The Final Rotation

Here is a really interesting piece of art I found on Eyeteeth. Artist Matthew Moore created Rotation a replica of a development that was being built on property his parents had just sold. The project was made out of black-bearded wheat for roads and sorghum as houses.

What’s interesting is what the artist has said that this is not protest art.

“If I’m against development, then I’m a hypocrite,” he says. “As farmers we created the model for this type of growth. We came here, ripped apart the native desert landscape, and continually tried to increase our yield per acreage. It’s essentially the business model for any suburban development (from Eyeteeth.)”

This raises an interesting conception about the role of the artist (which is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.) Moore would seem to be suggesting that all he is not commenting on the development but merely reflecting it. If we posit that the artist is a mirror of zir (gender neutral his/her) society, is it better simply show the world artist sees or should the artist also direct the way the “audience” should feel about a piece? What do you think my glorious readers?