Thinking of Walter de Maria and the line in infinite space

Walter de Maria :"... but it is, that the real notion of an infinite space is perhaps one of the few thoughts that is worth thinking about more than once."

	MEANINGLESS WORK
	Meaningless work is obviously the most important and significant art form today. The aesthetic feeling given by meaningless work can not be described exactly because it varies with each individual doing the work. Meaningless work is honest. Meaningless work will be enjoyed and hated by intellectuals - though they should understand it. Meaningless work can not be sold in art galleries or win prizes in museums - though old fasion records of meaningless work (most all paintings) do partake in these indignities. Like ordinary work, meaningless work can make you sweat if you do it long enough. By meaningless work I simply mean work which does not make money or accomplish a conventional purpose. For instance putting wooden blocks from one box to another, then putting them back to the original box, back and forth, back and forth etc., is a fine example of meaningless work. Or digging a hole, then covering it is another example. Filing letters in a filing cabinet could be considered meaningless work, only if one were not considered a secretary, and if one scattered the file on the floor periodically so that one didn't get any feeling of accomplishment. Digging in the garden is not meaningless work. Weight lifting, though monotonous, is not meaningless work in its aesthetic since because it will give you muscles and you know it. Caution should be taken that the work chosen should not be too pleasurable, lest pleasure becomes the purpose of the work. Hence, sex, though rhythmix, can not stictly be called meaningless - though I'm sure many people consider it so. Meaningless work is potentially the most abstract, concrete, individual, foolish, indeterminate, exactly determined, varied, important art-action-experience one can undertake today. This concept is not a joke. Try some meaningless work in the privacy of your own room. In fact, to be fully understood, meaningless work should be done alone or else it becomes entertainment for others and the reaction or lack of reaction of the art lover to the meaningless work can not honestly be felt. Meaningless work can contan all of the best qualities of old art forms such as painting, writing, etc. It can make you feel and think about yourself, the outside world, morality, reality, unconsciousness, nature, history, time, philosophy, nothing at all, politics, etc. without the limitations of the old art forms. Meaningless work is individual in nature and it can be done in any form and over any span of time - from one second up to the limits of exhaustion. It can be done fast or slow or both. Rhythmically or not. It can be done anywhere in any weather conditions. Clothing, if any, is left to the individual. Whether the meaningless work, as an art form, is meaningless, in the ordinary sense of that term, is of course up to the individual. Meaningless work is the new way to tell who is square. Grunt Get to work WdM March, 1960.

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jtwine posing as Nike of Samothrace at the Devils Golf Course in Death Valley, USA

JT as Nike of Samothrace is a set of reenactments of the famous Hellenistic sculpture and is part of a series of performances in Death Valley, California, which are investigating the idea of "body in space". They are part of the evolving body wrap performances staged at various locations around the world. The project explores ephemeral sculptural concepts.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a 2nd-century BC
marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. H.W. Janson described it as "the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture."
The Nike of Samothrace, discovered in 1863, is estimated to have been created around 200–190 BCE. It is 8 feet (2.44 metres) high. It was created to not only honor the goddess, Nike, but to honor a sea battle. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery through its features.

Flight Exercises in Death Valley - waiting for updraft

Selected images from UPDRAFT a flight exercises performance for drive-by tourists at the Artist's drive in Death Valley. An area of multi-colored claystones from the ancient ash-falls of the Artist's Drive Formation, where various metals have oxidized the clay creating eye-popping reds, yellows, greens, blues, and purples.