Check out this great trailer for the upcoming film on the glass pipe art movement. Filmmaker M. Slinger looks at the movement's roots, the political problems the artists face, and some remarkable examples of the form.
Guestblogger Andrea James is a Los Angeles-based writer and troublemaker.
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This looks like a fun movie. I have a shelf of Bear Claw's pipes in one of my stores. I'll be looking for it.
I have to wonder how functional some of those pipes are. Amazingly cool though.
I can't find any info on when it comes out, sort of weird to have a trailer to pimp a film without any info on when/where/etc...
Heavily loaded term, "Degenerate art". Not really appropriate here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_art
Tie-dye, white-guy dreadlocks and a VW van in a "glass pipe" video? Surprising!
I believe you can make a compelling argument for his choice of title: an art movement suppressed by the state, where sometimes the work is confiscated, the artists arrested, and the businesses closed by order of the state. When the documentary subjects wonder aloud if they should be worried about being filmed while plying their art, they have good reason to be concerned:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/k/a_Tommy_Chong
That's not to say the US war on drugs = Nazi persecution, but there are certainly interesting parallels in how art can be demonized and made illegal.
Until they arrest gun manufacturers for crimes committed by future owners, they can't justify arresting pipe-makers; you can rob a bank with a gun OR defend your home, and you can smoke tobacco OR weed out of any pipe (when I was a kid I remember people smoking pot out of regular old-man-style corncob pipes bought at CVS.) They should fight that nonsense all the way to the supreme court.
There is some very cool art here.
Now that is out of the way, I have to ask -- what makes something a 'movement'? Especially in the case of art. Maybe I have the wrong definition in my head, but I imagine a group of people with a common ideology working toward a common goal. How is a bunch of artists making art a 'movement'? Maybe it is just impossible to tell from the trailer, but what is common philosophy or common goal here? I think sometimes 'movement' is just proud chest beating. (Another word in that category: scene. Everything these days is a part of some 'scene' or another.) Can't we just say, "this is cool art"?
I agree you can make a compelling case for the title, because of the negative reaction society has toward pipes. I do think 'art movement suppressed by the state' is incorrect, though. These artists when they are being persecuted are being persecuted because they've run into some bad laws about drug paraphernalia or some bad enforcement of the laws. (And that is certainly sad and concerning.) But it has nothing to do with the art. A non-artist making the same objects would face the same trouble, and one of these artists, making paperweights, would run into none. To me a suppressed art movement would mean being harassed because of the content of the art (maybe because is is critical of the state, or of a religious figure, or an established aesthetic, etc.).
If I started a business making ornately decorated surface-to-air missiles, and was arrested for it, would I be a suppressed artist? Of course not; the suppression would have nothing to do with the art whatsoever.
I don't equate pipes to surface to air missiles, of course. It should be perfectly legal to sell pipes, and doing so (legal or not) shouldn't attract police attention. But the problems these guys and girls are facing have nothing to do with art.
I've been waiting for this docu for, oh I dunno 3-4+ years now, and I'm so excited it's finally on the horizon. As a glassblower/pipe collector I'm very excited to see all the intellectual perspectives of the artists who make the pieces I've been admiring for years. Marbleslinger is a true visionary in the lampworking scene, and I find myself fortunate to own some glass he custom made for me :). ROCK ON SLINGTRON!
I've always loved watching glass workers, since I saw one of those shows at the Corning museum of glass.
@bkad#9: Excellent clarification. I suppose it's got something to do with utility, as your missile example shows. There are some parallels with glass pipes and the clash between art and pornography. The aesthetics of porn develop out of an intended use, but sometimes artists' works get labeled pornographic or "obscene." That could be from its use as porn that is unintended by the artist, or because use as porn is one of several possible uses.
I'd hit it...
The whole is issue around art movements per se is quite interesting and something I deal with all the time. The debates that happen at Wikipedia over this are some of the best I've been involved in (and sometimes the most irritating). What makes it a movement? Can there be a one person movement? (Yes, think Malevich and Suprematism). Who gets to name a movement? In this case, looking at Nicolas Bourriaud and Relational Art is informative. But what about some kid who decides that his paintings constitute a (random word)ism? And then writes a Wikipedia article on it? I'm usually of the mindset that creating art movements in the 21st century is fraught with problems and is akin to writing manifestos: romantic and faux-revolutionary. Naming things serve to legitimize art for history (again see Bourriaud and the artists he champions).
In this case, I see a number of artists working in a specific medium, not a movement.
As for the "degenerate art" issue, bkad's second comment at #9 is pretty much dead-on.
Coming from the Netherlands the video seems like an elaborate Monty Python sketch. It feels like a well made hoax. Quite amazing good looking bongs though, that's some nice artwork.
Don't Use the "B" Word! An odd anecdote:
While rambling from shop to shop along Main Street on a lazy weekend afternoon in the college town (UofD) of Newark, Delaware, a friend and I wandered into a small, seemingly run-of-the-mill trinket / gift shop; only to discover that, through a door set off to the side, and plastered with "18+ only!" and "You MUST show ID!" warning signs, was a small room of fancy glass display cases filled with obviously expensive and exqusitely ornamented tall glass water pipes.
As we entered, a rather nervous and noticeably paranoid young man broke off his muffled conversation with an equally unsavory-looking character beside him, and with a tone of hostility, accosted us with, "You *do* have ID, don't you?"
Now I may not look my 55 years, but neither my friend nor I could be confused with college freshmen, and so we shrugged off his query with a simple, "Yeah...?", and proceeded to survey the wares as he glared at our backs.
At one point, having heard some time back that drug paraphernalia was illegal to possess or sell in the state, I turned to him and asked, "I thought it was illegal to sell bongs in Delaware?!"
At this, he became even more agitated, and declared, "These are *tobacco* pipes... and I'm going to have to ask you to leave now!" Pointing to a small hand-lettered sign inconspicuously taped down onto the counter behind which he sat (his friend had disappeared into a back room as soon as we entered), he exclaimed, "Didn't you see this sign? You have to leave!"
Taking several steps closer to the counter, I was able to read the words, "If you use the "B" word, we will have to ask you to leave our store!" Not one to suffer fools lightly, however, I replied, "You can ask...", and turned to continue my stroll along the display cases on the opposite wall.
At this point, he became almost hysterical, nearly screaming, "Do I have to call the police, or are you going to leave?" As it was at that point, we'd nearly made the full circuit of the display room, and so we continued out the door into the outer part of the shop. He followed closely behind, and with an odd combination of anger and pleading, said, "Do you think I like not selling to you people?"
This, of course, was the "Aha!" moment where I realized the problem all along was that I'm a DFH (long-haired and bearded), and probably the type of customer he most feared being associated with, as he, of course, was only selling "tobacco pipes", and nothing else. All that remained for us to do at that point was to cast a bemused glance in his direction, and continue out the door and on down Main Street.
I've not been back since, but I've often wondered how much longer he managed to maintain the pretense and keep his *BONG* shop open. So remember kids, don't believe your lying eyes, and never use the "B" word!
willy
#4-9 et al.
not only 'degenerate' art, but science...Lamarckian genetics, etc. persist in overly legalized states, audibles audio doorstop biography on Einstein covers some of the nazi official denial of his theories based on 'Jewish' science... interesting read.
If I remember right, laws take time to catch up with morals for a reason...
Also, that #### is ####### gorgeous. Word to ma homies.
I was all like wow, weird, people who only make glass pipes and look like punks! Then I realised you meant "bongs", not long hollow tubular shapes.
Some very nice glasswork there, but some of the dissassociation is silly. Yes, they're producing paraphernalia designed, sold, and intended to be used in the consumption of illegal substances.
They're bongs, man, don't be surprised that the law doesn't like it.
Why not do swirly syringes?
Spiked glass knuckledusters?
Kevlar-piercing bullets?
I mean, hey, it's an artwork, it's not my fault if someone uses it for the purpose it was designed for.
were bottles illegal during prohibition?
@willy the shopkeeper should fill all of the water pipes with jelly beans and sell them as $150 candy dispensers to dispel any misconceptions. i think i learned that one from a very special "facts of life" episode.
what is the thin line between artwork and craftwork? should my velvet elvis hang in the louvre, and if it did, would that be an artistic statement? when the wexler center opened at ohio state university, some jokester threw a bunch of rubber bands on the floor and surreptitiously affixed a nameplate to the wall describing the piece. the debate then started. was the joke now an art piece?
@lewis stoole: The line between artist and craftsman is artisan.
@QTS: a well played trump card. words are a mystery, and context can be a magnetized compass. thanks for the reminder.
I remember smoking pot out of an aluminum soda can but I doubt they'll make Coke illegal. Maybe they should fill the pipes with soda? Just more evidence that laws like this are not meant to protect people but are another way to perpetuate the lame war on drugs.
Also the whole idea of calling the pipes "art" seems like an equally lame ploy to legitimize this business. I've seen some really nice coffee mugs but wouldn't categorize them as "art".
@Willy (#16)
I find your story a little less odd than you do. I suspect that like most similar "head shops" or places where paraphernalia for selling devices to smoke pot or other illicit substances are sold operate under a similar with local law enforcement to stay officially below the radar and keep their doors open.
The rules are few: (1) sell only to consenting adults, not kids and (2) maintain plausible deniability for those who might complain about the wanton abuse of the laws, so maintain fiction that devices are "art" or for "smoking tobacco". That's why you see signs that say stuff like that "for tobacco use only" or don't use the "B" word.
When you came in with an possibly underage kid and violated both rule (1) and (2) above (which you could have done similarly if you outright said you were going to burn weed and did he sell pipes for such use), the owner had no choice to show you the door and get mad like he did.
You were either an undercover cop looking to bust him, or a similar citizen volunteer undercover agent (like they do with underage beer buys at convenience stores), a goody-two shoes "think about the children -- horrors a head shop in our neighborhood" rabble rouser or simply a dangerous naif who probably wasn't going to buy a bong anyway...
...Kids, let's face it. If the Feds will bust Tommy Chong for selling custom-made bongs, then they'll bust anyone for anything, regardless of how much they have to trump the charges up.
Oh, and if anyone is still wondering if pipes CAN be art (not all are, of course) check out www.glasspipes.org . It's a site for glass pipe makers to show off, but not sell, their work.
@Willy #16: I had to google "DFH" only to realise I'm one too :-)
The name of the film comes from a gallery show of pipes at the Mark Wolley Gallery (organized by the color maker Glass Alchemy and Mark Wolley) in Portland OR. It was during the GAS (Glass Art Society) conference that brought 2000 of the top artists who work in glass (very few pipemakers are in GAS) from all over the world to Portland. This show blew all of the rest of the shows in Portland away, regardless the medium. I went wanting to hate it, but was amazed. The Coffee cup question came up earlier in the comments and my answer would be that if Peter Vulkos or George Ohr or Soji Hamada made the coffee cup it would be "art".... (and you could use one of them...) Some of the most energetic and original work I had seen in years. Totally stole some ideas to bring back to the legit world....
Quite a few closed-minded, intolerant, self-righteous folks here. I feel sorry for you guys.
All the glass-blowers I've met have been really friendly and open, and they tend to be incredibly generous with their work if you get to know them, and support them.
IMHO art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
It brings to mind how Tea Kettles are a legitimate form of artistic expression for metalsmithes. The constraints upon design by the necessities of logistics only enhance the form. Every kettle should, ideally be able to brew tea. Every kettle should be a flight of fancy and a work of art.
If they are art why do they need to be pipes? Why can't they just be glass sculptures? Because no one would care if they weren't pipes and this would get no traction whatsoever.
yeah xsus! That aint art!!
If they're art, why must they be, or not be, anything? They are what they are because that is the medium the artist chose to express him/herself through. Wine goblets are a very common artistic expression glass artists the world over choose to create. Is it NOT art just because you can find the same thing, albeit a non-decorative one perhaps, in your kitchen cupboard? Also, having made this comparison, I find it rather funny it's okay to craft one thing, in this case a goblet, to hold and use your drugs, and its okay. But as soon as someone makes a pipe or bong, well that CAN'T be art, because it's meant to be used for illicit substances.
I've seen some of those pipes. Humboldt glassblowers, Arcata, Ca. They work. Although you wouldn't want to use them as they're incredibly expensive and often fragile.
I am the proud owner of BearClaw's 420th piece. It is autograpehed and 420 is etched in the bottom. It has served me well. All of my friends refuse to touch it because I would go crazy if they dropped it.