Tue 10th March, CRAZY WISDOM

How do we absorb ‘ART’ when we see the ‘ART’? Some of them would be known immediately what is the artist’s thought, but some are quite hard to understand what they want to be expressed. I have been to a sound performance called The Sound Source, CRAZY WISDOM to be inspired for my final project which is going to be a sound installation performance. They showed the diversity of the expressing sound art with a lot of methods. It was experimental, interesting or unusual. Particularly engaging with the cellist Anton Lukoszeviesze’s performance was quite interesting. I had absolutely no idea about his career before. He co-curated the performance and appeared on the stage as a performer as well. What he mostly did during the performance was making random sounds with his bow and fingers. Sometimes he hit the body of cello, rubbed or scratched strings with different tempos (personally I sympathised with the cello). To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t stop giggling during the performance. It was like a comedy such as somebody pretends that this is a very serious play and that makes us laugh with the ironic situation. On the other hand, while I felt it is like a comedy, some other audiences clapped their hands in applause passionately. They didn’t mean to mock at the performer, they seriously loved the performance.
How could it be happened at the same time in the same place watching same work? Was I not serious in the play? Am I not taking the art seriously?
It could not only depend on audiences’ personal emotion, perception or background knowledge, but also be considered with the method of expressing artists’ ideas to absorb them. Artists have their own way to communicate with spectators using various materials. As if the example of this sounds performance artist, Anton Lukoszeviesze, even though he took the unusual sounds with his cello to communicate with his audience, but he failed at least with me by taking the method. It was much closer to noise for me. However, I was wondering if music experts, who understand the medium very well, hear it, would they understand what he is performing? What if he used painting instead of performing with cello, would it be easy to understand for me?

I believe it is the portion of artist’s decisions to choose materials for expressing ideas. Anton Lukoszeviesze voiced himself with his cello, Andy Warhol picked a tomato soup can with screen prints. Throughout this experience, I became aware of how important to choose medium to make the spectators to get on with my idea. I would be concerned with not only regarding as representing my ideas but also deciding mediums and displaying them effectively.