Do You Understand Art?

I confess most contemporary art is beyond me. Recently, I came across a contemporary art story that boggled my mind.

An art teacher at a college had assigned her students to make sculptures from chicken bones!

Is that unusual? Not really, if you stop to think about it. Artists have all kinds of strange things as models, pop cans, wrecked cars, even unmade beds. Now, if nobody can tell what the art represents, it becomes an artistic triumph.

This particular teacher added something unusual to the assignment. She gave a live chicken to each student and told them to take it home as a pet for a couple of days.

Then they were to take it to the slaughterhouse and watch it being killed and processed. And then, have it for dinner! So, after picking the bones clean, they were to use them for their work of art.

What was the reason for this exercise? Well, the teacher said it would bring artist and object together. The chickens would be part of their bodies and it would then expand their imagination.

Some animal lovers were up in arms. But most of the students approved of the experiment.

One student upon watching a chicken’s head get chopped off, said: “It’s something the ordinary person doesn’t usually see, it’s interesting.”

A female student remarked: “It was nice to have a relationship with something you eat.”

So, those large tuitions that are charged are probably worthwhile because of the unusual educational opportunities that are available.

If a student phones his parents and says:

“Guess what happened in art class today?”

“What did you do? Paint a nude?”

“No, I took a pet chicken to have it beheaded.”

I’m sure the parents would think college was all worthwhile.

But now, I want to shed my ignorance of contemporary art.

So, the next time my wife and I get a bucket of chicken, and look at the pile of bones. I’ll feel some artistic unification with the chickens.

And when I burp and my wife says’ “That’s disgusting.”

I will say: “That isn’t disgusting, that’s ART!”

 

4 thoughts on “Do You Understand Art?

  1. I once took an adult education course on Art. It was called, “Learn To Look”. The course didn’t do much for me because I still fail to “see” in pictures and sculptures what the artist “saw”.

  2. Very funny! Reminds me of an old episode of 2 1/2 Men. Charlie’s mother had her lips injected, using fat from her butt to make them puffier. Jake asked her, “Does that mean that now any air that comes out of your mouth is a fart?”
    Keep writing,
    Marla

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