I went to art school. Best five years of my life… But none of this silliness. No sirree. It was all business. Not like Matt Cheney, action artist. He makes art while doing things like skateboarding and skydiving. He’s even used his skateboard as a brush. Now that’s putting your parents’ tuition money to good use!
[Source: John Bakos]
Matt Cheney: Action Artist
17 comments
bailgun
attack of the internet tough guys!
PIG CITY
I can’t stand this sort o shit. I’m being my usual negative self. But this just winds me up. its not art its an excuse for a few guys to get together and have a laugh. I’d like to see if he’s charging money for any of this stuff, then chase him down the road and crash one of his canvases over his bonce.
PIGCITY
Conahan
Thanks for the vote of confidence on the cartoons. I think insecurity about that tempts the inner blowhard out every once in a while. I read The Painted Word about 25 years ago when I was writing my Art History thesis for my BA. I spent some time thinking hard about modern art.
I think part of what I like about that guy’s art project is that it is making fun of all that art criticism and famous art. The rest of his graduating class was probably doing the same sort of thing without the skateboarding.
enemy combatant
“Self indulgent? Maybe. A good artist will show you something no one else could. How do they come up with something like that? I think so many skaters become artists because they are open to unconventional forms of expression.”
The trouble is that he isn’t showing us something that no one else could. Everyone who has ever painted a wall or fence knows exactly what the effect of just slapping a loaded brush against an object looks like. And anyone who has ever dripped stuff on the floor during a project knows what a Jackson Pollock is: a mess.
“he is exploring some of the fundamental issues of making art and the idea of what it is to ride a skateboard. Looks like he
Conahan
No, I’d like to hear more about how I really suck. Leave now if you don’t want to read an unexplained condemnation.
ssk
Every layback grind I do is like a Tibetan Buddist mandala, a masterpiece of painstaking detail, style, geometry, and color only visible for a few fleeting moments before it is swept into a pile of sand, a meditation on the fleeting reality that all we see is but an impermanent illusion.
How come he didn’t ride on the canvas? Duh.
Kilwag
I get that some art is more about the process than the finished piece, and some art is just the process. I don’t begrudge this guy any of that. I even like a couple of the paintings. I do question his commitment, especially when other artists take it to higher iterations ( I was going to say Extremes!) This work seems more just like a guy having a good time executing a fun idea. Not “Art” with a capital A.
bailgun
he has his own commenting guidelines, and they’re really simple.
step one: troll
step two: troll
step three: troll
step four: make another cup of metamucil.
Kilwag
Hey Enemy Combatant, you forgot to consult the commenting guidelines.
enemy combatant
“The guy isn
Conahan
A lot of art is about ideas. If you want a realistic picture of something, you can take a photograph. Modern art asks if we need painting to do that too?
I love the textures of surfaces and edges that have been skated. The photos I take of that stuff, evokes for me the experience of skateboarding. I feel what it is to grind coping or ride a wall. I think about all the runs that went into making a wall look like it does, which is why I like looking at those pictures. I think this guy is doing something similar. It also made me laugh which is one of my criteria for good art. Check out some footage of Jackson Pollock painting. It looks a lot like what that kid is doing. A Pollock painting can be an amazing experience.
Action painting is a form of non-objective art (art that isn’t trying to be a picture of something) about focusing on the visual result of the physical act of swinging a brush or throwing paint – the visual qualities of paint on a surface applied a certain way. The guy isn’t doing anything really novel here but he is exploring some of the fundamental issues of making art and the idea of what it is to ride a skateboard. Looks like he’s exploring it on different levels.
Self indulgent? Maybe. A good artist will show you something no one else could. How do they come up with something like that? I think so many skaters become artists because they are open to unconventional forms of expression.
A friend once quipped that a student show we had just seen should have been entitled: Leave Now if You Don
davoud
or you could write “our mutt” on a urinal and call it art. oh wait, that’s already been done too…
t-roy
I made some good art in the toilet bowl this morning, too. Maybe I shoulda been skydiving or on a skateboard to make it more appealing.
sleezyskates
riding a skateboard and putting brush strokes on a wall is far from genius. He should skate with no pants and shit on the walls
“An artist is just a half-assed excuse for being shitty” J.Jessee
Kilwag
I’m all for art if it means we can skate on it. I can’t take this guy seriously though. Seems like it’s more spectacle and gimmick, and not even on a large enough scale to be anything more than a guy having some fun with it, which is fine.
Dylan
I am in art school right now, and I’m pretty stoked on this actually.
A lot of work that justifies things in a huge B/S manner I don’t like, but this just works/seems genuine. Rad.
paige
There used to be an open art space on 20th and E Burnside (It’s some kind of tutoring place now) where people lived and worked and breathed their art, and they did something like this there. There was also a wall with a giant collage of war images from Iraq. They flattened beer cans and figured out how to press 7″ records on them. They made some with root beer cans for the sXe kids.
It’s cool, I really like the skateboard art.