Saturday, March 8, 2014

A Metaphor for Art

This is a video of two people extemporizing music on a sidewalk.  They are in the midst of a creative act, even more so since what they play exists only because they play it.  



While they play, people wander by, apparently uninterested, not bothering to stop for a moment to watch and listen.  By an accident of filming, most of these passers-by are faceless to us, only sets of legs.  Yet unmistakably they are clad in a kind of universal uniform, baggy shorts, running shoes, little variation one to the other.

It is to me an almost perfect metaphor for art in society, the artist amidst the crowd.

The buskers are BlakeAbyss and Amy Alvey.