Um, I wouldn't call this this Jeremy's artwork, rather 17 different pieces created by those who, well...created them. I'd change my mind (though by only a little) if he'd specified parameters, but..yeah.

You, then, have a very literal definition of art.

I love how many people were willing to participate.

@Patrick

That would be no, as it's what I use to make a living. You can save your breath in the future, thanks.

@Sundaymorning, if you follow the links and look closely, each factory worker *is* credited as the artist of each piece on the tag that accompanies their creation =^).

I'm with SundayMorning.

* Clarification the links to reviews that are in this article that this blog post links to give a close enough look at some of the labels to see this.

Not interesting=Not art.

Sundaymorning, all the more reason then I would expect you to have a more broad interpretation, I guess. I, personally, think there is a lot or art in this. It says a lot about process, about ownership of an idea, about where function "lives" in an object... plus, I think the resultant objects, themselves, are rather beautiful. If that's not art...

And for the record, I did not use the word "literal" as much as an accusation as you seemed to take it.

There is a Simpsons episode just like this, where Homer gets famous making "outsider art"

I love these pieces. I appreciate that they generate a good conversation as well. Personally, I feel like Keith Herring ripped off graffiti artists and got famous for what he took. But I am sure that there are tons of people who would disagree with me and say Herring brought something new to the art world.

Without Jeremy Hutchinson's request, these pieces would not have been created and put in the spotlight. If you don't consider him an artist, would you consider him a patron of the arts?

If you ask me, the artistry here is in the photography.

a patron of the arts perhaps....but even that is a stretch, imho

i don't get it. i can see art in the most mundane of things but
i just don't get it

That shovel/jackhammer/pogostick thing looks pretty useful to me.

So, filmmakers are not artists unless they do everything themselves?

Many famous photographers photograph things that are already there. They may capture it with the lens, but other hands or nature have sculpted the image.

Let me try a quote: "In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it."—Michelangelo

So, the art is already there. The artist just brings it out.

Marcel Duchamp, anyone?

Following the link it's clear that the piece is more than just the collection of deliberately mis-constructed pieces. It includes all correspondence with the factories - bewilderment seems to have been a common response - as well as packaging, shipping receipts etc. I would really like to see this, as the entirety of it looks very interesting. And very much like "Art".

I'm with Patrick. (Thanks, Patrick.) You can complain all you want about who actually manipulated the objects, or what might be found in dumpsters, but this art wouldn't exist without Hutchinson's vision. Conceiving the creation and guiding it (loosely or not) is a legitimate method of creating art. Warhol had "the factory," and there are a few people who consider him an artist.

I think this is just another subset of conceptual art, where who constructs it is less relevant than who conceives of it as art.

But I HATE conceptual art, so what do I know?! ;^)

This kind of thing can be art if you decide that it is and put it in a gallery, but I still hate it. I like my art to involve a skill set other than hustling.

Are we really still discussing what is and isn't art? I thought those type of discussions were over as soon as Jackson Pollack dripped paint on a canvas. Or actually I think they were over when Monet was so radical as to paint his impression of water lillies rather than a literal interpretation. Now that really upset the status quo!

I support creativity.

I support conceptual art.

@Sepher -- it would be, if the spring weren't attached backwards =^)