Who takes pictures of garlic? When it’s as beautiful as this, I do. Some, I guess, find that strange. Like the people who looked at me snapping away and smiled here in the central market of Istanbul’s Kadıköy neighborhood. But really, doesn’t that homegrown garlic look great?
Oscar Wilde (Saint of Antinous) once famously quipped: "All art is quite useless." A contemporary of Wilde found the statement "art is useless" confusing and asked him to explain what he meant. Here is the reply:
ReplyDelete16, TITE STREET,
CHELSEA. S.W.
My dear Sir
Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility. If the contemplation of a work of art is followed by activity of any kind, the work is either of a very second-rate order, or the spectator has failed to realise the complete artistic impression.
A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said about our relations to flowers. Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence. It is accidental. It is a misuse. All this is I fear very obscure. But the subject is a long one.
Truly yours,
Oscar Wilde