Sunday, March 03, 2013

Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #49

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 49th review I've received.

Paul Short is an artist with a slight nod to the absurd. Which is okay, everyone needs to be slightly absurd. In “Contemporary Farewells”, Paul shows ways to say good-bye ranging from what might be considered almost a fraternity styled backup maneuver involving clasping of hands to a maneuver styled to look like the Statue of Liberty. Anyone looking at this might think that they are looking at two people from the same club bidding each other adios, but instead these are ways that Paul seems to think would be a more likely acceptable way to say, “Aloha” for almost anyone, from the five year old looking to its playmate with an imaginary baby, to the two teenagers engaging in avoiding the finality by looking at their phones. “Modern Greetings “is not a nod to the process of handshaking, but rather an alternative to handshaking. Ways to greet include: “The double whack,” which is similar to paddy cake-paddy cake, but entirely not as it is done with hands backwards. “Shaky Hands” is somewhat non-gender specific and involves too much closeness for most hetro-sexual males. “Side Bump” seems to be homage to O’Hare International Airport and what happens when a traveler is late and running against the crowd. “But Bump” is similar to a move perfected in a New York City apartment kitchen. Apparently, the people who are doing “The Cellphone Rub” are not sending data to each other’s phones as much as they are greeting one another. Cats have been known to do such things with their faces. “The Extended Armpit” is not testing each other’s deodorants ability to “cut it” but is a happy hello to your fellow human. All things considered a very funny unique bit of art on display. In “How to be Narcissistic”, Paul shows a performance art workshop of sorts, people clamber together to celebrate and wallow in the awesomeness that is themselves. Included in this are instances of people listing their best qualities, making what can only be thought of as admissions of greatness and drawing self-portraits and taking pictures of themselves. This culminates into making awards for themselves and is concluded with a “Grand Exit”. Funny and frivolous, in all actuality, a function that should be attended by every individual at some time or another and cherished and remembered by all by framing the resulting “Award for Awesomeness” and sticking it in a place in an office where all can peer upon it’s grandness and ponder. Last but not least, “Please No Photo’s” is a wonderful work of sign art and the ability of the average human being to not give a rip about what the sign says. It also engages minds in almost a teeter totter of lonesome wonder as it tries to come to grips with the idea of photo’s being taken of a sign that says, clearly, “No Photo’s”. Somewhat like a bowl of plastic fruit it begs to question its own existence. Photos of the “No photo” logo are taken in various places throughout a city and in places where photos would be most certainly taken. A favorite photo for most fans would have to be the Japanese tourist, taking a photo, of the “No Photo” logo.