Two thoughts engaging me at the moment
- Good art is offering us a kind of transcendental experience we used to get from religion.
- Art’s primary & only demand is very simple – and at the same time extremely difficult-: you have to slow down if you are to get it.
There’s something about slowing down and seeing the world that does seem to be one of our few modes of salvation if we’re not orthodox believers.
sub rosa 
I love the photographs. Who is the artist?
I have found illness to be a great slower-downer. Perhaps art should make us sick. But if it makes us sick so we can appreciate it, well, that sounds sort of like a Munchausen syndrome.
I overheard two architect students talking about how Banks are the new churches and money is the dominant religion in the world. Perhaps artists are Saints, they have to be dead for a while though, then they can be drenched in money, or the holy spirit of end up on candles and tea towels.
I must apologize. I don’t mean to make fun. I do enjoy your posts. They are always thought provoking.
Art = Charles Ray: Plank Piece I and II (1973)
Ah. I needed this today. Slow is salvation. xoS
I know from biology that the amount of detail perceived is proportional to the rate of travel! Jane
Isn’t there a claim by Bacon that art is a game that’s played by atheists after the meaninglessness of the holocaust (I paraphrase and summarise the context with its quote here).
I love the plank art!! –that would certainly slow one down…