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September 11, 2005
A beginning, a middle, an end
Looking at a painting is an active thing. A painting needs looking at, but not like television needs looking at. Television doesn’t need looking at, television is a passive thing. You look at it but don’t SEE it, you just recognise a series of moving images and are mesmerised by them. A painting on the other hand has to be worked at.
A painting demands that the audience looks at it, and worse it doesn’t DO anything. It is static, it doesn’t have a beginning, a middle, or an end. It just IS, and it continues to be whether you look at it or not.
Music is popular because it has a beginning, a middle and an end, and you know when it’s over and if you didn’t like it you can feel relief and if you did like it you can play it again. If you don’t like a picture it doesn’t go away, this makes a viewer nervous. Hanging a picture on your wall is a much bigger statement than putting some music on at a dinner party.
Books too, though you have to do a bit more work than music, have a fixed time element, a beginning, a middle and an end. Films, television, radio, music, theatre are all thought of as Entertainment not just Art. No painting has ever been classified as Entertainment..
“Ladeeeeees and Gen’lemen … for your pleasure here tonight…”
GRAMS: DRUM ROLL
“We bring you, all the way from Paris, France … The Mona Lisa!”
WILD APPLAUSE
Posted by john at September 11, 2005 06:42 PM