Slow Art

Yesterday, I listen to BBC's program The Strand ("a daily half-hour programme highlighting the best of what's going in the arts") and they talked about slow art. Well, actually they did not talk about it but about the problem of todays use of art. For example going to Louvre and looking at a million things in two hours or listening to track 3 of some record on your iPod. This one guy had written a book called something like "A thousand records you should listen to before you die". I never liked these books telling me I am mortal and the concept is kind of wearisome (hurry, you might die tomorrow), but the writes intention was the opposite and I agreed with him: With so much music (with so many track 3's on the pod) it is very difficult to really listen to music these days. We are just scrolling around and give the sound bites points. If you instead listen to three different records of the same piece you will not only get the whole thing but variations about it. There will be something more ("more" in a qualitative sense) in that experience.

The other guest in the studio had been travelling to art in far away places (I think it might be him making a book about slow art) and talked about it. If you pay with energy, if you work for it, the experience of the art will be greater, but the possible disappointment could be greater too (how disappointed will you be if track 3 is bad? A bit irritated while going to track 4 or next album or next artist, maybe?). If you invest in the art the payoff will be greater. I think that's true. If you look at 50 paintings or more in a museum you will not even get a clear picture of the subjects. Strange thing no museums have question this part of their work. Why not have five pictures exhibitions? I guess there would be a problem if the exhibition had more then five or ten visitors at a time. But this should be a topic, at least in my blog.

I wonder how much of modern art is made to accomodate the fast modern culture? Would it change if the public changed into slow mood?

Sometimes I feel as if I have a whirling postcard rack in my head.

Grayson Perry