Can vandalism be art? Can breaking a window be considered as art? That is the thesis of Kevin Harman, who filmed himself smashing an art gallery's window (he notified the gallery beforehand, but refused to reveal the date and time he'd actually do it).
Artists seem to agree with him, as many of them are offended that the director of the art gallery, Kate Gray, whose window got smashed took the artist to court:
"They should have shaken his hand and bought him a drink," declared Royal Academician Michael Sandle. Edinburgh art guru Richard Demarco, whose foundation recently awarded Harman a £2,000 scholarship, described the gallery's action as "intensely regrettable", and the artist as "a serious, hard-working and gifted person".
Gray was unavailable for comment, as was the Edinburgh College of Art, where Harman is in the second year of a master's course. It is understood that several of his tutors had been supportive of the project, which was initially labelled Brick. The scaffolding pole was substituted as a safer option.
The student, who has a piece in the current show of the Royal Scottish Academy, explained that he was less distressed by the fine than by the Collective's dismissal of his work as "vandalism", as the charge sheet put it. "There have got to be serious questions asked of their position as arbiters of art," he told the Guardian.
What do you think? Can vandalism be art? If so (like, for example, graffiti), where do you draw the line? Link (with video of the incident)
Previously on Neatorama: Soap Not Spray Can: Reverse Graffiti Art
I think that it is not art so much as a violent publicity stunt.
What is wrong with you? You wouldn't be asking such as stupid question if it happened to you. Only a sheltered child could ever have so much free time and be so disconnected with reality as to even consider such lunacy.
Like Robert Frost said about free verse, it's like playing tennis with the net down.
Art is art's worst enemy.
Would you be happy if this was your home that had it's windows smashed in?
Vandalism as art is derivative at best.
If that's the case, then the artist should be sued for copy write infringement.
This is not art.
The finger is commentary...
What did Oliver Wendall Holmes say? "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins."
I agree it can be art and vandalism, but in this case I would say it is about 80% or more vandalism.
However, it is vandalism. And as that is against the law, he should be prosecuted. He's just lucky that being a pretentious d-bag isn't also against the law.
In any case, this is ultimately what you get when everything is "art." Breathing is art. Tying your shoes is art, and so on. When it's all art, then nothing is art, and "art," the word, no longer has any meaning, because it has nothing to describe.
This is just a load of bullcrap IMO. I hate these so called "artists" that do shit like this. It's pointless and no, I don't consider it art.
Destroying someone else's property without their consent is not art. Ever.
Long live the Art of War!!!!
- With Word Wars 1 and 2 as the Ultimum in this particular form of Art....
I would have fined him AND given him community service rather than give this twat money for being a dick.
NOT art - now if he had built a window frame IN the display area and then smashed it in front of people it could be performance art.
This is just property destruction he is a cock.
Go to my website and read the letters under the title "Brick", you will get a better idea of what this work set out to do.
Have a Smashing Chrimbo everyone.
Best Cheers
kevin
kevinharman.co.uk
Too bad it wasn't a mirror.
Whats next? "oh, yes i beat him with a bat, but its art" "i killed him as ART!" Its 'artists' like this that make all other artists seem like crackpots and weirdos, people who throw paint at a wall and demand 5 grand for it.
It actually offends me that these sorts of people do this sort of thing and then scream 'its art' when people disagree, it just so happens that in this case he was also breaking the law. Just because you claim that something is art neither makes it art, nor okay for you to do as you please.
Deconstructionists, cut-up artists, graffiti artists, ready-mades, artists making cracks in the floor of The Turbine Room, artists filling the space with shredded phone books and lying there, artists urinating on stage as part of their stage act...etc, etc.
This is old hat and a storm in a teacup. It's not very good art but it's certainly art.
LOL
I love the hysterical housewife flank of Neatorama. Where any question, however restrained, can be parried with the deft use of:
"!!1!!1 OH YEah, how'd u like if he wuz raping YOUR childerns!!1"
Oh, and to anyone irritated by the fact that the definition of "art" has been thrown wide open in the last 100 years or so, if art is not simply whatever someone does with an artistic intent or claims is art, then what is it?
How should it be defined and who should be allowed to define it? Should all of us cast votes each time? Or just the people in the area where the alleged art is being committed?
"Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions."
Encyclopedia Britannica:
"a visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination."
He deliberately arranged that shopfront from an unbroken glass window into a pile of glass shards thereby forming a visual experience. To consider that as art took some (although limited) imagination. And the baboon-grunts of "HOW WOULD HE FEEL IF I CAME AND PUNCHED HIS MOM IN THE OVARIES" (paraphrased) has proven that it certainly elicited an emotional response.
= ART
Case closed.
@Kevin Harman: Thank you for chiming in here. But I don't think the fact that you immediately paid to have the window replaced turns this into effective art. I'm a lawyer, but I'm also a filmmaker, and in my view such confrontational tactics almost never create effective communication. It's like trying to teach someone calculus by screaming in their face.
Did you have the same math teacher that I did?
In that case, I'll amend my earlier statement to:
I don't get it.
To use my rape analogy, since it's so provocative (and can hence be classed as Art), it's okay to rape a woman if you threaten her with it in advance, and then promise to pay for the abortion afterwards.
You speak truth.
@Kevin
Please go back to art school, one that knows what it is talking about. You are utter rubbish. It's because of people like you that art no longer means anything. It used to mean the conveyance of a thought or emotion, now it just means doing stupid things to get attention. It matters not if you paid (or didn't) for the window you broke. Proper art requires skill and thought to execute. You just broke something and are now angry that people are laughing at you.
if your face was deliberately altered with a fist, its art?
I think not.
don't be so pretentious, you'll have more friends.
This isn't art. This is somebody who is using "art" as an excuse to smash a window. That's a load of garbage. And I'm sorry, but comparing this to graphiti is almost insulting to graphiti artists. Saying that a well-executed graphiti mural is in the same league as smashing an art gallery window is like saying that body painting is the same thing as punching someone in the face.
Any artist who sides with this guy is as much of a quack and bullshit "artist" as he is.
Having had a closer look at his website and that oh-so-clever thesaurus-impaired statement I think we're in agreement. Yes, it's some kind of art but as art it's absolute horrible rubbish.
Read the previous comments, paying particular attention to the one supposedly by the artist himself and you'll get an answer to your question:
"Who's paying for it? Who will the owners/patrons hold accountable for this mess?"
"if your face was deliberately altered with a fist, its art?"
Please see my previous comment:
"I love the hysterical housewife flank of Neatorama. Where any question, however restrained, can be parried with the deft use of:
"!!1!!1 OH YEah, how'd u like if he wuz raping YOUR childerns!!1""
Which I will now amend to:
"!!1!!1 OH YEah, how'd u like if he wuz punching youz in da faces, huh?!!1""
"Stuff like this is why I have lost all faith in the conceptual/preformance art movement."
I'm genuinely curious, at which point did you lose interest? What kind of conceptual art do you like? Any particular artist?