21.11.06
Sumarenta, a conversa de Elliott Sharp com Frank J. Oteri, na New Music Box: «Wide Awake in Alphabet City».
FJO: So do you believe that art has the power to transform the world in ways that politics can't? Is that the lure for you?
E#: Art does. The question is: what's the time span for how much of an effect it can have? It's a very difficult question because a lot of times aesthetic issues come to the forefront when you're dealing with art, and that's all that seems important. Yet when you unpack something and begin to look at it, the initial motivations for creating a piece of work and the language it uses, the vocabulary, the syntax, there are a lot of things that go into the work. And they do have an effect, but a lot of times it's just this hazy cloud of signifiers that may or may not connect with an audience and cause that chemical change that makes them say, "I now want to fight against this, or I want to be for this, or I'm not going to buy this anymore." It's pretty hazy, the cause-and-effect chain. I don't think you can really directly say that art right now has the power to topple, say, the government here. It would be wonderful if it did. What art can do is get people thinking about things. Maybe some of those people have to take risks. This is the problem. Who is going to take those risks?
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 21.11.06 FJO: So do you believe that art has the power to transform the world in ways that politics can't? Is that the lure for you?
E#: Art does. The question is: what's the time span for how much of an effect it can have? It's a very difficult question because a lot of times aesthetic issues come to the forefront when you're dealing with art, and that's all that seems important. Yet when you unpack something and begin to look at it, the initial motivations for creating a piece of work and the language it uses, the vocabulary, the syntax, there are a lot of things that go into the work. And they do have an effect, but a lot of times it's just this hazy cloud of signifiers that may or may not connect with an audience and cause that chemical change that makes them say, "I now want to fight against this, or I want to be for this, or I'm not going to buy this anymore." It's pretty hazy, the cause-and-effect chain. I don't think you can really directly say that art right now has the power to topple, say, the government here. It would be wonderful if it did. What art can do is get people thinking about things. Maybe some of those people have to take risks. This is the problem. Who is going to take those risks?
