I’m sorry.

I didn’t mean to imply that you were calling the write-up gibberish. I blame my 1 a.m. writing skills.

I did, however, mean to grumble about the general overuse of “gibberish” as a critical term–esp. by my undergrads who assume that anything they don’t understand at first skim belongs in that category.

Everyone else,

Awesome discussion. Especialy the point about how written mediations seem to “herd us” (Ennis was that you?) towards an ideologically fashionable P.O.V.

And it’s totally inaccessible by the public, which kind of defeats the purpose of public exhibitions and public art and protest art, yes?

Maybe my arguments for covering their butts are self-reflective; I’m definitely guilty of getting all jargonistic and comfortable using language that sounds like total gobbledy-gook. Oh well.

Also, I think music criticism is a whole different ball game. I don’t know, this is always the critique of critics – if you can’t do it, shut up. I just think this line of thought is stupid and exclusionary/elitist. Art – of all forms (including music) – should be for everyone.

http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/Sculpture/grad.asp

I need a translator! A native guide!

I doubt she’d remember me, since we only conversed once and were in different depts. In fairness, that’s the way we all were trained to talk about art, politics and everything else. I came to feel, even though I did well with it, that art was only for artists and ironically, those in charge of the hegemonic power structure.

I don’t use my BFA to make a living except to encourage kids to be able to describe what they see. You’d be surprised how much a good eye helps me in coaching.

Always. Also try to get a kidÂ’s perspective. Not always practical (hello Mapplethorpe). But they can amaze you w/ bs-free observations.

I donÂ’t trust criticism based entirely on oneÂ’s subjective reaction (because beauty is…), and that is what popular music critics (read Down Beat and Rolling Stone).

The geniuses who gave 3 stars to Nevermind, 3.5 stars to some BS Spice Girls album, 4 stars to Dangerous. In late ‘80s, the said geniuses also carped about worrisome trend of rap’s growing popularity among R&B artists.

Sriram, I actually enjoyed your posts. DidnÂ’t think threadjack.

Speaking of threadjack. Desi women of Dada. Can one call them Didi?