#betterthansculpture is the Best Thing You’ll See This Week

by Glasstire March 30, 2017

Sometimes we encounter things in the world that look like they should be (and could be) art. And sometimes, even, they are better than art. Cue the #betterthansculpture hashtag on Instagram. While it currently has only 130 posts to its name, the hashtag has so much potential. It was first posted 120 weeks ago by artist Jason Lee Starin. See some examples below:

#betterthansculpture

A post shared by Jason Lee Starin (@jasonleestarin) on

#betterthansculpture

A post shared by Jason Lee Starin (@jasonleestarin) on

#betterthansculpture

A post shared by Jason Lee Starin (@jasonleestarin) on

Salt and pepper museum #betterthansculpture #gatlinburg

A post shared by Jessica Brandl (@jessicabrandl) on

3 comments

3 comments

Tim Glover March 30, 2017 - 09:51

This article is lame and a shame. There are quite a few sculptors that work very hard to contribute to the medium of sculpture in the city of Houston, which bye the way does not find a lot of financial support here. How about titling your article something else. You could also give some attention to those artists that seriously practice the craft of sculpture……Tim Glover

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Jason Lee Starin March 31, 2017 - 09:06

Life before art. Something I’ve learned over the past few decades as an artist. Before phones had cameras, when they were attached to walls, when you had to dislocate their signal in order to hook up to your home computer to log on, I used to take long walks with my camera looking for inspiration. I’d see a thing that caught my eye and take a picture of it, wait a week to get it developed at the drug store and then pin the image to my studio wall. If I had stayed in the insular space of my studio mind I would have never seen such an inspirational thing. I would not have though I could make such a form. We as artists exist in the shared physical world. We are trained to observe what others take for granted. I take pictures of things I would never have dreamed up on my own. In the miasma of ethereal dreams nothing is concrete, nothing forms in relatable ways. Outside the studio exists a relatable world. There are things better than sculpture. Go see them, be surprised, be inspired, then go make better art.

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chris drobnock March 31, 2017 - 09:41

We are inspired by the world around us. Sometimes that includes the things that are fabricated by industry and by necessity (as most of the sources in #betterthansculpture images are) though their original intent is practical and in some cases the arrangements are not viewed as aesthetic by the original practitioner, i.e. the plumber who put the gas lines together and the painter who made the wall red. The idea that you would focus on things ‘made by sculptors’ is very short-sighted. The images that are shared in the collection of this data bank are by visual artists and further, sculptors even. So, in reality the article is giving respect and attention to those practicing the craft of sculpture. Remember it is all generative, it is all cumulative. Cheers.

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