Skip to content

In Defense of Contemporary Art

2010-06-17 · John, Sarah Urist Green · watch on YouTube · Pop culture · reflection essay

Touring 100 Acres, the Indianapolis Museum of Art's new art and nature park, John argues that works like an inhabited tiny island and a playable basketball sculpture make us think more complexly about overlooked spaces, and that people who dismiss contemporary art avoid a complexity worth grappling with.

What is said

00:00:00 — Indianapolis canals; 100 Acres, the IMA's new art and nature park, partly the Yeti's work; a tour for Hank; John's new book is about an island

  • ★★★ John and the Yeti are at 100 Acres, the art and nature park the Indianapolis Museum of Art opens this weekend, the culmination of years of work by many people including the Yeti. — 00:00:00 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★ Since Hank and their parents can't be there, John gives Hank a tour of the park. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John tells Hank his new book is about an island and he has been doing a lot of reading about islands. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ In the description John says he will emcee the Artists' Forum discussion of 100 Acres this Saturday, with free tickets available. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Andrea Zittel's Indianapolis Island, where two people live all summer; the trails; Tea Makipaa's refugee ship Eden 2

  • ★★★ Andrea Zittel's Indianapolis Island is tiny, barely tall enough to stand in, yet two people are living on it all summer, with a garden extending into the water. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John calls the island a fascinating experiment in how little we need in order to live. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Eden 2 is a 50-foot refugee ship by artist Tea Makipaa, maker of TV for chickens; John finds the dislocated ship on an Indianapolis lake awesome. — 00:00:29

00:01:10 — Jeppe Hein's roller-coaster bench; Sarah on a temporary piece and Type A's solstice rings; Los Carpinteros' Free Basket; art makes us think complexly

  • ★ John shows one of Jeppe Hein's roller-coaster benches, 'the only roller coaster I will ever ride'. (playful) — 00:01:10
  • ★★ Sarah says a green, TARDIS-like structure is a temporary intervention into the landscape, there for only a few days, meant to remind us of our humanity. — 00:01:10
  • ★★ A project by the artist collective Type A has two rings that cast a single shadow exactly one day a year, at the summer solstice. — 00:01:10
  • ★★ John loves that Free Basket, by Cuban duo Los Carpinteros, can actually be played on if you invent a new game, as they did as kids. — 00:01:10
  • ★★★ Like much of the park's work, John says, it forces us to think more complexly about shapes and spaces we often overlook: benches, islands, basketball courts. — 00:01:10

00:01:59 — Why people dismiss contemporary art; failing to grapple with complexity is a bad life strategy; joke complaint to Sarah about the heat

  • ★★★ John thinks this is why people often dismiss contemporary art: overlooking things is comfortable. (hedged) — 00:01:59
  • ★★★ John argues that failing to grapple with complexity turns out to be a pretty bad life strategy, which is why he likes good art so much. — 00:01:59
  • ★ John tells Sarah the park is really good; his only complaint, he jokes, is that she didn't dome it in for climate control, and it's hot. (playful) — 00:01:59 · Sarah Urist Green

Threads in this video

BR2_72981aefc6