builders crack perhaps?
pony | 10.15.07 - 9:21 am | #

I do agree with your comments on artists and ascribing meanings to their works. Normally the text does remove the mystery of a work or it tries to give the work credibility when it has little.
But it's not always so. My Jan show tries to look at things in a slightly different way. The title of the show 'AS' is based on "as a man thinks so he is". The idea is to look for inherent beliefs and influences in my own work. What someone produces should in some way reflect what they believe. The postings of my blog, will represent this research and commentary. Each representing post will be printed and displayed next to it's corresponding artwork in the gallery. The idea is not to tell what the work means but more about what the artist believed or was influenced by at the time. Hopefully this will open the work without removing it's mystery.
David Howard | 10.15.07 - 12:51 pm | #

i think camille paglia said it best: "madonna, don't preach."
Anonymous | 10.15.07 - 1:31 pm | #

“It represents the experience of hatred, segregation of the experience, the racial experience of bored immigrants”
ET phone home | 10.15.07 - 9:45 pm | #

I like the crack as an undermining gesture that might make you doubt the architectural monumentality of the tate and, by extension, the particular version of 'modern art' that it presents, (i.e. if the crack could open this much chances are it will open further and bring the whole institution down). Then by extension there's a reflection on a history of anti-institutional art that is incorporated into the institution and does little to change its functioning, (much as this crack won't cause the tate to collapse).
fulanito | 10.15.07 - 10:08 pm | #

oftentimes i have heated debates with this girl i know about this very subject. she believes that the most important function of an artwork is to communicate the artists intentions fully. it cracks me up every time
reeam | Homepage | 10.16.07 - 2:33 am | #

What was the best thing was that I saw some kid trip in it. Now they have put up signs.
fifi | Homepage | 10.16.07 - 6:19 am | #

So people have fallen into/because of the cracks. That cracks me up. So much BS from artists, tsk tsk.
scott w | Homepage | 10.16.07 - 8:55 am | #

It looks like a photograph of a crack to me.
paul | 10.19.07 - 1:20 pm | #

dare i say
scar face
?
pony | 10.19.07 - 6:55 pm | #

I now regret writing so much about my work for my graduation show now! Blame professors wanting us to explain our work all the time, plus I couldn't think of a quote to sum up myself and my work-is the use of the quote overdone? I can't tell.

I agree with you. Less is more. But I suppose it'll at least make it easier for students who have to reference the artist's intentions.
anonanon | 10.19.07 - 9:33 pm | #

Yes anonanon but it doesn't have to be literal, does it? I agree with Ian Houston - a work is reduced by tabloid labels. If you can reduce meaning of an art work to specific one liners as the press reports on Doris's piece do, why make it? There is always going to be a gap in meaning between the artwork and the audience, spelling out some meaning as is done at some art spaces is to my mind destructive because it sets up an alternate narrative where some artworks can be understood (good) some art works cannot (bad) no one seems to question the lteracy of either party eg the viewer or the maker. Art is not meant to be obvious, well... not all the time as it has a range of type and method, levels of intention and consequently understanding. If you rid the have to grasp we will all be poorer despite what the critics say.
derek kreckler | 10.20.07 - 12:31 pm | #

She is Colombian, not Argentinean (i'm form Colombia, too).

I totally agree with your point of view.
andresgualdron | Homepage | 10.21.07 - 12:19 pm | #

I guess the best one can say about Salcedo's comments is that sometimes you have to ignore what an artist says about their work. Perhaps to see things they don't see in a work. Although I think that's difficult in this case: she seems so definitive. It's a bit like telling a jury to ignore a witness' statement.
Pussy | 10.29.07 - 3:12 am | #