My first reaction was.... Yikes! thats a lot of money for something that looks like that! But then after seeing some of her other work in prominent places and museums, I started to get some "context" and began looking at this project in another light.
When your not in the art world or familiar with an artist and their works, at first glance a lot of art may appear like... "soooo what!? I could do that!" Heck, even some of the most revered artists of the past Michelangelo, werent the best artists of their day. There were undoubtedly plenty of artists who were much better. They just didnt get the big jobs, the famous jobs, and or not enough of their works survived, they didnt get the "name". Its not just about quality or likability, or the ability to do something (any artist worth their salt could now paint in the style of Michelangelo, no big deal, easy breezy....I could do that. ) But for an artist to BOTH have an accomplished style that is "theirs" AND to have it be well known, Thats one facet of what can give a piece of art its worth.
Another thing about the "language and reading of art" is context.... I am sure you have all seen art that is basically a sculptural "blob". The first time one sees this form your likely to go... "What!? I dont get it!?"
You can get the most from art, a particular form of art, when you see it in the context of others of its kind. It speaks to you more clearly when you can compare and contrast it to similar works. A Madonna and Child painting may be pretty, but you can really get what the artist is saying, the history and time of when the artist lived, their view of the world and so much more when you look at lots of them side by side. For then the DIFFERENCES become apparent, differences you would not see if you did not have the others to compare to, and its these differences that say something. You notice the clothing is different,,,why? The child looking to or away, the hand held this way or that, why did the artist put this or that object in the background, this one is light and airy, this one dark, this one partly nude, etc. etc.
You get far more of what the artist is saying, what history is saying, by noticing the similarities and differences by comparing and contrasting similar works. Without this kind of context, you have to understand that your viewpoint is going to be much more shallow and limited.
Back to the "blobs"... There is infinity in what the artist can say, even within the most simple of forms. This blob is carved out of black granite and is low and very solid looking. Another is light colored and flowing, perhaps with a little blob broken off and sliding away. And so on. Today we see lots of shiny, silvery, blobs lol. Your more likely to "get it" to get these shapes meanings, emotions, time and place, when you know how to read the language of its contexts. And the more you learn, the more you can understand and see the different meanings, what it is the artist and history is saying, etc. And all of this will of course be affected by the viewer and his or her own history and context.
Looking at that rendering of the tiled wall wont tell you as much as it would if you had the artists other works to compare it to, similar works by other artists in different times and places, etc.
Art can also be like learning to read works of writing. First its the languages alphabet, then individual words, then perhaps learning a cute rhyming poem, then growing to understand the complexities and multiple meanings of each word and line in a shakespearean sonnet, or perhaps the joy of the many meanings found in a simple haikou... You cant understand or appreciate any of the latter if you didnt first learn the languages alphabet. The different; types, forms, languages of art in sculpture and painting, can also be that way. There are many languages, a line written in Chinese or Sanskrit may look like unintelligible chicken scratch, but we cant get its meaning unless we learn to read it,,, or we can take the word of someone else who has studied the language and let them tell us us what they think the meaning is or whether its good art or bad.
One person may look at a piece of art and not know its alphabet or language and see nothing and judge it to be gibberish, while someone who has studied that particular art forms language may see a LOT. Not all art can or should be of the same kind, or at the same "grade level". And even like written stories or poems, nor will we all agree about what its saying or whether we like it.
I am willing to bet, that if more people were to take the time to learn the "language" history and context of this particular piece of art, they would find much to appreciate. They would see more than gibberish and find their lives richer for having done so.
