Art is everywhere. It reaches out from formal galleries and museums to the streets of New York. On my way to Wholefoods one afternoon in Union Square Park, I passed by a group of artists. They were in a corner of the park making beautiful music with different instruments. Some had guitars, a tambourine, drums, and others were just singing along or dancing. The scene was a kind of free-for-all. Nothing was planned, and different musicians could chime in randomly. It was awesome to see all different cultures coming together through their passion to make music. What was even more interesting was that they had a mini food station open to the public where people who couldn’t afford a meal could grab a bowl of rice while listening to the music. My experience really put things into perspective and made me appreciate the hidden forms of art found among the bustling streets of New York.
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There are various methods to creating art. Sometimes the art, the finished product, serves a purpose. I personally connect more to art that is functional or useful. It’s easier to comprehend the reasons for creating it, and therefore helps me appreciate it more. Flint knapping is one of those methods.
According to FlintKnappingTools.com:
Flintknapping is the process of chipping away material from high silica stones like “flint” in a carefully controlled manner with special tools to produce sharp projectile points or tools. Only the purest silica based stones will provide fracture predictability required to achieve the finest works.
For instance, this is an arrowhead made of obsidian; it is a classic example of a finished tool created with the flint knapping method.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview a “flint knapper!” His name is Mordechai and he possesses a set of outdoor skills having to do with nature. Among these skills is flint knapping:
Me: Why do you consider this an art?
Mordechai: Well, before it was an art, it was used for survival purposes by our ancestors. As a person who “flint knaps,” I feel a special connection to them. It is an art because you must master the action of hitting the rock with the correct amount of force and at the correct angle; precision is key. The finished product is a functional tool that is also very beautiful and unique. It’s a kind of modernization of an ancient necessity that became an art form over the years.
Me: How long does it take, on average, to create a tool?
Mordechai: First of all, it depends on the tool. A knife can take up to six hours, an arrowhead would probably take less. The bigger the object, the longer it takes.
Me: What would you say is the hardest part?
Mordechai: In contrast to some other art, making a mistake here is completely fatal. Sometimes you can work on an object for five hours and almost be done. Then, with one strike that is slightly off, the entire piece breaks and is unusable. All your time and effort goes to waste. It’s quite a humbling experience.
Me: Wow. That requires a lot of patience. Well, thank you for your time and good luck with your work!
Today, flint knapping is mastered by a very few. A great deal of effort and many hours are put into creating each and every rare object. These dedicated few create the objects for the purpose of art, while truly connecting to it’s roots. It’s unique, pure, unrefined, and even instinctive in a way.
The lush beauty of Madison Square Park is the perfect complement to Rachel Feinstein’s simplistic sculptures. Simplicity was the theme I felt from all three sculptures. Straightforward features such as the white color, perfectly cut images, and spontaneous scribbles, made me think that the artist was trying to tell us that beautiful art doesn’t always have to be extravagant. We can find beauty in pieces as straightforward as a floating ship, or a structure on the edge of a cliff that looks like a child had a free-for-all with a pencil.
The theme of simplicity is also symbolized in the artist’s choosing the natural park setting; these ‘cut outs’ that look so simply made remind us that if we don’t pay attention, we may just miss life’s subtle forms of art… Just like if your passing through Madison Square Park and don’t look up from your phone, you might miss the artistic beauty taking place.
Rachel Feinstein also encompasses a theme of contradiction through her sculptures placed around Madison Square Park. The pieces themselves are contradictory to the surrounding area. They appear to be made of cardboard and scribbled on in pencil, something a young child would see in a pop-up storybook. This apparent ‘folly’ is out of place in the heart of a sophisticated financial district. Feinstein’s Flying Ship contradicts the meaning of a sailboat by flying midair through the trees of the park. The ship is incompatible as it floats on air without a sense of water.
Each sculpture looks as if it’s a prop from a theatre’s set. The greenery of the park contrasts with the white powdering of the sculptures. The towering skyscrapers serve as the final backdrop to the setting, while the park’s guests serve as the audience of these theatrical inspired ‘set piece’ sculptures.
The main reason I found this installation so interesting was because at first glance they appeared so simple, but after analyzing their location I found the hidden contradictory message of the folly.
Jay-Z “Picasso Baby: A performance Art Film” (dir. Mark Romanek, 2013)
Edouard Manet, “Olympia” (1865)
Renee Cox, “Olympia’s Boyz” (2001)
“I, an Artist” is a found poem created from quotes about art, many of which are by famous artists.
The role of the artist is to ask questions,
not answer them.
Art is not what you see,
but what you make others see.
Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art.
If only we could pull out our brains and use only our eyes.
There is no abstract art.
You must always start with something.
Afterwards, you can remove all traces of reality.
Without art, the crudeness of reality
would make the world unbearable.
Living is an artistic activity,
there is an art to getting through the day.
Art is a selective recreation of reality,
according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments.
Without magic, there is no art.
Without art, there is no idealism.
Without idealism, there is no integrity.
Without integrity there is nothing but production.
The object isn’t to make art,
it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.
Art enables me to find myself,
and lose myself at the same time.
I want to move certain parts of the interior of myself
into the exterior world,
to see if they can be embraced.
These figures are not projections of my muse,
but projections of myself.
My art is not a reflection,
but a carbon copy of the artist I call “me”.
Art is the only serious thing in the world,
and the artist is the only person who is never serious.
All forms of madness, bizarre habits,
awkwardness in society, general clumsiness,
are justified in the person that creates good art.
It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
Life beats down and crushes the soul,
and art reminds me that I have one.
If we can’t, as artists, improve on real life,
we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality,
and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.
The dream of my life is to make beautiful art.
I dream painting and I paint my dream.
We all know art is not truth.
Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.
It is what you can get away with.
Art is the reason I get up in the morning,
but the definition ends there.
It doesn’t seem fair that I’m living for something I can’t even define.
If you ask me what I came to do in this world,
I, an artist, am here to live out loud.
*Quotes by: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Edgar Degas, Susan Sontag, Pablo Picasso, George Bernard Shaw, Viggo Mortensen, Ayn Rand, Raymond Chandler, Robert Henri, Thomas Merton, Jonathan Lethem, Oscar Wilde, Roman Rayne, John Irving, Stella Adler, Barbara Kingsolver, Miguel Ruiz, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Ani DiFranco, Émile Zola
Welcome students!
The semester begins with one of the most exciting events of the year, the Macaulay Night at the Brooklyn Museum. All of the Freshman class will be there and you will have most of the Museum to yourselves!
I, your ITF, will meet you today in class. Dr Eversley has an amazing semester planned for us all and I am here to help you with any aspects of the course. Looking forward to a great semester!
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