Quote Response

"The point is, that every piece of art changes your whole perception of the rest of the world for the rest of your life.

And it's not a joke! And if it doesn't, then it's not art, it's a commodity

After carefully reading and dissecting this quote numerous times I have finally made a decision that I am torn with this statement. At first glance my answer was yes I am agree with this quote, but then after care consideration of all work that I have come across there are some that I believe that were just created. So I furthermore made since of it by breaking it down into lame terms and from that I will give my opinion through what was obtained by the definitions of commodity and dichotomy. Commodity: the article of trade, something of use, advantage, or value. Dichotomy: division into two mutually exclusive opposed or contradictory groups, ex: the contradiction between thought and action. Now from the two I can base my argument from the definition of art being dichotomy of expression and decoration vs. expression through decoration. My comparison may come across as being a bit broad but I will go into detail of what I mean. As I said I had a hard time coming up with a solid answer so hopefully after my description my response comes across as an agreement or disagreement.

Expressive art, here you have art that you easily make a connection with or you take the time to understand. This may be the painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. that at first glance it takes you by surprise specifically I encountered an artist Tehching Hsieh whose work to me was completely and absolutely out of this world and just was not art to me. Specifically I encountered his one year cage piece, how are you telling me this is art? However, after reading up on his work understanding how this work was conveying a message. I allowed myself to strip away all that I knew was art and read deep into what he was expressing. To bring it back to a basic surface there could be a painting of a flower arrangement with a small card in it that reads love john. Just through that small intimate moment the artist have allowed me have that experience with them of emotions varying through love, warmth etc. Through the small moments of clarity through pieces the artist allows the viewer to take in a piece of it and that experience against beliefs at the moment changing perception on specific work for the rest of their life. From art as ambiguous as a Tehching’s cage piece from first glance to something as basic as a flower arrangement. In comparison to expressive art, I am not sure if I have yet come across a specific artist but using common since I am aware there are persons in this category creating art just for mere DECORATION.

  Decorative Art, here in my opinion I place artist who glamorize objects to a since where you are happy with its appearance and there it is art. By doing this I am unaware of your perspective, the issue at hand and now the same flower arrangement eliminating the card that say love john  that may have once been made to symbolize a love ones care has just become a painting in a frame for maybe a dinning room. We all have seen it, the drawings of cartoon characters, animating love ones faces, and the list goes on. One may argue isn’t this the same as expressive art it expresses the love of that character, but then I place the same judgment  and argument of yes it could but can we really say that the pieces I have previously stated will change our perspective on life for the rest of our lives. We could simply just call it what it is that are merely attractive and entertaining moments for our eyes forgotten about days later. However, the realistic painting you may have seen of the hands close up bruised horribly placed purposely on his/her lap left to the viewer to complete what it means will change your view on how you read into the small details of a painting from now on, due to now the artist have brought attention to things people often glance but never sit and pay attention to. Or taking something so basic once again as a flower arrangement and now all the flowers have welted and sit on a night stand.

Summing it all up I am not saying expressive art can’t be decorative it absolutely can be. However, I am saying that all art that artist create, even though they wish people take in and appreciate what they have created not every piece of art in the world is life changing. There are some viewed simply for what they are pretty pieces, while others convey messages the viewer wants to remember and compare to other situations which helps them result back to that specific piece. So after all that is said, I can say I believe I disagree with this quote.