Last night we went to the MFA open studios at SVA where our daughter is in her second year. While standing in her studio with some friends Zoe wore one of her soft sculptures which she had titled "armor." The acquaintance asked, "where did you grow up?" "Funny you ask," said Zoe. "I grew up in rural Virginia, but my Mom grew up here in New York City as the child of two artists." Zoe went on to explain that we made pottery and there was always an ongoing discussion about the world of art and craft whether in a gallery or at the breakfast table.
"I asked my ten-year-old son, Emmett, what he thought art was for and he
said, "Nothing." He said, "It isn't good for anything." And as he saw my
eyes roll back in my head, thinking, this is what you get from a kid
whose parents are both artists, he quickly added: "Art just is." He said
"Art just is" with an assumption that, like breakfast on the table, it
will always be there -- a given of a culture. In my head, I could hear a
voice saying in response to his confidence: "Yes, but..." Can I
really believe ... that all the collective acts of making carry a weight
that can counter the acts of unmaking that accrue daily? For acts of
making to be acts of resistance and tools of remembering, this
given-ness has to be made and maintained, and to have room made for it."
--Ann Hamilton
"I asked my ten-year-old son, Emmett, what he thought art was for and he
said, "Nothing." He said, "It isn't good for anything." And as he saw my
eyes roll back in my head, thinking, this is what you get from a kid
whose parents are both artists, he quickly added: "Art just is." He said
"Art just is" with an assumption that, like breakfast on the table, it
will always be there -- a given of a culture. In my head, I could hear a
voice saying in response to his confidence: "Yes, but..." Can I
really believe ... that all the collective acts of making carry a weight
that can counter the acts of unmaking that accrue daily? For acts of
making to be acts of resistance and tools of remembering, this
given-ness has to be made and maintained, and to have room made for it."--Ann Hamilton
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