BLOG POST #1

Maintenance Art

1. How did you feel performing Maintenance Art in the area around the USU?

Taking my time to go out and clean the piece of artwork really made me appreciate it a little more for what it is. While Kowalski’s NOW is literally pieces of bent steel, we the audience don’t have to necessarily have to give it some physical representation of some sort to have to understand it. I believe the beauty in abstract art comes from not being able to fully understand it, and embracing the uncertainty that comes along with it.

2. How are Mierle Laderman Ukeles cleaning the steps of an art museum and Richard Serra flinging molten lead against the walls of an art museum different? How are they the same? Are one or both “art”? Are one or both “not art”?

In Mierle Laderman’s Manifesto for Maintenance Art, she breaks down her ideas of art into two different “instincts;” one based on Death and the other based on Life.

The portrayal of her washing the steps of the art museum is a representation of her acting with the Life Instinct through “Maintenance,” where as Serra’s dynamic act of flinging molten lava against the wall of a museum is more so a portrayal of the Death Instinct. While they are different in portrayal, they are both one in the same in that they are representations of art.

3. Was Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Maintenance Art performance at the Wadsworth Atheneum “art”? Did the fact that her performance was at an Art Museum make it art? What if instead, she had simply gotten hired as a janitor at a factory somewhere and performed that job for 6 months? Would that have been art? What makes an act “art” or “not art”?

What I believe should separate the two distinctions of the performing of the job and the portrayal of art, should be the intent of the performer and also the perception of the audience. For example, one’s job could be a door to door salesman. How he or she executes their speech and performs on a daily basis is representation on their style. They could argue that their way of doing things is an “artform” itself. From the outsider’s perspective, they are just doing their job, but what’s not to say that the act of trying to sell someone something in a particular manner that is special to you isn’t some form of “art?” What I am trying to get at is that some people may find some sort of beauty in the embracing of their daily professions. Art in the grand scheme of things is abstract and ultimately subjective.

4. Is an object or an action Art or Not Art because of some intrinsic property of the medium? Or because of the intention of the person performing it? Are all paintings on canvas art because paintings on canvas are exhibited in art museums? Is all house painting not art because we don’t exhibit painted houses in art museums? Can a painting on canvas ever be not art? Can painting a house ever be art?

In the most basic literal sense, to bring some tangibility to the question at hand, a piece of “art” can be just a drawing, painting, sculpture, mural, or the like. However, an object or an action isn’t simply defined by Art or Not Art due to its intrinsic properties. Art can be what is perceived and what is created with the intent to portray something with meaning. Painting a house can be a form of art just as much as an abstract painting using different shades of the same color.

5. Has Mierle Laderman Ukeles, or Jennifer Lopez, made you think differently about “Women’s Work”? Is “Women’s Work” ever art? If yes, when? If no, why not?

Not necessarily. Women who aim to do a great job in life and in their relationships will one way or another find a way to succeed in what they do just like any other person. I am not sure what “Women’s Work” even is, what difference does it make if a women does something another person does? A person who happens to be a women can do something that is meaningful and can be perceived as “art” just like any other person.

6. In class we discussed the woman who cleaned Donald Trump’s Star on Hollywood Blvd. Whose Star would you get down on your hands and knees to clean?

Hands down Al Pacino and Christian Bale’s.

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