“NOW” maintenance is art

I felt that we weren’t really performing “maintenance art”, just maintenance and then looking at the art after we were done cleaning it. I didn’t despise what we did and it did feel nice out there enjoying a muffin and looking at the blue sky and the art with everyone around.

I think that Mierle Laderman Ukeles cleaning the museum steps with water and Richard Serra flinging molten lead were very different. I think that most likely neither are art, the water on the steps is for sure not art because she’s just cleaning the stairs with water and I don’t see that being artistic in any way unless she did something specific to make it artistic, if she was just normally cleaning the steps then I wouldn’t consider it art. With Richard’s “art”, I would say that if he was trying to make something artistic in his mind then it is art but if he was merely flinging molten lead at a wall without the thought of making something more than molten lead on a wall then it was and will only ever be, molten lead on a wall.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s cleaning of the museum steps was most likely not art. It depends on her intent, not where she does it or what her occupation was. If she was purposely doing something to make her performance artistic then sure, I would agree that it was art but if she was simply dumping the water without artistic thought in mind then she did nothing more than what a janitor does everyday on the job, I wouldn’t consider it art unless she had reason and intent to make it art.

Something is art depending on the intent, effort, and meaning behind the artist. Not all paintings on a canvas in art museums are art, the paintings that are just flings of color with no aim or direction of the painting and just random, are not art. The houses where people put their creative minds into their work and make their homes beautiful with style and taste, is art. If someone is painting their home solely to protect the walls and not putting their own personal artistic taste into it, it’s not art.

No one has ever made me think differently about “women’s work” because “women’s work” will always be art. There’s no reason for it to not be art dependent on who did the art. No matter who performs, art is art.

I wouldn’t get down on my hands and knees to clean anyone’s star. I have enough respect for myself to not get onto the dirty ground and scrub someone’s shiny star. Not everyone with a star deserves a star, and I wouldn’t risk my self integrity cleaning some celebrity’s star.