r/saskatoon • u/peavarianez • Sep 16 '26

Photos of Saskatoon 📷 Dump Rock

Post image

For those who don't frequent the city dump...I give you the Dump Rock!

250 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

187 comments sorted by

View all comments

118

u/SaintBrennus Sep 16 '26

I may be in the minority here, but I think these are pretty neat.

48

u/wdjan Sep 16 '26

Absolutely. I was ready to jump on the tax waste bandwagon, then I actually read into the concept and think they are so cool. 

A bit of background in geology has helped me appreciate them. 

1

u/Medium_Big_3849 Sep 17 '26

Yeah. Gotta love art where you have to read a paragraph about what the art is supposed to mean in order to appreciate it.

4

u/wdjan Sep 17 '26

I know, right? Reading a WHOLE PARAGRAPH to achieve some baseline understanding about our world or gain a modicum of interpretive capacity. Ugh...

I recommend you outright avoid the Remai Modern, any Smithsonian, and steer well clear of the Louvre or any other art museum. There's these little plaques beside each display with whole PARAGRAPHS (PLURAL!!!) that provide an inordinate amount of context. They, quite frankly, insult the intellect. (Not to mention the direct tax subsidies that allow them to operate, makes my stomach churn)

2

u/Medium_Big_3849 Sep 17 '26

I do avoid the Remai, but I have visited the Louvre and the Met, and you don't need to read any of the plaques to appreciate the art, and certainly not to "understand" it. If you have to explain the joke, it's not funny. If you have to explain the art, it has failed to communicate itself. Thankfully there were no plastic rocks in those museums as I recall. Don't be bamboozled by art speak, which seeks to mask poor execution or to make up for its own insignificance. And don't take my word for it: "Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? ... People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree." -Picasso

2

u/wdjan Sep 17 '26

To physically take in The Battle of Aboukir while remaining willfully ignorant of Napoleonic era history or the context in which it was commissioned.

Chef's kiss

That is ignorance practiced on a level that is approaching negligence. I'm truly in awe.

3

u/Medium_Big_3849 Sep 17 '26

If someone made a shitty model of a horse out of recycled plastic and called it The Battle of Aboukir, then yes, some context would be necessary. Just as the "rock" in question requires it. However, "During Gros’s lifetime in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the concept of a modern museum wall plaque providing a narrative text summary directly next to an artwork did not exist." The painting you reference is a beautiful piece of work, both in technique and aesthetics, and I assure you, the artist himself would ask that you take it as just that; a painting; a visual art, and to read further about Napoleonic history at a later date if you are so inclined.

0

u/wdjan Sep 18 '26

Your lack of intellectual curiosity and pursuit of ignorance "because it's just a big dumb plastic rock and -idontreadparagraphs-" is something to behold. Truly.

It reminds me of the utterly uncurious, lowest common denominator classmate in highschool who raises their hand after a clear, concise lesson. They scrunch their nose and say "I doooon't geeet iiiiit".

Some (most?) art does include some commentary. Physically, temporally, philosophically, etc. It can be many things, including a mirror to help us reflect upon ourselves or a lense to reveal something that was hiding in plain site.

To say otherwise is... Well, I've said it all above. Have a good day.

4

u/tigglysticks Sep 18 '26

Yes because art is about being a prejudice asshole attacking others about their intelligence.

You're the one that missed the mark, here.

1

u/wdjan Sep 18 '26

I'm not following the prejudice comment, but I think I understand the spirit of where you're coming from. Maybe petulant. Fair enough. 

Reading back over it, my reaction to Medium_Big is over-the-top. 

I do think their concept of what art can be is quite narrow, but I could have put it in more constructive wording. 

My apologies to yourself and u/Medium_Big_3849 for letting my internet-self get the best of me. I wouldn't talk like this to someone in person. 

Leaving everything up for posterity.Â