on Aug. 4 2007
or
try this link

[natural]

Originally Posted by MSC

Clearly, it is a craft and one that floats even

This has been bugging me for a couple of days now. There seems to be a tendency in the fine art world to call anything that doesn’t meet one's esthetic values "craft" rather than art. When I think of craft, I think of objects whose primary esthetic value comes from how (and how well) they are made as opposed to fine art whose primary value is in why they were made. If, when you look at this object you are thinking about how clever his origami technique is then it's craft. I'd argue that most people will look at it in terms of a kind of whimsical nostalgia which is why the artist made it. I won't say this is great art but it clearly is art by my definition.

[zazie]

More thoughts:

On PBS I heard TAHA MUHAMMAD ALI (the poet through translator) say something that resonnated with me, at last:

"And, so, it has taken me all of 60 years to understand that water is the finest drink and bread the most delicious food, and that art is worthless unless it plants a measure of splendor in people's hearts."

(full transcript available on NPR site somewhere)

And so, the floating thing is fun and tugs at the child within (gag) and it's so cute (gag gag) but tis not worthy art. Nor is the toilet bowl, the blank (purple, red, black, bare, whatever) canvas, etc.

That kind of definition works for me.

ZZ

[Chalice]

Would it be art if he made 1000 of them and was not in the 'craft'?

[jOe~]

Would it be art if he made 1000 of them and was not in the 'craft'?

That would make it a fleet. And that changes everything. People have a harder time arguing against an idea if you've given them 1000 examples of its existence. You could also call it nuts, but then that would validate it. Anything that useless and that far out of the norm could only be art. What else could you call it?

[justme]

I've said if I ever got a vanity license plate it would say ISITRT.
I just think it is funny because everyone has an opinion about what is art and no one agrees.
My husband in response said if I get that plate he will get one that says RTMYAS.
Whatever.

[JasonGillespie]

Is it me or has this question arisen much of late? Not that that is a bad thing in and of itself...rather the debate on the topic seems to fall along the same lines among the same people. Some don't think it is others do...the litany is a carbon copy each time.

Even a dyed in the wool "fencepost conversationalist" like myself begins to wonder whether or not anything new will be said about this....given the "us and them" nature of the question and that the answer is at the core of most artists' individual belief systems.



As loathe as I am to admit it, I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter...go have a ball...make whatever you want and call yourself whatever you like. Artist, sculptor, painter, genius....whatever. There are few professions where a majority of the people will let you get away with doing just about anything you want so take advantage of it while you can....right? (Is this what cynicism feels like?)

Mr. Boelter looks happy...maybe that is all that matters anymore.

[GlennT]

Jason, I don't think the ambulatory of Saint Denis could have echoed my thoughts any better. The tired minds that are happy to have a ball and let cultural standards disappear into narcisstic nihlism are stridently insistent that art is whatever the artist says is art. And the "artist" is anyone who claims the title. Arguing that point gets one nowhere, just one more target for verbal abuse.

The best way to answer the " What is art?" question is to create art. Real art. The kind that moves and inspires people, rather than generating the question, "Is this art?".

[Merlion]

I notice AKady started this thread with a link to an online DailyMail link. But many news sites take articles off after a number of days to save on online space. Thus for future reference, I am posting below from the site excerpts from and one of the two photos.

Artist sets sail in life-size paper boat

25 Aug 2007, Artist Frank Boelter set sails in his lifesize paper boat as he leaves a shipyard in Lauenburg, Germany.

He constructed the 9-metre vessel from 'Tetrapack' and fearlessly sailed it up the Elbe, despite the fact the light material is more commonly used for packaging milk. ...



The £110 boat is 30 feet long, weighs 55 pounds, uses a 170-square-metre piece of Tetrapack paper, and took only two hours to construct.