<p>There are lots of people who would define soft porn as a form of art. I cannot tell anyone what is art in their eyes, and while I don’t like soft porn, I wouldn’t deny anyone else’s perception that it, too, is a form of art. </p>
<p>Anyway, as I stated in an earlier posts, there are plenty of people for whom this show speaks volumes: </p>
<p>One can debate the merits of an art piece and question it, no problem. Ms. Paglia is an “art critic”. That’s the whole point. The play is a piece of art. One can detest the piece of art, but it is still a work of art.</p>
<p>Further, I have never heard of a “pageant” like Buffalo Chip likened to a genre of art. Earlier, this was being compared to theater pieces.</p>
<p>What, by this definition, would not be a work of art?</p>
<p>Perhaps my post is a work of art (I created it and it is in performance on the internet) and it demands to be treated as such (many of my posts have, in the past, been cut-n-pasted… criticized favorably and unfavorably by very discerning admirers of words and posts) . </p>
<p>Even better, my crafty posts --as a rule-- denigrate no one, do not incite ridiculous giggles from its audience, is not sexists, does not demean a religious and secular holiday and has the advantage of being composed by an admittedly great artist: me.</p>
<p>It’s been done:
–Leni Riefenstahl created propaganda elevated to the level of art by her loyal admirers.
–Eve Ensler has also created propaganda…elevated to the level of heehaw-porn by hers: Jejune, at best.</p>
<p>Ensler’s ‘craft’ does not transcend its object. No art.</p>
<p>Now remember, I have a hammer and I know how to use it; an expert at it; an artist’s artist!</p>
<p>I hammer in the morning and I hammer in the evening and I have hammered all over this land. Many people have attended my hammerings and marveled. </p>
<p>My hammer, in the hand of this artist, has left to its public many artifacts to be celebrated and used by the beautiful people that alone know how to celebrate and cut-n-paste my great art.</p>
Nope. It wasn’t. I was making the point that VM is NOT art. It is exhibitionism. I was not trying to elevate the Buffalo Chip pageant to an art form at all. Performance “artists” who smear feces on themselves, or spread menstrual blood on a canvas, may do so on a stage or in a theater or in an art gallary. That does not elevate their coarse exhibitionism to an art form.</p>
Who defines what exhibitionism is? Is Hair or The Full Monty or Spring Awakening exhibitionism? Or the show Soozie’s daughter was in? They tell stories in a manner that sends powerful, meaningful messages to many, many people. It may not speak to you, but it’s a performance that finds success because audiences walk away having connected to characters, whose stories are deep, reflective, redemptive and gosh, entertaining.</p>