To many, some string tied around a tree may not seem like art.
Masters in Fine Arts candidate Robert Dimin is challenging this notion with his public art piece “String Theory.”
The project will involve wrapping trees, fences and other permanent fixtures on campus with over 30,000 feet of red and blue string.
It began yesterday near the Fisher Fine Arts Library, the School of Design, Van Pelt Library and the fence behind the Meyerson Building on 34th Street. The project will eventually extend to the front of the Kelly Writer’s House and is set to remain in place until Homecoming Weekend.
Dimin was awarded a $750 Provost’s Office’s Arts & the City Year grant to complete the project.
Dimin did similar work for the Vienna Biennale last fall using pink mason twine, but changed to red and blue string for Penn because the project would be displayed when a lot of alumni will be on campus.
“I want people to enjoy looking at it — to have a little bit of pride. It’s about being part of a broader community,” he said. “The project speaks about the history of Penn. It is now part of that history.”
To help bolster the community aspect, Dimin reached out to fellow students, asking them to participate in the project in hopes of encouraging University-wide involvement, according to Fine Arts Program coordinator Jane Irish.
College senior Lily Rogath, the project’s undergraduate liaison, said this aspect of the project excites her most.
“It is something that everyone can be involved in,” she said. “What better way for MFA students and undergraduates to interact and do something really fun?”
The temporary, site-specific nature of the work is also key. According to Rogath, it speaks to the nature of the work, which encourages audiences to consider unconventional ideas about art.
“It highlights the fact that art can be so much more than a painting — there is art in making something that might not even last,” she said.
Dimin added that the project’s non-permanence is also linked to the current economic situation, representing the “disruption of the linear path [of] existing institutions and foundations … [and] reflects the non-permanence of humanity.”
The project is also intended to have an element of fun — which is why, Dimin said, he was initially surprised he got the grant.
“It’s also a silly project,” he said, adding that to people outside the art world it might seem like one of those things where people are drawn to say “my kid could do that.”
“Penn is a very serious place,” Dimin said, explaining that he wants “nothing more than people getting MBA.s, J.D.s and Ph.D.s in economics to step away from their lives for a minute and understand that people made [the project] with the intention of community and play.”
Comments
The emperor has no clothes
I had the misfortune of walking past Dimin's half-baked notion of art on my way to Cosi this afternoon, and frankly thought he was helping take trash off of a tree. The 60s are over and post-modernism (and Dada too, for that matter) is dead; must we continue to feign interest in and pretend to assign significance to that which is completely devoid of substantive meaning? Unconventionalism (as it were) in art is so in vogue that it is veritably conventional; this is nothing short of fashionable conformism, an excuse for a lack of ability. Real art takes honesty, courage, and skill; things that are apparently foreign to Dimin (and the Penn community it would seem). The idea that this haphazard jumble of string challenges (or objectively represents) anything, let alone our definitions of art, is facetious at best. (Then again, it does provide a stunning exemplar of what art is not.) Really, after DuChamp, this sort of child's play is best left to kindergartners. Let the real men (and women) create art; Dimin should stick with the other infants in the sandbox and keep to finger painting. It suits him better.
I am saddened, nay, embarrassed that the arts have been so reduced to such conceptually unintelligible nonsense that the Provost can think of no better way than to burn through his limited funds. (I am even more embarrassed that the DP would devote even a word to this trash.) DuChamp and the Dadaists may have been morons, but at least they gave us something to talk about, if nothing else. Have we really reached such a dismal nadir of artistic and intellectual achievement where no one is profoundly embarrassed for Dimin and the writer of this article? Where no one has the proverbial balls to call this heap of trash what it is and demand art that uplifts, ennobles, and enlightens us? Indeed, it seems the inmates already run the asylum.
JR
Re: The emperor has no clothes
To jwrappaport:
Typically if people don’t like what you do, they don’t talk about it -- to get such a negative and visceral response ultimately highlights the safety of the anonymity provided by the internet. We are in a post-post moment (if we are really even in a position to say that) and for you to be aware of this means that you have some understanding of contemporary art. However, what you say art is supposed to do is not what this notion of post-post means. Your notion of the purpose of art, I believe, is a rather antiquated understanding of its function. Regarding my own personal practice, you don’t know my technical abilities, full portfolio of work, or history as an artist. The only thing you do know is that I was able to write a successful grant proposal for a community-based public art project, ultimately simple and playful in nature. To criticize my ability to create a work of art worthy of your “half-baked notion of art” seems unfair and uncalled for given the context.
You raise interesting points, but they are muddled in your negativity. They are worth mentioning – Who has the right to define “substantive meaning”? What are our “definitions of art”? Who defines “our”? What is art?
Thank you for your letter. I appreciate being referenced alongside Duchamp and the Dadaists. I especially enjoy the way you so easily represent the timeless and tired critic who ultimately draws attention to artistic issues worth talking about. I am still working on the installation this week – you are welcome to join me and other members of the Penn community and to judge the project perhaps in a new light afterwards.
Best,
Robert Dimin
@ jwrappaport, GROW UP
I felt compelled to respond to the above comment as the smile that crept on my face this morning while reading this uplifting story was instantly changed into a frown by the shallow and empty jabs taken by the author of the first comment - who obviously has a personal vendetta against the artist, Robert, as well as an incomplete education in art history and a quite frightening conception of art -- did he/she really call Duchamp and the Dadaists "morons" and claim that art's only job is to "uplift, ennoble, and enlighten us?" Anyway, I was looking forward to returning to Penn this weekend and certainly expected such feelings to arise in me when viewing the project- which already occurred over the computer!
Why turn something so simple and fun into an attack against Robert, the Provost, the foundations of art, Penn -- get over yourself.
"Real art takes honesty, courage, and skill" -- EXACTLY! This project seems to speak to each of these things even though skill isn't conventionally seen in the execution of the work. What about the grant he must have written? The organization of the volunteers and other aspects on campus?
Good luck with life you bitter human being -- it's unclear, but I don't even think you're a Penn student or alum -- maybe staff... Regardless, I'm concerned for your mental health! Hope you crawl into the dark hole from which you came for the length of the alum weekend.
Unexpected Pleasure
As a Wharton MBA, and therefore someone approaching this project from way far afield, I just want to say thanks to Robert and all those who had a hand in this project -- I find this art project fun and I appreciate the effort of community behind it. It was great to happen upon it in progress yesterday.
Congrats from an Art Historian
I'm happy to see Penn supporting unconventional approaches to the arts!! Great work!! This is the kind of project we need to see more of at Penn.
String!!
I love this! I am an undergrad here at Penn and I really like this project. Is it too late to help out with the installation?
Thanks!
Melissa
Article Clarification
Just wanted to clarify for readers that the Vienna Biennale is not the same as the Venice Biennale. At first I thought it was a typo and that the author meant to say the Venice Biennale since Venice hosts one of the major contemporary art exhibitions in the world (started in 1895). That would say a lot of Robert Dimin's international presence and credibility as being on the forefront of contemporary art. The Vienna Biennale (after doing a little research on it) was started in 2006 and has yet to really integrate into the established art scene. Vienna seems to be more local/regional, whereas Venice is a global art festival with country artists who represent countries.
Vienna Biennale:http://www.viennabiennale.com/index.php?y=10
Venice Biennale: http://www.labiennale.org/en/Home.html
On a side note, I walked by this today when I was leaving the library and didn't really know what it was. I think the premise of it as public, participatory art is legitimate, just not the execution. A more unique material other than ordinary string, some type of conceived design, or another feature would have given passerby's a better clue as to what it was and make it "better" (for lack of a better word).
Re: Article Clarification
To abe732,
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate the “clarification” regarding two different international biennales, although I assume that the writer of the article assumed the ability of readers in the Penn community to make this distinction on their own. Yes, the Vienna Biennale is not the Venice Biennale, nor was it represented to be so in this article. For further “clarification,” I was chosen as an American artist to represent my country when I exhibited my work in the Vienna Biennale at the Wiener Künstlerhaus, that is one of the most respected art institutions from the 19th century (in fact, its founding dates earlier than the Venice Biennale).
The initial decision in this long-term project to use mason’s twine has a complicated and theoretical history – too involved for this forum, but you are welcome to contact me if you are interested to hear more.
The installation is in progress and the offer is open to take part in the installation process. I would be interested to hear your thoughts after you participated.
Best,
Robert Dimin
The confusion on our part
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