Scenery of Conceptual Art: Rod Mandel

Taken by FirleFanz Roxley

It is only about 6 weeks that the current round of LEA Land Grants is closing and I am aware that I still not covered all interesting installations. Often due to the fact that there never was an official opening or I missed it. One of them ist the work by Rod Mandel. It is the kind of installation where you never can be sure if it is ready or not ;)

At the first glance one realises that Rod must be designer RL. The use of forms and textures is not only of a high level of aesthetics, it is professional and contemporary in the best meaning.

A Vitra-like chair by 2Extreme

At the second glance one sees that the installations is highly inspired by Conceptual Art, especially the American artist Sol Lewitt. But it is not comfortable for the visitors at all. They need to explore and fly to find the treasures. Several installations fascinated me but I did not get what the purpose of glass vitrines in SL is. The installation is partly more like the model of a possible RL museum. When I found there the beginning of the 'Sentences of Conceptual Art', I decided to post them here, as they not only explain the installation.

Taken by FirleFanz Roxley

Sol Lewitt: Sentences of Conceptual Art (1969)

1. Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
2. Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
3. Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
4. Formal art is essentially rational.
5. Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.
6. If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.
7. The artist's will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.
8. When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.
9. The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.
10. Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.
11. Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions, but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed.
12. For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.
13. A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.
14. The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept.
15. Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally.
16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics.
17. All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.
18. One usually understands the art of the past by applying the convention of the present, thus misunderstanding the art of the past.
19. The conventions of art are altered by works of art.
20. Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.
21. Perception of ideas leads to new ideas.
22. The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete.
23. The artist may misperceive (understand it differently from the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual.
24. Perception is subjective.
25. The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.
26. An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.
27. The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.
28. Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist's mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly. There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.
29. The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.
30. There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.
31. If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist's concept involved the material.
32. Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.
33. It is difficult to bungle a good idea.
34. When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.
35. These sentences comment on art, but are not art.

Taken by Firlefanz Roxley

These sentenses are more than 40 years later still provoking. Some of the topics has been discussed by Bryn Oh and me in the post "Which Skills are Making an Artist?". Sol Lewitt's sentences fit in the Zeitgeist of the Protests of 1968, a time where the whole Western World has been shattered by necessary fights against an authoritarian, patriarchal society with the result of massive and lasting changes.

Take by FirleFanz Roxley

Our world is now at a point where we have seen that not all goals of that time lead sufficient results. I am just mentioning here the topics of authority regarding the influence on societies and education and the fact that even the medicine finally realises that men and women are not equal. And the same with these theses. Sentenses as "The artist may not necessarily understand his own art." or "When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art." lead to the fact that nowadays every crap is called art. This was certainly not the intention of Lewitt.

Still time to visit this installation. It is worth it.
Taxi: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA16/105/140/30