Funny how your critique of the Degas dancer
sculptures is similar what
they were panned for originally -- as being ugly,
and their content
mundane. Plus, phallic... That is not to say you are
being
conservative in your critique since they are so
entrenched in
mass-aesthetics, as you say safe icons...
I've always seen these as perverse mannequins -- to
be dressed and
undressed. And, considering that only one was cast
in bronze during
Degas' lifetime, this seems to play as true.... a
bunch of wax
fetishes filling degas studio....
maybe they are safe, because the backstory is
missing... I remember
seeing people greeting one of these sculptures at
SFMOMA with a "ain't
that cute" sort of "ahhhhhhh." which always kinda
made me laugh....
As to macro photos of art in museums... got kicked
out of the National
Gallery in London for doing this.... of course, they
didn't tell me
'never come back' so I did... in like 10 minutes. Of
course, zero
photography is allowed there.
>believe it or not, this is exactly what I was
thinking when I was
>working
>on the series. The Degas dancers are bronze,
sometimes with wire
>netting
>for the tutu, but always phallic, as if the legs
were falling apart,
>tumored. I have no idea why they're as popular as
they are, but then
>Degas
>leaves me cold personally. In any case, they seem
'safe' icons in an
>odd
>way, and I wanted to present otherwise. It was
difficult shooting at
>the
>Norton Simon - you're allowed to without flash, but
not exactly that
>close. -- Alan
>
>
>On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Lanny Quarles wrote:
>
>> this is interesting alan. my sense is that the
rough frayed
>>topology, and
>> really its gridding,
>> of the head covering is a kind of analogy for
mappings; libidinal,
>>aesthetic,
>> sensory, personal, linguistic, etc.
>> also in the sense of a weaving, mappings as
weavings or vast
>>constructionist
>> integrals in a calculus
>> of embodiment, and the sense that the rough
edges, the "severed' or
>> 'cross-sectional' (sampled?) topology,
>> as it were, is a reflection of coding practices,
or the praxis of
>> instantiation by/within the individual agent,
>> an imperfect "imaging" of larger vectors, dogmas,
genetics, beliefs,
>>etc. am
>> I even close?
>> And even the idea of the physicality of topology
as a kind of
>>'filter'
>> (re:perception) is reflected
>> in the synthetic pixel filtering beneathe the
shroud-topology. as if
>>the
>> coding of the filter produces
>> not only inner instantiations but external ones
as well, which of
>>course is
>> the abolition of the
>> subject/object dichotomy in any deconstruction
which in this case
>>seems to
>> point to "constructionism"
>> as it universal agent.. perhaps the frayed edges
define the
>>deconstructive
>> agency, as if this particular
>> individual or object has been wrenched from the
grid, and these
>>loose fibers
>> represent a kind of
>> annoyance to the smoothness of the artifice of
"culture" or
>>"perception" as
>> an institution of the socium.
>>
>> lq.
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Alan Sondheim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: <WRYTING-L@listserv.utoronto.ca>
>> Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 9:13 AM
>> Subject: Degas' Dancer, deconstruction, the west
>>
>>
>>> deconstruction of
>>>
>>> deconstruction of Degas
>>> deconstruction of Painting
>>> deconstruction of Impressionism
>>> deconstruction of The West
>>> deconstruction of Culture
>>> deconstruction of Perception
>>> deconstruction of The Real
>>>
>>> http://www.asondheim.org/degaslegs3.jpg
>>> http://www.asondheim.org/degaslegs4.jpg
>>> http://www.asondheim.org/degasribbon.jpg
>>>
>>>
>>> _
>>>
>>
>
>( URLs/DVDs/CDroms/books/etc. see
http://www.asondheim.org/advert.txt
>-
>revised 7/05 )
