The title below means
Art?
Michael,
I like adding people to fine architectural scenes, not necessarily in the same image, but at least to show the denizens that might he found in that vicinity. Here, the architecture goes beyond the brilliant but static nature of Munich Underground Metro stations to show immense social thinking in terms of enriching in new ways the experience of folk passing through. It's so valuable that the designers thought of human values in making their plans for the train station and not merely "what's necessary"!.
This one is my favorite, as it's functional, lean and so artistic and pleasant on the eye.
Michael,
I have been primed by your extensive work on Metro Stations being pretty direct to interpret. There's overwhelming clarity, unity of design and function. This from your spectacularly lean choices for shooting position and framing to give an immediate experience of each location as a work of art.
Your pictures of graffiti and wall art, however, require thought and insight, as there's immediate and consequential thought to get one to appreciate the full range of meaning of each work.
So yesterday, in a way, you have brought the need for our more total responsibility to examine the
entire picture, as
"art" AND
"social landscape", brought together in a striking, but entirely surprising way, for anyone who might have assumed, by past experience, your artistic intent in this new revealing work.
So having seen dominant motifs of architecture and public service for a functioning transport system serving people every day, I brushed off "the green on the stairs" as people going up a moving escalator! The material laid out on the outer side of the glass, was then the backpacks of the two people inside, (who, of course, were not allowed to bring them into the exhibit. Everything to me seemed consistent.
I've seen ignoring folk sleeping in the doors with a group of scientists on our way to supper. None of about 5 trained observers, besides myself, noticed the folk in the doorways.
I am happy to be exposed as not fully using my own senses in looking at your art. It's a gift for you to show us up and get us to take in more of what's around us and fight the brains built-in facility for marking so much as "non-relevent". Still, I am also grateful when we're introduced to works that have deeper meaning so we can harvest better the richer meanings and fully engage, especially in this case where there's social consequence to understanding or not.
However, the
order of letting us know about reality, before or after the fact, as here, is not as important as, one way or another we're lead to the heart of the matters presented. Except for simple beauty, (roses, a mother nursing her child, sunsets, children playing, intriguing form and the like), art does not speak for itself. It requires some curator or else we tend to consume it for immediate enjoyment or long term decoration. Art however not only reflects the thoughts and needs of the viewer according to what they bring to the work, but also can have such a rich a layered form that a guide and education can allow one to actually appreciate some of the emotions and intellectual energy that forced the work into existence in the first place.
At least, for myself, I have been brought down a peg or two and have benefited. I hope it will last and leave me a tad more humble in my certainty of folk's intents.
Thanks for sharing,
Asher