Week One

Miwon Kwon: One Place after Another

-Mason Bykowski


Art outside of traditional 2D mediums, and a few sculptures, are very outside my range of knowledge. Reading Miwon Kwon's piece on "Culture in Action" brought up some interesting ideas, but more questions then answers. My first question goes with "...limestone boulders, each about three feet tall and four feet wide and weighing roughly 1,000 to 1,500 pounds,mysteriously appeared on sidewalks, plazas, street corners, and parkways throughout the Loop in downtown Chicago." This is taken from the first paragraph of the essay. I want to know how these limestone boulders "mysteriously" made it onto the streets. Clearly we know multiple people were involved in the moving process; but how did no one notice? There are multiple boulders and they're half a ton each. Clearly this took some time. It's a simple question, but honestly I honestly want to know the logistics of how they got it done, in one night, and no one really noticed. The Loop of Chicago is one if the city's centers. It's very hard for large and heavy things to just "show up" without anyone seeing, knowing, or it being reported. As someone who's lived in the Loop, I want to know how this happened. I also want to know why they didn't announce it? My guess is it has to do with the fact that they wanted to see the response of the public. But we don't hear much about the publics response; mostly critics. What did the public have to say? Even as an artist myself, I'd be very confused seeing this happen on the streets of Chicago. Do the artists understand how the public won't understand their statements, without an explanation? We as artists can't assume the public will stop and try to understand a lot of art pieces. Especially when it comes to abstract ones. Places big rocks with names on it does have a lot of meaning when explained, but to the general audience walking down the street, it's just odd. It might not actually help the cause that is trying to be stated. Sometimes simple actions could work, but it would need something the public can immediately recognize. A symbol we all recognize as one idea, can communicate better in some ways, with what the artists are saying. Sure, they want to give across a message to help AIDS, but does it come across? Sometimes the answer is no. Then it ends up being the narcissism of the artist that gets fulfilled, and not the cause at hand. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle video project seems like it would be the most effective. It took kids, had them work together on a video, and eventually displayed the video at a community party. The artist came from the community the art is targeting and was able to really work out a great piece to benefit others and make a statement. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, but spent time living in the city as well. I don't understand completely all of the problems with my city, but I respect Manglano-Ovalle's dedication as well as his fellow artist, Haha. Reading about a big artistic idea developing from my home town, is something that really resonates with me. It made me proud reading Miwon Kwon's writings. Whether the work is good or not, or was received well or not does not matter. A statement in art history was made, and that alone interests me. I leaned more about how art outside of just painting and drawing works. I still don't understand it fully, but this helped me get a step closer, while adding new questions to make me look into it more.