Originally published at: In "Ever is Over All" a woman smashes parked car windows with a metal pole shaped like a tropical flower | Boing Boing
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Inspired by someone smashing car windows in a dreamy manner? Well, whatever floats your boat, but (just to get the likely-to-follow raging argument kicked off) it ain’t ‘art’ in my book.
I’m gonna give her a pass and trust that the cars were hers and placed there and not random strangers’ vehicles. (If not, well, fuck her and her ‘art’. Try telling that to the judge!)
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I congratulate all those who are so gifted as to witness this as art… you are far, far better than I, a mere knuckle dragger.
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I’m pretty sure I saw a cartoon by Don Martin in MAD once that went along those lines.
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Moves along so fast, almost missed it. /s
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Well, she seems to have a particular grudge against front passenger side windows of cheap cars, as opposed to the expensive cars and windshields she gives a pass. So I expect you’re correct that they’re hers.
I don’t know what to think about the artistic merit, though. I’ve heard art defined, broadly, as a work designed specifically to evoke an emotional reaction. That’s a pretty broad net, but it seems to apply here. It definitely creates a mood, anyway.
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I liked it.
It reminds me of this…
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Artistic license?
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Art as political statement
Political statement as art
It’s worth noting that this work is probably most recognizable today as the inspiration for the similar scene in Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade.’
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It is a little funny to see comments talk about this famous, influential, quarter-century-old piece of art dismissively and in the present tense as if she’s some Tiktokker doing pranks for internet clout.
Strangely, I didn’t see many folks questioning whether the painting of Ivan the Terrible by Ilya Repin was or was not ‘art’ in Mark’s recent post about that work. I guess we art teachers have our work cut out for us if ‘oil painting by dead white man’ is still the category of object most people can recognize as ‘art’ without question.
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The one thing I agree with you on here is the mood/feeling.
I’ve seen this installed as a loop so didn’t know the last window was a Bentley (not so cheap)
The sound design, the ‘older’ woman in the red dress, the smiling policeman/official showing disregard… there are so many questions/statements here that only a couple of commenters have engaged with this beyond conservative sniggers against new art forms and their history
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Everyone’s a critic of critics.
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Art imitating art imitating art ?
It’s performance art, and art is whatever you want it to be. Or not. But I think you missed the female police officer walking past and giving a salute to her, and not all the cars were obviously cheap, one was a Jaguar - however I’m pretty certain that none of the cars were randomly chosen, and a side window would be relatively cheap to replace anyway.
I thought it had a beguiling surreal quality to it, personally.
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The narrative is still valid, the only dating evident is the age of the cars, it could almost be contemporary.
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They probably were. I mean, I doubt they had the budget to use valuable cars and why would they? Use some written-off wrecks and pretty them up enough for a single-angle one-time shot. They only damaged one window so the parts could still be sold later on 
Most cars you see wrecked in Hollywood movies were already wrecks before.
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She should do it again, but for cars parked in bike lanes or across sidewalks or similar malfeasance. Then I’m 1000% on board.
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Scooters, cars and bikes blocking sidewalks and ramps making everything less accessible for folks with mobility needs would be more top of the list for me.
Smash away!
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