We’ve seen Jonathon Keats‘ profound conceptual art projects before, and were blown away by their social relevance. The key breakthrough that led to Keats’ interest in the Agrifolk Art Movement was made at the MacNamara Foundation on Westport Island in Maine, where Keats was a fellow earlier this year. From his studio, Keats observed how spruce saplings moved in the wind– sensitive to their surroundings. He fastened a pencil to some of the tree branches, and put a piece of paper with each, and let the trees show their artistic abilities. You see, trees are non-sentient artists– so they don’t get tired like we do; their artistic output can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And Keats had a large supply of drawing implements– because he’s a conceptual artist, he wasn’t doing much with them, so providing them to the trees was a no brainer. Now that you’ve seen the first installment of this documentary, check out the second and third; and you can access the original press release here. I hope this project gives you the laughs it gave Josh and me.
Jonathon Keats is a genius. Who is The Last Folk Hero? It may be Keats himself. And also, it turns out, many of the artists in this project demonstrated non-sentient genius and heroic creativity. Alas, most of the Agrifolk artists that participated in this historic project have by now been reduced to post-Christmas tree saw dust. As an Agrifolk Art dealer this is less disturbing to me than you might imagine. There’s nothing like a dead artist to raise the prices of their creations. Keats, fortunately for humanity, is still alive and creating.
Jorge
Tuesday, 02.20.07 @ 2:15 am
God… this mentality is so grotesque. “Farming” art… how do you capitalize on this “Folk art”? Is this supposed to help the environment in some ridiculously twisted way? I hope they’re using recycled wood in their pencils after watching a plug for a book by some dude.
I believe Jorge may have had a humor bypass operation. If his response to the Agrifolkumentary is any indication, in Jorge we may have discovered another non-sentient being although this one, most likely, is incapable of making or recognizing art.
