AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.12.2003, Blaðsíða 16

The Spirit of the Day
Halldór Gíslason, Dean of the Department of Design
and Architecture, LHI
Art and the spirit of the day take
place while we are busy being origi-
nal. Artistic presentation is a mistake
waiting to happen. A British critic
said that we only need two adjec-
tives in criticising art: „Oh wow!“ and
„So what!“.
When we look around us, we see
artistic design everywhere. The cof-
fee cup, the junkmail that falls regu-
larly into the letterbox, the bedcovers
under which we lie, and even a cor-
rugated iron dormer window. It is just
as important for us to watch our daily
environment as it is to concentrate
on some works of art that are
inflated out of proportion by school
teachers and critics. This is manifest
in today’s fashion when young
designers are looking at „shoddy"
low-tech designs from previous
decades. Poorly-presented school
magazines, plastic-covered airline
safety rules, and ads from the sixties
and seventies are the origins of
today’s style. The generation waiting
in the wings does not like the star-
worship of designers who are on the
covers of magazines, or pho-
tographed in Hallo magazine. The
modern concept is that the designer
should often not be seen, but
instead be an invisible „rotor" behind
the scenes for life.
Work around us is „accidental art,"
where those bothered to create it
were striving to do the right thing
because either they did not know the
art world, had a lack of technical
knowledge or could not create a par-
ticular style. What we are looking at
is what Marcel Duchamp called
object trouve, the discovered object
which obtains its status because we
who pretend to know style and feel-
ing elevate it to a pedestal and say
„Oh wow!“
Objects obtain this „Oh, wow!“ status
without their makers’ intention, and
therefore their creation is not con-
trived. The opposite is true within the
walls of a university for the arts. The
demands for style, basic knowledge
and ideology as a basis (coming no
less from the hearts of the authors
than the critics) is such that the cre-
ative process is tightened. Therefore
we look for that which has been pro-
duced by unknown authors with
unpolluted hearts.
When we look back in history, and
when the distance is far enough, we
agree with Duchamp that art can be
whatever. But it was not until the six-
ties that pop artists began to look at
everyday life. We in lceland benefited
from the presence of Dieter Rot dur-
ing these years. If he had not been
here, we would not have known
about this attitude until 10 years
later, which holds true in most
other things that we copy from our
neighbouring countries.
Today we are more
open than before
to what is happen-
ing in our visual
surroundings. This
can be seen in
street culture,
which formerly was
frowned upon as
childish and subur-
ban but now has a
numerous following
in garage music,
websites, stencils,
and window and
garden ornaments.
We are prepared
to look respectfully
at the artistic cre-
ations of contem-
poraries who
exhibit „ready
made“ or found
objects, such as
when the British
artist Tracy Emin
exhibited her por-
trait in the form of
a bed with crum-
pled bedsheets,
used contracep-
tives and a bottle
of vodka with the name: „my bed.“
Together we search for the spirit of
the day and often we find it where
the contemporaries have not noticed,
as when we look at old postcards,
pornography, or calendars. Icelandic
pop artist Erro is one of those who
has put many visual images on a
pedestal, such as his series of North-
African prostitutes or television pho-
tos from the space-race.
It is ours to enjoy what is happening
around us, but how do we know
where to look? By examining the
visual behaviour of past decades, we
attempt to discover why each time
called for its own expression, and
develop a historic understanding. At
the same time, we are perhaps able
to relax a bit in striving to make all
our works masterpieces where it is
demanded that each work should be
fabulous, sensitive to the time and
place without being a masterpiece. ■
Books about the visualisation of the
spirit of the day: Gillo Dorfles: Kitsch;
Laurence King: Design for Impact;
Caroline Archer: Tart Cards.
I Píömíðunín er (jeímurínn, eERí víö sjúlf!
ísfensfi (jönnun er sérstaRur fjljomur!
5 Starfíð sRaf uera framsceRíö, Rnúíö drceöí!
4 Ab vera (jönnuöur er fífsstílT, eRRí 6ara nínna!
§ Starfíö grun&oaffast d fjugm'pnbafrceöf,
eRRí tceíní eða útfití!
b Starffð er eRRí ófjdö pví sem geríst í samféfagínu.
T TOcefi(fx)aröínn er (jönnunarverufeíRínn,
effRí aörír sRófar!
8 t>íð notum töfvur en erum eRRí jrrcefar feírra!
9 T>íö 6’pggjum d eínstaRfingum meö
sjdffstceöar dRvaröanír!
KO Stefnum tíf framtíöar!
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