Comments on: Letter from London: Remember, remember… http://blog.art21.org/2009/11/23/letter-from-london-remember-remember/ The Official Blog of Art21, Inc. and the Art in the Twenty-First Century PBS series Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:38:50 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Max Weintraub http://blog.art21.org/2009/11/23/letter-from-london-remember-remember/comment-page-1/#comment-15933 Max Weintraub Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:32:55 +0000 http://blog.art21.org/?p=11797#comment-15933 Great post Ben. It made me think of Sophie Calle, who explored such personal investigations that determine our looking at and memory of art objects in an exhibition at MoMA, where she hung in the place of removed paintings the descriptions and drawings of the absent paintings that she had solicited from employees of the museum, among others. By complicating sites of memory with a set of questions addressing memory itself, Calle--and you--also calls to mind Pierre Nora, who wrote about history's transformation through memory into something else altogether. Perhaps if looking at an image of a work creates new possibilities for personal meaning, mingling in some intimate way (like your fish memory) that eludes the historical limitations of the novel (or the painting), those new possibilities are more significant than the original object itself (or at least an intrinsic part of our experience of it). The art object always slips into memory at some point, even as we stand before it. The evocative way in which the fish means to you animates the novel in unforeseen ways. Great post Ben. It made me think of Sophie Calle, who explored such personal investigations that determine our looking at and memory of art objects in an exhibition at MoMA, where she hung in the place of removed paintings the descriptions and drawings of the absent paintings that she had solicited from employees of the museum, among others.
By complicating sites of memory with a set of questions addressing memory itself, Calle–and you–also calls to mind Pierre Nora, who wrote about history’s transformation through memory into something else altogether. Perhaps if looking at an image of a work creates new possibilities for personal meaning, mingling in some intimate way (like your fish memory) that eludes the historical limitations of the novel (or the painting), those new possibilities are more significant than the original object itself (or at least an intrinsic part of our experience of it). The art object always slips into memory at some point, even as we stand before it. The evocative way in which the fish means to you animates the novel in unforeseen ways.

]]> By: What’s Cookin at the Art21 Blog: A Weekly Index | Art21 Blog http://blog.art21.org/2009/11/23/letter-from-london-remember-remember/comment-page-1/#comment-15810 What’s Cookin at the Art21 Blog: A Weekly Index | Art21 Blog Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:59:53 +0000 http://blog.art21.org/?p=11797#comment-15810 [...] Letter from London: Remember, Remember… Ben Street reflects on some art that sticks and other art that doesn’t have as much grab.  Art needs oxygen! How is art (not) confined to present tense experience of being in a gallery? [...] [...] Letter from London: Remember, Remember… Ben Street reflects on some art that sticks and other art that doesn’t have as much grab.  Art needs oxygen! How is art (not) confined to present tense experience of being in a gallery? [...]

]]> By: Oh! The Ideas, Arguments, and Pontifications Out There… « Art and Degrees of Freedom http://blog.art21.org/2009/11/23/letter-from-london-remember-remember/comment-page-1/#comment-15386 Oh! The Ideas, Arguments, and Pontifications Out There… « Art and Degrees of Freedom Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:48 +0000 http://blog.art21.org/?p=11797#comment-15386 [...] Art 21: In a recent interview in the New Yorker, artist-of-the-moment Urs Fischer said something about how [...] [...] Art 21: In a recent interview in the New Yorker, artist-of-the-moment Urs Fischer said something about how [...]

]]> By: Ben http://blog.art21.org/2009/11/23/letter-from-london-remember-remember/comment-page-1/#comment-15362 Ben Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:00:47 +0000 http://blog.art21.org/?p=11797#comment-15362 This drives me crazy all the time, specifically with reference to books I have read but remember nothing from. What's the line about the fish? See also, Billy Collins' poem "Forgetfulness" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/forgetfulness/ This drives me crazy all the time, specifically with reference to books I have read but remember nothing from. What’s the line about the fish?

See also, Billy Collins’ poem “Forgetfulness”

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/forgetfulness/

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