#5 & #6

Title: Three Monkeys

Artist: Unknown
Date: c. 1990
Geography/Culture: United States, Japan
Medium: Wood
Dimensions: Height: 3 ½ in. Width: 6 in.
Classification: Wood-Sculpture
Source: Found by Jonathan Morales, 2005

This is a wooden sculpture of three monkeys; together they represent the proverb “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. The object is used primarily for decorating, but can be interpreted as artwork used to encourage people to adopt a better nature. I enjoy collecting many types of objects, particularly wooden or metal, this particular one sits on the edge of my desk. I found it in the basement of my previous residence. For no specific reason I always find myself tapping on the heads of the monkeys while writing. It’s a habit that helps me think and presumably process thoughts more clearly while writing. The proverb itself can have many interpretations, but I’ve always jokingly taken it as “If you can’t speak, hear, or talk evil, maybe you should just write about it”. Essentially, it represents staying away from evil thoughts. It feels almost as if I’ve given the subject a specific “spirit”. John Dana in his essay The Gloom of the Museum reflects on this aspect of someone giving a subject a meaning it shouldn’t fundamentally have. He mentions the way “curators, experts, directors, and trustees” do this same thing with many museum items, “They become enamored of rarity, of history”. Thus, art is restricted by rules set by the predecessors of a locale, which negatively impact the production of modern art. In the end we’re left by the simple ideas of what is thought to be art instead of exploring different perspectives. Subjects like Three Monkeys would never reach significant value, even though it produces something beyond what a rare antique would to me. This process can be troublesome since it brings down creativity and instead forces rules onto our artwork.