"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
Wednesday, September 24, 2003 Yoko Ono's latest bit of performance art has audience members snipping off bits of her clothing in the name of world peace.
Grandstanding in the arts has become a habit, like church-going. By making noises about some pretense at social redemption or another, artists put themselves beyond the reach of criticism. Any relation between stated intent and actual achievement is rendered undiscussible. Right-thinking short circuits traditional categories of judgment. It hardly matters if a "work" is good or bad. It's about Peace, Justice, Choice or some other fine abstraction. How could anyone find fault with that?
You can sell any flimflam if you dress it as art. Art scams find more pigeons than three-card Monty or the Jamaican switch. Should Cut Piece come to your town, call the bunco squad.
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