1. The reading about Margolles' work made me start to wonder about the fundamental threshold of pain and tolerance that we have when we're taking in art. Perhaps it is different from person to person, but is there not a point at which one cannot consider/ask questions about/engage in art because they cannot get over the crude visceral nature of it? It is going to be hard for me as a viewer to take in a picture of corpses and think about the gendered nature of a culture or watch someone spreading human fat over another human and ask questions about performing the self and inter-subjectivity. Do such (visceral) images serve the art or distract the mind?
2. The interview with Charles Bowden made me reconsider the drug war and the connotations it has in our country. Yet, it is such a major source of income for Mexico. What role can/should artists play in this issue? If that level of violence/hardship is occurring in Mexico, can art exist that does not address it? Is it irresponsible not to let violence enter the dialogue?
No comments:
Post a Comment