Posts by Kerry Weston
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Whenever I see the anti-drinking ads on TV I remember that some govt made beer baron Mr Myers, Sir Douglas. Just can't get my head around the hypocrisy.
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Has anyone ever wondered why we don't see a Colin McCahon painting used to advertise cheese or on a wine label, perhaps?
I guess it's because of this - McCahon Trust
I guess we could debate why the Trust should profit from Colin's work after his death, but my point is that the value and status of his work is preserved and I mean value & status as art. Using it for advertising or pastiche in other artworks subverts it - empties it of its meaning and intention. Mark might not regard this as theft, but it runs perilously close, i feel.
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If I make a perfect copy of an artwork, stroke for stroke, but leave the original in place, I have stolen nothing, yet I have broken the law. I've infringed the copyright of the artist and, if I try to sell it, I commit fraud. But I have stolen nothing.
You have not stolen the physical artefact that is the result of the artist's endeavour, but you have shown contempt for the artist and in doing so, devalued the artist's process, because you haven't had to go through that process to make the original. What the buyer pays for when they purchase an original artwork is not just the painting itself. The monetary value ascribed to the painting recognises the value of the process. While every artist stands on the shoulders of others, every artist also constructs their own, unique combination of intellectual, emotional, spiritual stimuli which they draw on to create. The artist's ability to create depends on having the time and energy to acquire and use those stimuli. There are many necessary "failures" made on the path to making good work. The price placed on artworks (and the big cut taken by galleries) reflects both scarcity value and process value.
And the difference between your copy and the original - well, viewing a reproduction in a book or on the net is NOT the same as viewing an original or living with it.
This is, roughly, intellectual property for an artist - it's a lot more than "an idea" that you can't own. Putting the paint on the canvas is the last 10% of the process. It is as close to Ben's analogy of a factory as I can get.
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our economic value system is built around scarcity. This will have flow on effects to the non-connected world as well, I am sure. I can't begin to imagine how that will work, but it will.
Particularly applies to artists, authors - whose works are treated as commodities in the marketplace but never are for their creators - and who depend on their marketers, such as galleries and publishers to do a lot more than present a shop window (whether that's in the physical world or online) and take the cash. Artists are constructed as "special" because, dammit, they are. They are not a production line. Artists depend on their marketers to create a mystique around their work, do all the schmoozing and selling, so they can carry on painting etc & make best use of their time. That's the bit artists are good at.
To suggest that artists can simply cut out the middle man and market their own work online is simplistic. I would never buy a painting or sculpture online that I hadn't seen & touched - but then i wouldn't buy artworks to "go with my lounge" either. While online marketing is useful, i can't see it replacing galleries.
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I see all of these languages, whether sign language, paint, music, dance as being equally valid as spoken language. It's just that we have made words the most important. I don't see the point any more of stuffing kids' heads with knowledge in the conformist way we do via school. It gets outdated pretty quick. But having the tools to express oneself, to communicate, to connect are vital. If we have those, we can go on to acquire what we need to know. I'd rather see early/primary education focussed on exploration, expression that is more about process than measuring results.
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Word is the Commerce Commission's investigation of our power supply companies will show that consumers have been overcharged for a few years now. Fancy that. How about the govt subsidise solar-panel installation for all our houses? And while they're at it, throw in a bit of retro-fit insulation? i think we've earned it.
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On the subject of art therapy, I just read a biog 'Painting Out the Past' celebrating the life and work of Patricia France (1911-95). Patricia's painting career took off late in life (in her sixties) and she enjoyed a good deal of success - encouraged by Hotere & jeffery Harris, amongst others. the interesting thing is that she was a voluntary boarder at Ashburn Hall, 1959-66 and was supported & encouraged to paint by her psychiatrist, Dr Denford, who with the Superintendent, Dr Medlicott, were interested in art therapy and its power to enable people to write/paint/play their way out of mental illness. Bit like Janet Frame, really. And Robin Hyde who also needed sanctuary sometimes.
Giving people the tools to describe and channel their experiences and the possibilties that opens up is a powerful thing.
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it's easier for governments to sell policies for nailing the crims that people hear about in the paper, than policies for preventing crime before it happens.
Yes, i do get that - how do we measure what doesn't happen? Our successes at keeping people doing good and productive things? No stats for that. And don't politicians love to cleave to stats to back them up. And hiding truths by simply not mentioning them is an age-old tactic. Then there's stacking the stats - if lots of school leavers find casualised work in "customer service" roles, where they're "guaranteed" a couple of shifts a week and anything else that "might" come up, it keeps them off the dole stats, but in real work?
I heard an interview this morning on Laidlaw's show, with a Black Power guy, eulogising Dr Ian Prior, an epidemiologist, arts fan, people-connector and all-round Top Bloke, who passed on last week. Dr Prior made contact with the BP guy in prison then supported him on release (after a 13 yr lag), encouraged him to do a degree - they became Real Friends - and he turned his life around. It was astonishing to listen to. The Power of One.
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And isn't that weird, Hilary? I just don't get why governments want to pay the $80-odd grand per prisoner, per year, to keep our ever-expanding jails full for longer - instead of paying for more child/adolescent psychologists, alternative education programmes for kids who are struggling (and might benefit from art/music therapy as part of that), first-class literacy catch-ups for anyone who's left behind (and I don't mean Tolley Test Training) and just ....cultivating hope, believing in our own people and what we can do if we've got the means and the opportunity.
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Man, you're a party pooper!
and I haven't even mentioned how that big, ruddy country next door keeps getting hotter and running out of water.... won't be long till hordes of Ockers start migrating this way, mate!