Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Minimal symbolic art

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Untitled (2007)
By randomly choosing symbols from an array of special characters, the artist becomes a selector - a mere agent of nature - thus breaking the inevitable link between creator and created

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The asterisk (which was admittedly a risk) is the high point. Elevates the ordinary to something more spiritual. An all-seeing third-eye types.

ps .. If you ever extended this to multimedia art, an om hreem kleem type audio track would go well with it.

pps .. There is a prize somewhere for keeping a straight face, yes?

Heh Heh said...

megha: bingo! glad to see you saw the significance of the asterisk - this should of course be seen in the context of the fact that because it wasn't chosen by design, that asterisk has *its own* significance, not something that I attached to it. This makes it universal in some sense.
And why should there be a prize for keeping a straight face. This was a masterpiece - in all earnestness.

:)

Anonymous said...

Of course the significance isn't planned. Planned would make it an Ajmeri Baba. Unplanned is what makes it divine.

Wilde or Hemingway?

Anonymous said...

Bravo Bravo. But I have to take exception to honourable commenter megha's all-too-obvious sentiments and sneerily tell her that the asterisk is but a pedestrian symbol that is used casually and all too frequently by every tom, dick and harry (see, how I leave myself open to megha-humor here). It is in fact the : that is the symbol of importance here. It *obviously* signifies vision, and *double* vision at that. Drunken symbolic eyes. Wah! What a concept.

@heh heh: But by being the agent of creation do you not in fact become an intermediary creator which is a creator type of its own?

-Revealed

Tabula Rasa said...

erm.

call me a plebe but i actually liked the use of negative space here.

*blush*

Anonymous said...

revealed: the artist approves of my interpretation. 'nuff said.

tr: and something gave you the feeling that we felt non-favorable emotions towards this work of art? :)

Anonymous said...

Why you philistine! Heh heh heh - it's brilliant! :D

Do one on modern/blank-verse/prose poetry as well, please please please?

Rukmini said...

i love how the bracket and the ampersand break the harsh linearity of the other signs...elements of softness in an otherwise all too straight world...ah!
and also, ahahahahahahaha!

Tabula Rasa said...

megha:
well y'all were using words like divine and om hreem kleem and all.

Anonymous said...

please, this is just so derivative.

I feel like every other month some artiste is playing with the same symbols and using white space excessively (sorry, TR but flattering his ego won't make his art any truer).

and the title? or the lack thereof? Take a stand man! where is the daring I have come to expect of you, heh heh?

I have to say - creatively - this seems to be a rather barren period in your work.

The Black Mamba said...

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in response to Untitled(2007).

(better viewed as a image)

Amazed by the sheer optimism of your piece. Here is the response from the dark side. :)

lovely, btw.

Heh Heh said...

megha:
:)

revealed: No. I suppose you could say that. But anyone could have chosen these symbols, and the end result would have been the same - in that sense it is much more universal.

tr: we appreciate that sentiment. however, art should be independent of whether people like it or not, wouldn't you say? It should stand on its own, by and of itself.

witnwisdumb: Philistine, me? :)

big wave: thank you. also, hey, what are you laughing for? I am serious. :)

bm: You insult the piece by calling it *my* work. You totally missed to point of why it is the way it is (and notice i did not say 'Why I do what i do')

the other bm: I quite liked the reaction. It nicely complements what we have here - darkness and light, hope and despair, indifference and desire, yin and yang. Nice. Very nice. :)