Art in CM: locked penis images & freedom

I get where you are comming from it is just that I have not seen one locked penis picture that I consider to be deserving of being labelled art. Yes they are photographs yes they are pictures but they show no signs of artistic expression they are just snapshots.

 

I think the phrase here is artistic expression; what does that mean, and does it apply if not used? We come back around again to the age-old question: What is art?

Many people ascribe to the same point of view as @filltee in that a strictly utilitarian creation such as a 'snapshot' is not art. They are entitled to that opinion. I would suggest however, that one of the major thrusts of art throughout the Twentieth Century was to challenge that viewpoint. There are scores of artists who worked in various media that turned the concept on its head. There can be beauty in the concept of "Form Follows Function" that pervades every art movement in painting, literature, architecture, engineering, sculpture, even computer design and physics.

So is artistic expression a requirement for creating art? No. If art is found by the person who experiences it, then expression is, at times, meaningless. Art becomes what you decide is art. This can be countered (and often has been) by saying that it makes the concept of art meaningless; anything can be considered "art" by that standard. And I agree. But why is that a bad thing? Can art be bad? Of course; if the concept of what art is can be dictated by the person experiencing it, then "bad" art can be also. If you think a snapshot of a caged penis is not art, then that's your experience. But that's in no way a universal experience.

I bring this up not to argue with @filltee or to suggest he's "wrong" in his point of view. But I would gently suggest he open himself up to the idea that even something as basic as a photo of a caged penis (or many of them) might be something more.

 

If you apply that to the extreme then anything thatis created or captured could in the eyes of someone be considered art. I will concede that point. Because that point allows the minimum of one person to consider something as 'Art'.

But before we go to far down that route look at some of the things the establishement has considerd to be art. A couple of layers bricks arranged into a rectangular prism.. known as Carl Andre's Bricks .. it served a purpose that piece of work is far better known than most if not the so called artist's name. Tracey's Bed... pointless. A copy of someone's bedroom complete with a used ashtray. An empty room with a single light source suspended from the ceiling. again all pointless, but considered by the Tate Modern which is funded in aprt by the tax payer to be worth displaying.

We have all seen images that quite possibly took time effort and great skill to create which are in the eyes of most awful does that make said image more or less art?


According to one source.
"What makes it art is the intention of the creator and the value to be gleaned from it."


I tend to agree with the thinking behind that when I form my opinion of something that is offered as art and I maintain that there is little to be gleaned even for the uninitiated from a picture of a locked penis and even less to be gleaned other than perhaps a modicum of insight to or an impression of the creators obsession of multiple pictures of the same penis in the same cage regardless of background or situation. (not that most of thosephoto's were ever intended to be considered art)

 

Love the 10CC reference. BTW, do you know the source / meaning of the band's name?

 

To be honest: I never thought about that (as well as about "Limp Bizkit", "Chumbawamba" or (just googled that) "Butthole Surfers" ).
But the Internet tells us: 10cc got their name from Jonathan King who released their first records. King had had a dream about a successful band called "10cc". However, popular belief is that they adopted the name because the average male ejaculation is 9cc and the band was above average with 1cc more than that!".
Kind of "chastity-related I'd say?!