by Drew Martin
Art lies...Art lies when it does not stand upright with self-assurance or sit in contemplation. To lie down is an ambivalent position in art. What is vertical is generally full of life; and, seated figures usually express mental activity. But when something is lying down or laid down the symbolism may represent sleep as much as death; or, procreation (at least the pleasures of the act). Imagine what the first standing sculptures meant for the naive observers, drawn by intrigue and repelled by fear because they understood that a standing person or tree required a life force. The early Greek statues placed in temples were manifestations of gods and must have been awe-some to encounter. We now view art with reason and purpose. Perhaps it can be said that objective art is always dependent on its conceptual orientation. A monument toppled is the very opposite of honor. A car turned over is dead. When my flat screen television was defeated by my toddler, it literally died...it's electronic nervous system shut down and now it sits as a coffee table. It is still. It is a sarcophagus for all the faces that flashed upon its screen. It recalls a time when media was furniture, like the old wooden turntable unit I used to sit on and watch the world go by outside our picture window.
Pictured here, top to bottom: A reclining Buddha in Sri Lanka, one of Magdalena Abakanowicz's Sarcophagi In Glass Houses at the Storm King Art Center and my deceased LCD television.
Art lies...Art lies when it does not stand upright with self-assurance or sit in contemplation. To lie down is an ambivalent position in art. What is vertical is generally full of life; and, seated figures usually express mental activity. But when something is lying down or laid down the symbolism may represent sleep as much as death; or, procreation (at least the pleasures of the act). Imagine what the first standing sculptures meant for the naive observers, drawn by intrigue and repelled by fear because they understood that a standing person or tree required a life force. The early Greek statues placed in temples were manifestations of gods and must have been awe-some to encounter. We now view art with reason and purpose. Perhaps it can be said that objective art is always dependent on its conceptual orientation. A monument toppled is the very opposite of honor. A car turned over is dead. When my flat screen television was defeated by my toddler, it literally died...it's electronic nervous system shut down and now it sits as a coffee table. It is still. It is a sarcophagus for all the faces that flashed upon its screen. It recalls a time when media was furniture, like the old wooden turntable unit I used to sit on and watch the world go by outside our picture window.
Pictured here, top to bottom: A reclining Buddha in Sri Lanka, one of Magdalena Abakanowicz's Sarcophagi In Glass Houses at the Storm King Art Center and my deceased LCD television.