Art in people's life - Essay Example

Scribbles and Meaning: Pattern Seekers/ Sports Page, Dan Powell, 1981 The meaning of art has become the focus of the construction of art in the last 150 years. As the techniques of realism have fallen to the idea of the control of the artist in subject matter, the subject matter has been cubed, abstracted, and defined by the use of pre-mades. In the photograph done by Dan Powell in 1981, the use of scribbles to create patterns from which to define meaning emerges as a piece of art that has meaning without the pleasure of form.

In an examination of the work, the ideas that emerge are about leisure, war, and the perceived gaps which are not quite as far as one might hope. As a piece of artwork, I am not fond of the work Pattern Seekers/Sports Page by Dan Powell, 1981. The work is too random and unfocused for my preferences. The piece makes a commentary about life but lacks meaning as a well-constructed piece of work. As the work has been recognized and given the status of fine art, there must be redeeming artistic qualities to it as a piece of work.

There is a centrifugal formation that creates a focus to the center. While the composition seems random and does not have a pleasing effect in my opinion, it is constructed with a center and a focal point. While there does seem to be some meaning, it does not have a sense of beauty. The whimsy with which it has been created does not make up for the lack of technical skill that, in my humble opinion, creates to much of a distraction from the meaning. Looking at the work it does give that instant feeling of whimsy, but this is a simplistic reaction to the work.

The background of the photographic work is complex with seemingly random images of alien faces and an airplane, combined with linear work that is punctuated with dots, which might be considered a work product and which are more clearly represented in the middle of the work. Objects and subjects of leisure are all around the work, with the significant piece of the man with a golf club. Bits and pieces of someone’s life are in this work, and in that respect it makes a very interesting statement.

Although it is pedestrian, I find the work unappealing, but from the perspective of social commentary, it shows a mixture of work and leisure, showing how these two aspects of the world often collide in the thoughts of people as they are creating what they would consider their work life. Gablik writes that “There is a great deal of confusion currently about where art fits into society and what function (beyond that of salable commodity) it should serve” (39). This piece is a perfect example of trying to make sense of art that seems to only have a technical skill that is converted from very pedestrian skills that are transformed only by their meaning socially.

In truth, anyone could have created this work. That it received recognition as a piece of art means that the artist or someone representing the artist sold it on the basis of its social commentary. Powell is quoted as saying of the pieces in his Pattern Seekers series that “I became interested also in creating a comparison of the language and images from sports and the military (“Sports Page" and others), a somewhat cynical response to a leisure culture with a vast and commanding war machine” (OU Libraries).

In seeking to create a commentary of social intention, the piece gains meaning through connecting the idea of the culture of leisure, which would be sports, with the culture of the military. While incorporating a profound idea, the execution is primarily the use of scribbles. This brings back the question of the meaning of art in society. Errol Morris discusses the use of toys in bombed regions in order to evoke a sense of the tragedy of those items in such torn places. In his opinion piece for the New York Times, there is the issue of whether or not they are staged to evoke that sense of tragedy, placing unseen children in the imagery of an unseen explosion, the aftermath of a world gone mad.

The question that might be asked about the ethics of staging such a scene, outside of the integrity of the photo-journalist who might have staged rather than found his imagery, is whether it holds or not less artistry because it is staged. The connection between the whimsical and the sobering concepts of war can be paralleled on another level in relationship to Powell’s piece. Life is disrupted by the idea of war, even as the idea of conflict exists in the images of leisure. Leisure often has within it an element of aggression, one side trying to outdo the other.

The focus of the golfer is mimicked in the focus of the projectile, the imagery of the randomly flying planes brought into the focus of the golfer as his aim is to specifically not be random. The meaning of this piece of art is very similar to that of the photographs by journalists trying to place the whimsy of a child’s toy within the context of war. When these seemingly incongruous pieces of social construction are placed together, they become a commentary on how neither is isolated from the other.

The work by Dan Powell is a piece that discusses the human condition through the insertion of scribbles and patterns that speak to the viewer. The photograph uses compositional techniques to place the various patterns together, clearly making a connection between war and leisure. The use of these techniques provides context for discovering the connection and seeing that the mundane is not so far from the military exploit. Comparing this to the works explored by Morris, the idea of the everyday as it relates to the concept of conflict provides commentary.

Although I do not particularly care for the work, it is clear that it has struck a sense of meaning through its execution. Through the use of a series of images that are placed together to provide a meaning for the viewer, Powell offers a powerful statement. Works Cited Gablik, Suzi. Conversations Before the End of Time. London: Thames & Hudson, 1995. Print. Morris, Errol. “It was all Started by a Mouse (Part 1).” The New York Times Opinionator. 3 January 2011. Web. 18 January 2013. UO Libraries.

“Dan Powell pattern seekers series,” 2012. Web. 18 January 2013.