Wk2 – Art Experience – “Women’s Work” is also art

How did you feel performing Maintenance Art in the area around the USU?

In all honesty, it definitely was not what I expected to do as my first activity in an art course. Cleaning a dirty sculpture I’ve passed by for years was not something I really looked forward to doing. However, I feel like it was a good experience as it taught me the maintenance of art is an important aspect of art as a whole as well. If we never cleaned the sculpture other students would also just see it as a old, dusty piece of metal as I once did. Instead, they are able to fully appreciate the art piece for what it is.

How are Mierle Laderman Ukeles cleaning the steps of an art museum and Richard Serra flinging molten lead against the walls of an art museum different? How are they the same? Are one or both “art”? Are one or both “not art”?

In her Manifesto about Maintenance Art, Mierle Laderman Ukeles elaborates about the idea of a death instinct and a life instinct. She describes the death instinct as doing your own thing or a dynamic change while the life instinct is the perpetuation and maintenance of a system. I believe that Mierle Laderman Ukeles cleaning the steps of an art museum perfectly illustrates the life instinct while Richard Serra flinging molten lead embodies the death instinct. Though seemingly polar opposites in their ideologies, they are both art pieces that illustrate the way new art can be created using existing art (Ukeles using the steps of an art museum, Seres using the walls).

Was Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Maintenance Art performance at the Wadsworth Atheneum “art”? Did the fact that her performance was at an Art Museum make it art? What if instead, she had simply gotten hired as a janitor at a factory somewhere and performed that job for 6 months? Would that have been art? What makes an act “art” or “not art”?

I believe that anything can be art, it just depends on how a person defines it. Seeing as it is called “Maintenance Art”, I can accept that Ukeles’ performance can be considered art. I believe it is art not because it was at an art museum but because the performance conveyed a message. Though someone else might differ, I believe that if she just did the same thing as a janitor it would not be art as there is no message being conveyed.

Is an object or an action Art or Not Art because of some intrinsic property of the medium? Or because of the intention of the person performing it? Are all paintings on canvas art because paintings on canvas are exhibited in art museums? Is all house painting not art because we don’t exhibit painted houses in art museums? Can a painting on canvas ever be not art? Can painting a house ever be art?

I think that art is wholly based on whether or not it can provoke thought or convey a message or feeling. If there’s a painting on a wall regardless of where it is, it shows that it was meant to be a piece to be looked at. If a wall is just painted, there won’t be people that wonder whether the painted wall is trying to convey any sort of message or provoke any thoughts.

Has Mierle Laderman Ukeles, or Jennifer Lopez, made you think differently about “Women’s Work”? Is “Women’s Work” ever art? If yes, when? If no, why not?

Yes, after learning about Women’s Work in class I realized how it can be considered art. I define Women’s Work as stereotypical work associated with women, usually as unpaid homemakers. I think that Women’s Work is art because the stereotypical tasks such as child rearing or taking care of a home conveys a message. It depicts feelings of love and sends the message to nurture the ones we care about.

In class we discussed the woman who cleaned Donald Trump’s Star on Hollywood Blvd. Whose Star would you get down on your hands and knees to clean?

Honestly don’t think I would clean any celebrity’s star. Though if I had to pick, it’d be this one: