In principle I am against manifestos,as I am also against principles.

So after 2 weeks of hard reading I'm finally given something I can deal with, the Avant Garde. Since I've had two weeks of harder readings I'm choosing to focus this entry on something I love , Dada art.

Dada was started not only as a protest of the world of art but also of the world of politics. Started by mostly German immigrants that wanted to express a new kind of mentality one that disrupted common sense. Dada wasn't meant to be art it was meant to be anti-art in the way that it protested against the academic and cultural value of art. Dada ignored aesthetics, when normal art strove to have meaning Dada strove to have none , well art was meant to appeal to sensibilities Dada art was meant to offend. Dada was created to go against everything that was seen as conventions of art.

An example of which is Hugo Bells sound poems, which are verses with out words. An exploration into phonics and the construction of language. The creation of sound poems involves the breaking down of language into syllables and individual letters which are than reconfigured into meaningless sounds. Sound poems could be used as both a metaphor for the destruction that was being cause by the war and a comment on language.

An interpretation of a Hugo Bell sound poem

Personally I love Dada art because I think the art world should constantly be taking itself apart. No one should be able to take anything completely seriously. Dada is able to consistently question the world well still having a lot of fun. It also includes so many disciplines that no matter your tastes you can find pieces that are relateable. It never gets boring and always asks questions of the viewer creating a discussion. I can remember walking into a room at the national gallery in Ottawa filled with Duchamp's work with both my uncle and father and it got us talking more than any other part of the gallery. The main question that they asked was why? and I gave a typically Dada type answer of why not? . But in reality by playing with ideas of authorship and the aesthetics values of art the Dadaists were able to help change the art institutions and the publics view of what art could be. Paving the way for the art of the later 20th century.

In conclusion I have decided to write my own Dada poem using words from the introductory paragraph of paul woods article.

hand the thinking art painting
modernism there radicalism
rejected climax
1960s purification protocols
idea a an both
one
concise
Greenberg's crisis


And that poem is like me