[meteorite-list] "Meteorite" Sculpture by Katie Paterson

From: Graham Ensor <graham.ensor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2014 20:40:22 +0100
Message-ID: <CAJkn+kYZOjk+oQSTy--esrnQYeVJdKLLS0tzYWw+Nj+C9frSXg_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Peter/allAs an artist myself working on more unusual projects with
the Arts Council trying to find new ways of expressing ideas...trying
to stretch the boundaries and asking "what is art?"...etc I find this
an interesting topic...I'm all for "art" doing what you say...but have
a slight conflict here, being a meteorite collector and using much of
what I know and see in meteoritics as inspiration for some of my own
projects....there are so many at the moment just making/doing "art" to
shock...and I don't really think that that is enough personally....and
to be honest I'm not sure what she is doing is really very
original...many artists have destroyed and rebuilt objects as them
selves in the past in various ways....to me she is not making people
think about the wonder of the object, where it comes from etc...it's
more about herself....and her practice.

Now if she had prepared the meteorite in such a way to show off it's
wonder, or even just exhibited it in a a gallery as is...rather than
in a museum...then that would have asked far more questions about what
art is, or what the object means...the recasting is not so much about
the object...it is far more about the process and her own
practice....I feel she has said far less by recasting it....but I
suppose that's what art is about....it's more about the questions that
a piece is asking than the answer.

Not sure what destroying something and remaking it in it's own image
and then sending it back to whence it came (partly) is really
saying.....only those who are wise about meteorites actually
understand what aspects of the object she has destroyed....most of the
general public/other artists etc will see the object as unchanged!

Graham

On Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at 3:35 PM, Peter Davidson via Meteorite-list
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
> Dear Lads and Lassies
>
> Thank you to those who replied to the e-mail I sent about the "meteorite" sculpture by Katie Paterson which has been sent into space. To be honest I didn't expect a positive response and that is exactly what I got. I attended a talk by Katie last Saturday (2nd August) and I actually got to handle several of the meteorites she has recast. An odd and slightly disconcerting experience I thought. We got to chatting about possible future collaborations but it remains to be seen what that might actually turn out to mean.
>
> I have always believed that it one of the purposes of art (among many other things) to challenge, shock and discomfort people and ideas by presenting the familiar in a new and unfamiliar way - to make people rethink their ideas and to challenge them to take stock of their old values. This particular project does seem to have raised a few eyebrows and rattled a few cages. I am mulling over the idea of asking Katie if I could present these items at Ensisheim one year.
>
> Cheers
>
> Peter Davidson
> Senior Curator of Minerals
>
> National Museums Collection Centre
> 242 West Granton Road
> Edinburgh
> EH5 1JA
> 00 44 131 247 4283
> p.davidson at nms.ac.uk
>
>
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> Ming: The Golden Empire, 27 June-19 October 2014,
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>
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Received on Tue 05 Aug 2014 03:40:22 PM PDT