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An Attempt at Exhausting an Artwork in Cincinnati

2022-05-10 · review / recommendation · John · 3:39 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture (also: Personal life) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: on location, community lore

Formerly titled Wanderlusty: An Attempt at Exhausting an Artwork in Cincinnati.

Staying at a Cincinnati Airbnb during the Turtles All the Way Down shoot, John comically interrogates a 'wanderlust' canvas hung behind the toilet with five questions, then advises viewers to decorate their walls with particular art from local artists, because living with art for years is lovelier than wanderlust.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — John's Cincinnati Airbnb during the film shoot and the art he brought, including Sarah's painting

  • ★★ John is staying about half the time at an Airbnb in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the Turtles All the Way Down movie is filming, and brought art so the walls wouldn't feel lonely. — 00:00:00
  • ★ John brought a print he likes, a Candide poster and a painting Sarah made in college, which he really loves. — 00:00:00 · Sarah Urist Green

00:00:29 — The Airbnb's art and John's five questions about the wanderlust canvas behind the toilet

  • ★★ Sarah's painting reminds John of a Watership Down rabbit's dislike of straight lines, and that the human hand can't make a straight line without a ruler: our bodies are wondrously imprecise. — 00:00:29 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★ Of the art that came with the Airbnb, one painting seems machine-made, a hypothesis confirmed by the same painting hung sideways in the loft. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Behind the Airbnb's toilet hangs a canvas printed with the word 'wanderlust' and its definition, about which John has at least five questions. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ First question: Cincinnati is a lovely town John loves being in, but does wanderlust evoke Cincinnati? He lives in Indianapolis, famous for lacking wanderlustiness. (playful) — 00:00:58 · Indianapolis
  • ★★ Second question: bathroom art is hard given humidity and showers, so why choose a canvas? It is already damaged though not old. (playful) — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Third question: a word-and-definition artwork must nail its execution, so why is it not centered? John wondered whether that was intentional but thinks it is just off-center. (playful) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says authorial intent doesn't matter, and on reflection his favorite thing about the canvas, by a wide margin, is that it is off-center. (playful) — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Fourth question: having Googled the canvas price, John asks why the owner did not buy an old ad offering a free Wienerwurst with each drink for $3 less, or print an old image of Cincinnati in a $6 frame. (playful) — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — Advice: buy particular art from local artists and live with it for years; sign-off

  • ★★★ Noting Cincinnati has an art school and many local artists, John advises everyone with undecorated walls to hang something particular to them: go to student art shows, browse Etsy, support artists. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John says living with an artwork for years, seeing it through ever-changing eyes, gives an experience deeper and lovelier than wanderlust. — 00:03:24

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says several thousand people subscribed recently after introspective, carefully considered videos, and John must inform them that vlogbrothers is sometimes also like this. (playful) — video description · Vlogbrothers
  • ★ In a comment John says your own art is the best to put up; his family's walls hold paintings by Sarah, his mom and their kids. — creator comment · Sarah Urist Green

Humor (dominant)

  • Asking whether one thinks of Cincinnati when one thinks of wanderlust, John weighs where the canvas would work. — 00:01:27

    “I just think maybe the wanderlust canvas plays in southern France, but does it play in southern Ohio?”

  • John reassures Cincinnati that he means no offense, given his own hometown. — 00:01:27

    “I live in Indianapolis, a town famous for its lack of wanderlustiness.”

  • John wonders whether the canvas was deliberately uncentered to give it dissonance, echoing Hamlet. — 00:01:56

    “a feeling that something might be rotten in the state of wanderlust.”

  • After deciding the canvas is just off-center, John names his favorite thing about it. — 00:02:26

    “my favorite thing about this artwork by a pretty wide margin is that it's off-center.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Cincinnati

Also: People: Sarah Urist Green

Works: Candide · Hamlet (play) (“rotten in the state of wanderlust”) · Turtles All the Way Down (film) · wanderlust canvas · Watership Down

Organizations: Airbnb · Etsy

Groups: Baumgartner Restoration

Concepts: authorial intent

Places: Indianapolis · Southern France

Only in the description or credits: An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris

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