art and politics and illegal behaviour

Youngest and I went to the Modern Art Museum here in Hannover...does that have two n's or one? Not sure.

Whatever.

Youngest is kind of mixed about modern art...it is pretty broad overall. It has the advantage that much of it is installation art and interactive and more....playful that way. There is room for the audience that the 'masters' don't allow.

At the same time some of it is FREAKY

Freak you right out freaky...we saw work by Otto Dix, back and white ghastly grave site drawings done right after WWI...Youngest had a look in honour of Halloween after being warned they might be too much...she did a quick walk through.

There was an exhibit on about clothing and fashion..and dressing, I didn't honestly assess it all that much and it didn't seem tightly curated...at the end of it, there was a series of photos of models with brand names carved into their skin...scarred over. I am assuming photoshop work here, and the meaning seemed a wee bit obvious to me...not exactly startlingly original...and opposite was a series of fun house mirrors...come to think of it the juxtaposition was almost certainly deliberate, but with youngest there we were too busy turning ourselves into inukshuks, and elastigirls and multi-armed Hindu goddesses...we had more of a dance experience with it...and a giggle experience with it.....and the memory of the carved models behind us were not visible in the mirrors....at least not clearly...possibly intentionally.

Intentional or poor exhibition; I forgot to check if they were the same artist. I assumed not, but if they were it is somewhat more interesting than it otherwise would have been.

There was also a series of works by an America artist..forgive me I forgot his name as well...all the info was in German so I didn't really read it, working with light. Youngest and I went into a booth with a series of dials that changed the colour of the light in the room and was capable of quite fine differences...I took a series of (illicit) photos of youngest in different colour lights as I have an idea for something I could do with them. Would that be like sampling in music or copyright violation..hard to say....

Niki de Saint Phille is amazing, we still haven't seen the Nana's, which are so famous, and may not, we'll see...but they had an exhibit of her work inside....it was gorgeous from the distance, playful and colourful, but really very disturbing once you got up close. She seems to have gotten rather more sinister in her work...again I have an illicit photo...the Catalans are generally quite relaxed about photos in galleries (not the Picasso museum though), so I have developed bad habits...I may or may not use them.

This leads me to an interesting thought I read about and have been ruminating upon. There is a growing grey area with copy right issues...I am part of a generation that began to violate copyright rules...photocopying books for classes specifically...then came the kids sampling music, and there are songs out there that are OBVIOUS rips...then came the iPod and others and the quantity of illegal downloading is amazing, and then there are the movies you can rip etc etc etc etc...and I am part of this to some extent...I am taking - a few - photos in galleries of work...and don't see why I shouldn't honestly...if I use them as memory jogs, and may I add that the galleries are AWFUL at providing the images in an affordable way...you want to shell out seventy Euros for the book of a special exhibit. m'kay...postcards, only of the big ticket items, and regular material, not an image to be seen...

So what do we do? Go on line and get what someone else ripped.

Or take a picture.

I am part of a generation, growing up with the internet that believes that access to information, and image and music should be shared, not owned....sold only to the higher bidder. That information is for all of us, for our education and improvement. I keep finding myself having this argument over and over and over again. Sometimes with people of my own generation...can we as humanity ever get ahead if we keep on hogging the ball...environmentally, financially, socially and intellectually? I don't think so and I think this is what got us where we are.

Then there is the marketers argument, (the uber-capitalist, no?) if I post a photo of her recent work, and mention her name on this blog, that is probably copyright infringement, but it is also free advertising?

Where is the line on that, and what is illegal with all of this...?

I suspect the answer to this question will divide down on generational lines.

My boss in Spain thinks I'm an anarchist. Maybe.

I think there needs to be a radical redefinition around the rights of the individual in comparison to the rights of the whole..and that is a global whole. I move against current "globalisation"here don't I. I do want to move towards moral globalisation, don't you think that would be a good idea?

On that note, you may want to check out this video...though it talks to Americans, it speaks beyond that....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vknHKTy1MLY

Really. It makes me ashamed.

and may I add that I HATE firefox spell checker? Can I get some suggestions here please, not just that obnoxious teachery RED UNDERLINE pointing out my errors in your purely American spelling? GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Good old google; type the word in, you get related sites and a spell check.