Real or Realism?

Spent the day with my friend K at Anne and Mark's Art Party, "an occasional and irrational San Jose Arts Festival," a week of visual, arts, spoken word, fashion, music, performances, film and fire. K describes it as Burning Man with clothes, but that's only if you opt for the opening or closing night parties. We simply went to the gallery, where over 300 artists were represented in a huge exhibit building on the county fairgrounds. It was an astonishing mix of carefully curated work from local artists.I don't think either one of us could have survived adding music, more people, food trucks and fire art to the mix. We got to a saturation point early on, and then began to see the sculptural possibilities in the taped over electrical outlets, piles of curling power cords, emergency exit signs and other groovy structural stuff in the building itself. You know how you just get in that art groove… So is this a painting, an installation, or real life?