Is This Art?

This is an untitled piece by Nina Waisman a 7th term student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

In the Centers on words

Fundamental to Art Center's core curricula is a commitment to social and cultural engagement and giving students the tools and skills with which to effect change and address real-world issues.

Okay, if that is the case, and granted it sounds noble ( it does raise another question of what is arts primary purpose, but I'll get to that in another post), does the piece above engage the viewer 'socially and culturally'?

Now you could say the artist is making a statement about consumerism in society, but what? There are the funny shaped green "bottles" off-centered in the piece, that are lined up and passed off as part of the product placements. What can we infer from that? I don't know. To be honest, the artist would have to explain her piece of work to the viewer. It raises questions, but gives no answers. To sum it up this is post-modern-relativistic art. It has various meanings depending on the interpretation of the viewer. What you get out of it is what it means.

So, back to my original questions, "Is this art?" The postmodern response would be "it depends on what you think." Ahh, that is cultural engagement!