Wednesday 8 November 2006

An architecture quiz

What is this a picture of?

a) A useless pile of trash.
b) A model for a US$127 million piece of trash.
c) A Rorshach test for pretentious poseurs.
d) A new creation by Weta Workshops for Alien V
e) A new museum for Louis Vuitton in Paris.
f) All but one of the above.
Answers on a postcard, please.

RELATED: Architecture

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your facility for 'snark' when it comes to the artistic success of others never ceases to astound me, PC.

In accordance with the highest principles of libertarian pursuit of wealth, Gehry has created a brand for himself which is respected and sought after across the world. Regardless of your well-established scorn for his aesthetic, he will continue to get incredible commissions, rake in tons of loot, and break new aesthetic ground.

His is a challenging take on architectural form, but it is forward-looking, dynamic, and intriguing. His position is one to be aspired to, not sneered at. The derision which you heap on highly succesful and respected artistic achievement is pretty ugly at times, and others, just a bit sad.

DenMT

Peter Cresswell said...

Mercy to the guilty is injustice to the innocent.

Meaning: if one praises trash to the sky, then what accolades are left for works of real genius?

There are two ways to destroy genius. One is by eliminating geniuses (difficult); the other is simply to praise trash as genius (much easier) until people eventually forget what genius looks like.

Anonymous said...

I'm going with (f): A crumpled up piece of used toilet paper.

"...he will continue to get incredible commissions... etc."

The same could be said for the retards who make and take methamphetamine; the same can be said about prostitutes.

The mere fact that what you hock makes you a lot of money and is popular doesn't grant you my respect and admiration as of right.

Michael said...

If it's delibrately supposed to look like that - how can you tell if someone dropped the model between design and presentation?

Peter Cresswell said...

"If it's deliberately supposed to look like that - how can you tell if someone dropped the model between design and presentation?"

Good question. The story is told that when Gehry, the architect of this piece of trash, produced a model of another screwed up piece of titanium-clad garbage for a Manhattan museum, he was asked at an exhibit of the drawings and model whether or not the model had been installed back to front. He couldn't tell.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a building that has failed to survive an earthquake. However, I would say it is B and E.

DenMT, just because people value it doesn't mean it is worthwhile. As Roark from The Fountainhead said, a building should have a look that fits it's intended purpose not a "flavour" A building that looks like trash is contradictory to all but an irrational purpose of it's building. And if the building has an irrational purpose then it has no good reason for existing in the first plave.

How is trash something to aspire to? It isn't. As Ayn Rand said, "Art is the metaphyisical recreation of the artist's value judgments." So if a artist creates trash he values trash. This makes clear that his values are anti-life (as illustrated by PC's comment, " Mercy to the guilty is injustice to the innocent"), which is something to sneer at not aspire to.

I have been writing for more than 13 years and I can tell you that experience as an artist has taught me that the value of art is based on your beliefs not it's look. This is always true, not matter how much you try to evade it. You are free to try evade your beliefs but you are not free to base all your actions and creations on them.

Respect and admiration need to be based on a person's beliefs not their wealth and success.