Is This Art?
Is this art?
Today we thought about what distinguishes “art” from vandalism. When we step outside of the Museum, art doesn’t simply cease to exist. Chicago is a testament to that, with its incredible scope of public art. From sculptures to street art, our city is a canvas that the community curates for itself. How do we decide what adds to the community and what detracts from it? What kind of street art enhances Chicago and who decides what's "good" or "bad" street art?
To share our ideas about what is art vs. what is not, Fatimah designated one end of our studio as “YES” and the other as “NO,” with a continuum between.
Images of artwork made by both well known artists and anonymous street artists were projected onto the screen and the teens responded to each prompt by physically moving to a space along the YES, NO continuum in the room.
Here are some examples of the images shown:
Is this art?
The responses were surprising! Some teens gravitated to the YES wall in response to certain images while others moved toward NO. This sparked a great discussion about the vague distinction between “art” and “life” and how those worlds cross and overlap throughout Chicago.
