Controversial Art

The piece that I enjoyed learning more about was Suzanne Lacy's, Whisper, the Waves, the Wind, 1993-1994. This piece gave insight to our ever changing demographics in terms of the female population. I learned some interesting facts when reading about this work of art. By the year 2020, one of every five (20%) in the United States will be over 65; this population will be predominantly female and single, and today women account for nearly 75 percent of the aged poor. It also sent out the message that women are strong and resilient and can withstand the waves of time that wash over them and give us our history. No, I don't think that the world would be a better place if all art conformed to predetermined standards. If this were to happen it would definitely put limitations on an artists freedom of expression. The great thing about all of the "controversial" pieces that we looked at this week had a story behind them. The unfortunate thing is that most people just look at the art-as in face value. This is a shallow/naive way to observe things. I don't think that imposing standards on art would be possible or enforceable. If this should happen, we would no longer live in a world of "uninhibited" art. Not to sound cliche, but don't judge a book (or piece of art) by it's cover. I was shocked by the reactions that I read about to the Virgin Mary piece-but considering it doesn't even look like the "traditional" image that we associate with her, if I hadn't looked at the title of the piece, I would have never known it was portraying her.