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.
