Is it Art?

We went to St Ives last Sunday:

It was a beautiful day, the weather was fantastic

We went specifically to visit Tate St Ives. We had never been to the gallery before. Some friends had visited there and were not impressed, because they did not think the exhibits were ‘Art’.

I have quite eclectic views, so I thought I would probably enjoy the visit. But, I thought the Tate would have a permanent exhibition (because I am used to Tate Britain, in London), but it doesn’t. At St Ives the exhibits change fairly often.

This is the outside of the Tate:

There were works on display by Margaret Mellis, Naum Gabo, and others (if you click on the artists name it will take you the their websites and you can see examples of their works). We enjoyed looking at their work, but the best bit was when became part of the art ourselves:

First we came across Half the Air in a Given Space an iconic work by Martin Creed, which sees the spectacular sea-facing galleries filled with hundreds of balloons:

The idea is that you can walk through the balloons, we did, and even I was buried. It is quite disconcerting and can be a bit claustrophobic, But, it was a very good experience.

We then came to a large room, which, back in May this year, had four plain white walls. The work is being created by visitors, as you enter the room you invited to choose a place on the wall where your height is recorded as well as your name and the date of you visit:

Can you find Me? Look for : -Peter, 3.7.11

Can you find Davina? Look for : -Davina, 3.7.11

So we are now immortalised in a work of art (although I am sure the walls will be scrubbed clean at the end of the exhibition).

Is it art, well Wikipedia defines art as:

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, andintellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics, and even disciplines such as history and psychology analyze its relationship with humans and generations.

and

Britannica Online defines art as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others." By this definition of the word, artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind: from early pre-historic art to contemporary art; however, some theories restrict the concept to modern Western societies.^[8] The first and broadest sense of art is the one that has remained closest to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to "skill" or "craft." A few examples where this meaning proves very broad include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, and military arts. However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology. 

So, is it Art? Of course it is.