Why I Hate Found Object Art

I loved hearing the relationship between Serra and the labourers that constructed his art and the similarities between management in office culture...really made me think....love from the uk ❤

girlll i'm sorry im off topic but you should model. you have such a unique and beautiful aura

Found art was the death of skill and the start of scams in art school.

not first :(

I think curatorial work can definitely be art. Just look at Fred Wilson's work. But I agree that we've lost the plot somewhere and that art about making art, especially in the modernist movement, can be needlessly intellectual and demand some sort of trained skill from the viewer. The art world is a bit of an echochamber when it comes to this stuff

I do think it's strange that people's reaction to Duchamp has largely been "woah I can turn anything into art by changing it's context" and idolization of the guy, and not "woah there is beauty in the craft of even plain objects we often take for granted" and appreciation for the workers

That being said, I think overemphasis on the handiwork can also lead to ableism which gate-keeps people's participation in "art" in a different way. Both intellectual and hand labor is important to the creative process, ya know?

based off the title, i realized this video would expand my beliefs and knowledge. especially as a collage artist, i think it's important for me to stay open to these kinds of perspectives. another book to add to my never-ending list lol. good luck with your studies this semester!

kim's book sounds v interesting, thx for sharing<3

I don't see Duchamp's achievement as deifying himself or making others consider him to be some aesthetically high arbiter, rather its the idea he presented which can open others' eyes to the beauty of the world around us, even if its generally considered to be unappealing, ugly, or unnoteworthy (eg. a urinal). I'm certain he has helped a significant amount of people perceive things around them in a more aesthetically appreciative way; which might have been ego-driven, but his achievement wasn't being someone who wanted to show the world how special he himself was for unconventionally finding something artistic. In other words, another way of seeing his art is a tool to allow his audience to see more things beautifully, which can't be more divine.

Girl you're so pretty wtf

thank you algorithm

Def going to check that book if I manage to get it at a reasonable price.
I remember learning about Duchamp in design school and though he leaned more into the “look at the beauty and craft of more everyday objects” more associated with the Arts and Crafts movement and I was soo wrong.
Cheers from Mx

Belles Bookstore in Palo Alto has an AMAZING selection of art history books. Dog ear books in SF also has a decent selection!!!

check out Jon Rafman's films if you like northwestmcm! :)

Nice vid!
Also, theres an account called gangstasportivik that predates northwestmcmwholesale in the absurdist AI stuff, and likely inspired the account that you mentioned.

Duchamp was maybe radical in his time -- a threat or provocation to the overarching structure or institution of art, but as things go, it gets subsumed into the institution, becoming its new champion. Perhaps radicality -- an instinct to seek freedom or new territory -- can be measured in terms of its impact in context of its time and place (risk or having skin in the game). The further use of ready-mades in modern/contemporary art, especially after its provocative nature wanes, is sort of, as you mentioned, a way for an artist to "seem intellectual," aligning with the institutions, frameworks of thinking, or neoliberal capitalism etc. that they safely reside in today: no longer a threat.

I love found materials art, but imo you really have to transform it into something new and graphic.

The ensemble of your hair your face ur earrings outfit background everything is soooo pretty

would love to have an art book club with books you recommend

Bet she thinks Koons is amazing…

Love how you broke things down in such a digestible way! I agree that centering artistic value around mind over matter seems to perpetuate the ego-centrism of the artist, which makes me less interested in their work. I found your reference to AI “art” quite nuanced and led me to wonder - is it the novelty around “conceptual originality” across the board that fascinates us regardless of execution and lack of physical craft? And do we appreciate that AI meme account in a way because there is no deified artist (and ego) to point to? The current narrative around the tech is so divisive and oversimplified to AI = bad that I appreciated your quick take on it as a counter argument to your video’s thesis! I’m so curious what more thoughts you have on AI from an art theory perspective :)

Thanks for your thoughts. I believe there's not enough reflection on how managerial concepts have shaped our understanding of global culture.
Also, on the technical side, he audio gain on this video was low.

Thoughts on Yuji Agematsu? I think he is one of the great luminaries of contemporary art. His practice is really about much more than the objects themselves that he collects

i don't get how someone can watch the hipster ai boyfriend and think it's some never-before-seen innovation in comedy. It's just someone hipster-bashing, its like the oldest and tiredest form of comedy known to man. It's not post-post-post ironic, it's a straightforward piece of satire, its operating on 0 levels of irony. Also, i'm pretty sure that the only parts that uses AI is the text to speech voice and the lip-syncing, everything else looks like standard adobe suite.

I don't think the tik toks you showed are "ai art" really. there was clear labor put into their creation, they just used some elements which we now classify as "ai"

Visual art is pretentious and B.S.

Just watched >every< single one of your videos. I am obsessed with your channel! Please continue to enlighten us and inspire us with your own research.

Hello I do study art history and would say I’m adamantly opposed to this opinion but I appreciate you took the time to share it. You should know that Serra was actually involved with the physical making of some of these large pieces as some of the specifications he required were beyond the capabilities of the factories he was working with. Thinking vs doing is a sort a slippery slope when considering the process Duchamp went through in order to have his fountain presented but I understand your issue with others labor being negated in general when speaking about the readymade. Ultimately an intellectual pursuit that results in a precise art object will be lauded over a composition of a skilled draftsman who has sailed for weeks but without rudder and compass because we’ve accepted a divided between art and craft and that acceptance predates Duchamp by quite some time in reality. Great video!

I'd like to add to the part about managers. They are more than overseers. Management is put in place as a middle man that ensures the business owners or higher ups don't have to make contact with the workers. The managers swallow all of the complaints and abuse from the workers, much like in restaurants where the waitress takes all the abuse of the diner who has no access to yell at the chef. The position of management also exists to give workers false hope that there is a fair ladder structure in the business they work for, that if they work hard enough they will be promoted into the middle class. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk

Goodwill and thrift stores are My favorite found object and found art galleries are Goodwill and other thrift stores.

never thought about it this way! while i was watching i was thinking about how labor outsourcing is a part of pretty much every field… and the only conclusion i can come to is it’s capitalism and imperialism. its built into how our world is run. also, fashion is a form of art and my god fast fashion is horrible. i am a found object artist myself, but i use the objects along with my skills and transform them to be in a very new physical and intellectual space. i really had never thought about found object art in this way and how for some people it can be used to exploit.

don't worry, you're not talking about jane jacobs too much!
when you mentioned her book in your last video, it reminded me that i was meaning to read it - i've started it now and it is FANTASTIC.

Before the 1945 Duchamp wasnt widely famous. Idea art wasnt a thing. His legacy is a 1970s fabricated narrative about how the avant garde emerged before ww2. The avant garde became the establishment after the war & twisted earlier 20th century art history, legitimising itself & deligitimising "classical" art made at the same time. The urinal is fake.

Virgil Abloh very literaly used Duchamp as a shield from critizism by saying ”Duchamp is my lawyer”
I dont necesarilly think hes wrong tho.

Duchamp's exhibits were a wry bitchslapping of a then-nascent pimp-and-whore firmament over the art world(which is solidly established as an industry today). The collective efforts of upscale gallery proprietors, critics, apex collectors, and "patrons", amalgamated for the sole purpose of perpetuating elitism, and getting rich from the labors of meticulously groomed talent who often see a fraction of the money realized by their work. It was also an effective 'épater le bourgeois' pie-in-the-face, which challenged everyone to ruminate on what art truly "IS", and what it means to them. Brilliant, subversive rabble-rousing in a time before such things were "cool".

Kind of a tangent, but I think it's interesting how the found object is not considered "art" until it's repurposed given that status by the artist. Who gets to be an artist? With things like a urinal or a wheel there's already been a lot of intentional design work and skilled physical labor leading into that product. Is it not already art? There's some gray area for sure but maybe some of the found objects are more like Columbus'd objects.

IMO the separation of physical vs mental labor in art is such a big topic it probably deserves its own video, especially when it comes to large scale collaborative projects with creative directors or shareholders.

Holy crap. New favorite channel! If you ever want to collaborate with an artist channel I'd love to talk about the influence of conceptual art on reality the artists applying for grants today. My work is both hand and mind work of my own but in order to get funding for art I have to translate my hand work into narratives funders identify as conceptually valid.