Some of you have already read and responded to the end of the book. That is fine. For the rest it will be an easy read. This section found me underlining and musing more than any other section of the book. I loved the individual writings. So, for this week read, think and let me who you enjoyed or admired or disagree with the most. In other words who moved you and why. Spend this "easy" week working on your final work of art.
Ed and I will be in Madison WI and Ottawa, Canada for a week. I will have limited time online but I will check in when I can.
I really related to Harry Fonseca and how he talks about whats "in" and whats "out" in the art world and that it is constantly changing and new things are always happening and being accepted as "Art." I too think that there is so much art being made around the world that it seems almost impossible to be noticed unless you know someone who knows someone type of thing. It is rather discouraging that the world is like this and that it seems impossible to get my own art out there.
ReplyDeleteI also liked how Jeffery Gibson spoke about visiting places and wondering how it will look when you return the next time, if something will still be there or if it will be gone and something new in its place. When I moved away and went to college, every time I came home I thought the same things and then when I moved back home to Austin, now everything seems so normal, but when returning back to the Ft Worth area everything seems to have changed. When I return back to where I grew up for many years Burleson, TX it seems as if everything has grown and it no longer has that small town feel and is now a booming community that is apart of Ft Worth and you can no longer find where one town ends and the other begins. The same goes for Austin. I travel out to Manor and Elgin where I grew up in my high school years and it is growing so fast, at first 5 years ago not much had really changed and now there is a Wal-Mart going up in both towns, and fast food restaurants are going up, where before you had to drive to Austin for those conveniences. Our world is ever changing and evolving and growing....... seems almost a little sad to me, I like the small town feel.
There is a book you might be interested in called "The myth of Progress".
DeleteI have the advantage of a childhood moving from base to base. When I wanted to returned, two of the based had closed. Think of a town that just closed. One base was and is now 5 prisons, the other base is just empty. Very odd and yet it allows my memories to stay in tack because it is so abstract to see the current reality.
DeleteAnne Ellegood, Associate Curator of the Hirshorm’s article really spoke to me.
ReplyDeleteHer “pronounced reaction… as a curator, was an increased awareness of the pressing need in contemporary art discourse and dialogue to consider and articulate the significant differences between various exhibition methodologies and venues for the presentation of art.” (p. 151) She expressed a concern that curators were being marginalized by the “the power of the arts fairs, which strive to surpass a solely market-driven enterprise to become serious cultural event”. (p. 151)
Her words, written almost a decade ago, have a haunting prescience, as that conflation of market driven event and tastemaker has become more and more of reality. Museum board members are traveling to art fairs to weigh in opinions future exhibitions reducing the educational scope of the curator’s role.
She suggests that biennials are not actually art fairs and that their role is open up to work which has a difficult time in the market place. She believes one way to lose the biennial reputation for lack of real dialogue with curators; lack of time to research and create is to
encourage artists to spend time in the host city and to embrace different voices.
This would certainly create a different more experimental art world—where we could see artists making things, which would not necessarily have a commercial outlet. It would also create a richer environment where art lovers could see things from a variety of cultures and perspectives.
Finally, I really enjoyed her final statement.
It was particularly meaningful to think of curators as curing.
I am not sure when museums became entertainment centers. This is from a former curator (me) who brought in rock and roll bands and pink caddys for an exhibitions. It was on the history of West Texas Music, but it was also a"show". Between powerful watercolor societies and the favorite artists of the board president curators and directors must dance lightly through a maze of influence and well meaning members.
DeleteEnjoy the two step!
I always gravitate towards James Luna. He’s brilliant, creative, and blunt. I learned about Luna for the first time in my modern/contemporary art history class in undergrad. So naturally seeing that he had his own section in the book I was more than thrilled to read it! I enjoy the way he incorporates Jemi Hendrix’s story into his speech/performance over Native American Art. The similarity between the two stories of Hendrix, and Pablo Tac, while very different, were at the same time, very similar. It’s sad to see how little we have progressed as a society. Native American’s, especially Native American artists are not given enough credit, nor even recognized as much, and as well as they should. Usually when the Native American culture is represented it is in a demeaning, or stereotypical way. Why are there not as many Native American artists in the contemporary art museums? Why do we discriminate against Native Americans and paint a pre-perceived image of them? For example sports teams having a mascot walking around in fringe, war paint, moccasins, and always wearing a feather in their heads? Why do we still refer to Native Americans as “redskins”? Why has the racism against Native American’s not stopped? Will it ever stop? Luna states that we should showcase and honor the artists of the Native American culture, and how he hopes he lives to see this day. I too hope in my lifetime I see the proper respect shown, and given to the Native American community.
ReplyDeleteOne way is to introduce students to this rich art, historically and today's work. Really. Just as we had to learn about women and their work, we have to learn about first nations and not be caught doing very bad copies of watered down symbols from various nations.
DeleteAs I write my entry for this October 12 assignment, I am very late and regret I was unable to interact with my classmates sooner. Here is my submittal for this assignment. I will also post this writing in the October 19. Thank You for your thoughtful consideration.
ReplyDeleteBefore I speak about a performance, I would like to first talk about the ideal of performance as it integrates into contemporary art. The five senses: see, hear, touch, speak, and smell are things that could, maybe should, be considered when comprising art. Performance art is but another avenue that artists can seduce the public into a higher realm of art appreciation. In my architectural background, I personally haven't created performance art through my design work. At least not that I am aware of in particular. However, I have previously interacted with a few architectural firms in Dallas, Texas years ago when the Dallas A.I.A (American Institute of Architects) hosts their yearly "Retrospect" exhibit at Northpark Mall every spring. The exhibit is a consortium of current architectural projects by various Dallas architectural firms. To engage the public for this 11 day show (usually held in April), various methods of interaction are displayed by firms, all varying with the firms' differing personalities. Each firm is allowed about 100 square feet of floor space for representation. Years ago, one firm displayed 20 goldfish in separate bowls dispersed through their work to illustrate their 20 young interns as "little fish in a big ocean". Another firm used Viewmaster stereoscopes in their display to express their world views through the photographic image reels of present and previous works. It was a child-like way of "seeing" and understanding, if we could go back as children. Another firm had reproduced their current works on a giant display of small postage stamps. This exhibit forced the public to look at the tiny details to reveal personalities of architectural design projects and design elements within the tiny projects.
DeleteNo need to apologize. We are all doing the best we can, when we can.
DeleteWhat I enjoy about performance art is just that, it is performance, and the idea that reaction or interaction is encouraged by others. When in high school, I took theater classes to diversify my education. My son also took theatre classes in high school and had far greater opportunities than I had years ago. My son Jordan has been in high school productions of Oliver, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Footloose, and Fiddler on the Roof. It was difficult for him to make time with his class work, theater parts, and playing on the football and soccer teams also. He would tell you today that he wouldn't trade his theatre experiences with anything. He met students, teachers, voice instructors and stage hands that he would never have known or respected if he hadn't delved into that world of participation.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to produce a piece of performance art (based on my background), perhaps I would set up a small stage with all the architectural design materials: reference books on a shelf, computer (with plotter), work desk, wide variety of drawing materials, pin-up sketches and drawings and a big pile of discarded materials used to derive the final product. I would present an architectural project from inception to final end. In that process, there would be discarded pieces of tracing paper (from rolls) on the floor and surrounding area, discarded preliminary sketches, brown wrapping paper with masking tape still attached, watercolor and gouache color swatches/pieces strewn everywhere, mostly on the floor. The scene would look like an explosion of various drawing materials, but there would be a series of sketches and drawings neatly hung on the wall from left to right that illustrate process beginning to end. The architectural designer would be disheveled and fatigued to almost exhaustion, eyelids drooping, mind disoriented and spent. A pronounced smell of coffee as if 4 or 5 pots had been recently brewed. During the 30 minute performance, the audience would grow tired of how the designer has consumed all of his/her abilities to produce a series, a sequence of pinned-up drawings that are like a finished sculpture with nearby rock debris and spent materials to derive the masterpiece.
DeleteWonderful and perfect. Keep thinking about this in your work....how process and time are married and then separated.
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ReplyDeleteFor this Week of Oct. 20th, I find the Native American responses to be quite compelling and insightful. In the reading for this week, I remain concerned about how there remains such a disconnect of Native American Art, it's people and the lack of indigenous societal contributions. I agree with Anne Ellegood's premise about the significance of Biennales. Ellegood has, I believe, valid criteria of Biennales with her comment "these large scale international exhibitions should be a platform to encourage and present work that has a more contested, even difficult relationship to the market" (NMAI editions 2006, p.152). The great ideal about a biennale is that "in-site" becomes significant and that ideal can thus be critiqued. For me, it is quite surprising that even today the indigenous aesthetic ideal remains ambiguous.
ReplyDeleteWhen Harry Fonseca attended the conference "Where Art Worlds Meet: Multiple Modernities and the Global Salon", he discussed about how the "major" curators of the so-called mainstream art world are viewed. My thought is how can curators not recognize native artist's contributions as significant? The disconnect is troubling. Why do art history and art criticism groups make the rules as to what is valid and invalid (or insignificant) of native art?
Jeffrey Gibson, the Cherokee/Choctaw Artist talked about how all the pine trees were felled to development when visiting his grandmother in Mississippi. To me, these are significant scars left behind when the Choctaw people have their land trivialized by a fake beach (with waves), a Hard Rock Cafe and valet parking. Isn't there a happy compromise between exclusion of choctaw lands and super-development of indian land regions that are for pure financial gain based on previous histories?
I am encouraged by Hock E Aye VI's writing of Awaken. I agree with most of his ideals: Native Artists seek to reach out to the larger world, brothers and sisters are allies rather than competitors, and most of all, that elders are revered and they strive to gain awareness from a well-informed person. Mutual respect can thrive from the common people as opposed to establishing differences.
Rebecca Belmore, the first nations Anishinabe artist, has a question that states: “What is it with Indians, public parks, and school buses in this country?” that is very thought provoking. This question helped me think of how I view the first nation peoples and also what exactly could I learn from them and their expressive art. The comment of public parks and Indians triggered memories that honestly I have never thought about until recently. Having traveled in different cities throughout Canada and spending time walking through their public parks, I remember seeing a lot of first nations people gathered together. One vivid memory was in a park in Vancouver where there was a group sitting in a circle and drumming together, I sensed a strong bond within their circle and looking back I could see community in this. I like the visual of the circle and how it brings people together and reflects equality. I take this image to heart and would like to belong to an art community that practices this. I think our discussions are an example of the circle we created. In our circle, we all bring something to share especially through our individual stories which are powerful and healing. The school bus image also gives me ideas of community which is that we are all on this journey together.
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DeleteI hope this class is a circle of learning and sharing without judgement either of ourselves or of others (within and outside of this class). I rode a yellow bus till half way through my Jr year of high school. I still have a fear of missing the bus or getting on the wrong bus that would take me to the far reaches of the base.
DeleteI don't know why I found the last reading section the hardest to get into than the rest of the book, but the artist that stirred the monkeys in my head was Juane Quick-To-See Smith. He made the point that there is not one major collection of contemporary Native American art or major touring group. He defines major collections being hundreds of artworks like the collections of Haitian, Latino, Mexican, women, and black artists, etc. Its very sad, but true that the older generation of Native American artists lack representation in the art world, and the precious resource of history they are will be lost forever as we lost the generation. This made me open my eyes to the sparsity of Native American Art in museums. The last museum I visited was the San Antonio Museum of Art, and I cannot recall much Native American Artwork.
ReplyDeleteAnother point made earlier in this book was how consumerism plays a big part as to how an indigenous culture is perceived. Aboriginal artist and curator Brenda L. Croft talks about being forced into the role of exotic or primitive in the art world. This thought brought me back to my first trip to Albuquerque, NM a few years ago. I was astounded to learn that Native American merchandise is not very different from Mexican merchandise. My concept of Native American culture, was very different than my Mexican culture. I was not disappointed until I began to search for gifts to take home. I wanted something made locally. After numerous gift shops I settled for dyed corn necklaces. Much of the merchandise I encountered looked indigenous, and Native American, but if you turn the item over it will read, "Made in Guatemala", or "Made in India". That was quite disappointing, but that is consumerism for you.
The last section of the book is a little more interesting than the previous chapters. I like to hear from the point of views of the actual artist and not some critic or reviewer. My favorite person in the last section of the book is Harry Fonseca. He is straight to the point with how he views mainstream art. I have always viewed mainstream art as a group of irrelevant people that pick what they deem as acceptable art. If you don’t fit in that particular norm then your art is garbage. I never really show my art work to people that know more art than me. I always feel like they talk around my art like Harry Fonseca said. It’s not that I don’t want them to see it but I always feel they judge art work that isn’t deemed mainstream. My artwork is not mainstream and I see artwork in a different light than most. Tattoos and buildings are art in my eyes. I feel for Harry Fonseca when he says you can’t change the leopard’s spots. You hope to change views and ideals but it might be something that can never be changed.
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