Making sense of art and design industries

Written by: frosk1

I want to discuss an article from Dagbladet (https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/gigantisk-kunstverk-vekker-avsky/71507452), which is written by the journalist Helene H. Rossholt, the 20th of august, so this is a very new case. The case is about a new statue on the top of the City Gallery Wellington in New Zealand, made by the artist Ronnie Van Hout. This is how the statue looks like;

Picture copyed from: https://thearticle.com.au/2016/11/growing-up-ronnie-van-houts-tumultuous-year/

Yes, that’s right, a chopped hand with a face?

The statue is apparently five meters tall, the weight is 400 kilo, and the face is apparently inspired by the artist himself (not Trump, hehe), so it is kind of a self portrait. The name of the sculpture is Quasi, and the symbole is being an outsider or a «freak», that also wants to be loved and accepted.

Ronnie Van Hout is known for making provocative and disturbing art, and this statue seems to cause a lot of negative reactions from the people in the city, and from local art critics. BUT, some people do kind of like it as well.

Social critic is a very common phenomenon in the art industry, and artists and creative souls will express themselves through their art, just like this sculpture.

By looking at this sculpture, I feel like Ronnie has a very destructive way of seeing the world. I also feel like a lot of artists has very «dark» souls, does anyone agree with me?

But what is causing the strong reactions from the audience? According to the book «Why are artists poor?» by Hans Abbing, is art very important because it has a public interest and will cause reactions. That is also, according to the book, a reason why governments are supporting art. In the article in Dagbladet, the transportation had a total cost of 420.000 norwegian croners. There is no information about where the money came from, but I will assume that it is paid by support from the government and maybe some cultural organisation.

The plan is also that the statue will be staying on the top of the roof for three years, which means that the government in New Zealand supports his art or artistry in general. There is a reason to believe that the strong reactions is caused by the mix of all these things; that the government accepts a bisarre statue that stands out to stay on the top of a roof in the city, that causes a lot of attention and becomes the «symbol» of the city for at least a few years.