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A comment on How Watches Work. Parent comment

Re:How Watches Work by jfengel on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @05:45PM (#28135054)
Ah, yes. Gonzalez-Torres. I first saw his work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It was a string of dollar-store Christmas lights stapled to the wall. I think there were 24 lights, to represent the age at which is partner died.

I'm usually the guy willing to defend contemporary art, but there's not much I can do here. The work lacks any craft and the insights are shallow, better expressed by the label than the piece.

Clearly the curators of these very famous museums disagree with me. But when people mock "modern art" (which this technically isn't), this is what they're thinking about.

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Re:How Watches Work by psychomugs on Thursday August 12, 2021 @06:12PM (#28162261)
Sure, you could trace this meaninglessness back to the obvious Duchamp Urinal example, but I could read it as being forever haunted by a specific number to the point where even the banality of dollar-store Christmas lights takes on a new and painful meaning.

If I glimpse another consciousness and walk away a different and more empathic person, then who am I to mock it?

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