Interview taken from "The Friendliest Black Artist in America"
William Pope L.
Interviewer: Lowery Stokes Sims
Sims, Lowery. William Pope. L : The Friendliest Black Artist in America. By Mark H. Bessire. New York: MIT P, 2002.
In his interview Pope L. talks about the Black African Male and the concept of presence/ versus lack. The idea that ideas of masculine is rooted in presence, that the idea of blackness is rooted in lack. How does this fit into your work as its image has both elements?
I do feel these words. Recently I have been asked to define my work in terms of why use myself as my model, and also what does race have to do with my work. I see the lack represented two fold. One that if a so-called white artis (read male) no one asks about race unless there is some other signifier present. So it is the lack of whiteness which prompts the question. I have found that sometimes people talk about masculinity and issues around that- but that begins to be an assumption placed upon the work and the artist without the question being asked. The second areana is of course my work and my need to do performative works with myself as the model. I feel like it is a need, an internal need to speak for myself to be heard and that certainly comes out of lack. It may stem from what Pope L. is talking about. I wrote some thoughts down for Sonali on race and work on race and while I did not use the word lack, I did use the word deficit. My desire is not to work out of deficit, or a sense of deficit.(in relation to race).
The theme of masculinity and blackness are running themes in this article. What is your sense of this negotiation of blackness seeing as how the two seem two be tethered as problematic- something to overcome?
Pope L. says that what it is to be black is a negotiation. The idea of a black race is at the same time a factual fiction in America. There is no black race as it is social construction based on power. He speaks of these masks of blackness. But on the other hand there is no solid heretige for black people in this country that extends past these borders- concretely anyway. So there is this “black race” the black diaspora I think is apart of this but also that there was a erasure of memory not just of geography. So there are nooks and cranies in which to negotiate what it means to be black and it keeps changing and must be changed, accepted and rejected. It is room to maneuver.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
This is an official diversion::
Sonali said I should write about why I should and should not do work about race. This is the first of several internal conversations. These are not supposed to be difinative but a work in process of my thinking.
A case for why or why not- Race
If I were to make art about race only two reasons stand out. One would be to seememly make reactionary art which would stem from a primal point of personal pain in expereining the effects of descrimination. The other would be to attempt in dismantaling the constructs of the idiosyncrasies of race and racism. This would seem a natural extension of my altruistic attitudes about race. My fundamental standpoint on race comes from my understanding of the origins or the necesisity of establishing race which is monetary and physical exploitation. I understand that people have prejudices and prefere the familiar over the foreign. To have these dispositions are as natural as they are human. I feel however that in order to exploit someone you must play off those fears and defense mechanism that make people stick to their own. Money and the fear of loosing a status of power/privelidge has the power to intensify fear and distrust into hatred. Once those who attain power usually find ways to segment those who might disrupt that status quo. I had an irish friend who when shown a old passage out of a history book that stated “the Irish are the niggers of Europe.” was so taken aback all he could say was that the Irish weren’t niggers, that they weren’t black. He couldn’t see that there were twoo things being said in the same sentence. Yes the literal statement likens the Irish to black people, but in reality what the statement was saying was the Irish are the most dispised people of European decent, according to whom ever said such a thing. This is unfortunately for an Irish Person even worse than being openly disrespected as Irish that the concept of being black might actually be worse. Unfortunately for black people when called a nigger there is very little one can say to disbleive that they are talking about you- however I have seen some people bite on the line “well if they talking about stupid black people then yeah they’re talking about niggers…” Not the case. I also take the history of the United States. Before there were white people and black people there were distinct European ethnicities and the Irish were pretty low on the totem pole, so were the Italians, but as soon as there was the idea of a new race vying for economic prosperity there was a cementation of what was considered white. Now I realize that there are some other factores such as the melting pot of American homogeny to contend with but the time roughly coincided. But the reality was that if you were poor and in the south what race would afford a white indentured servant wasn’t much better off than a black slave.
Slavery made it’s way round the ethnic block so to speak in America first starting with the American Indian, made it’s way to the Chinese and then I believe to the African slave. That is why they say the Chinese built the great American railroads, and then ultimately it was the poor, andless vagrants and criminals.
I do not want to sit here and knit pick but there is an anger here with in me that exist that has nothing to do with race other than to aknowledge the fact that racism becomes institutionalized though decmination of power and, well great PR. If you tell people that they can’t have a job at your company because you don’t want to pay them $2 you’ll be in trouble. But if you tell people they can’t have a job because they won’t work for $1 but a Mexican will then the Mexicans are in trouble. All of a sudden it’s the Mexicans who are taking all the jobs. Fear of loosing one’s place or status with in the status quo to another especially when “another” is the “other.”
So if I say I want to talk specificly about race then I feel I must talk about that. The definition of how race is constructed and deceminated. But for me it is such a taxing road to cover. Racism is determined by trying to hide behind something else. Here I must confess that I do like to talk about race in conversation and debate. In conversational mode I feel very well versed. I have a languge that most of the time I can wield very well. I feel like with art I may not have that language with which to properly discuss such things. Even in a conversation there are those time you miss and things go afoul and misunderstood. I hate loosing that conversation because it feels like when I loose it gives credence to such preposterous concepts as “reverse racism.” There is no such thing as racism in reverse. Racism is racism, but here again your saying two things with the same sentence. One is “hey that’s not fair!” and the other is “your not supposed to do that/ now it’s not me has the upper hand!” It’s so nuanced.
Having said that if I were to handel race artisticly it is like I said hopefully born out of the tradition of tolerance and equality from which I am sown. However I know that I have a vindictive side to my personality. It has the voice of the victim that delights in the idea of the tables being turned. That is a hard wound to heal and I am getting older and more set in my ways and experiences.
If I were to do work with race It would have to be a mission of understanding and teaching. A mission steeped in healing for which I know many of us a badly in need of. That’s why I SHOULD do work on race. That is the only reason to do work on race, to combat the malignancy of history and present wrongs that are waged in the name of terrorism, illegal immigrants and the retaliation the comes along with it.
But most of all to combat racism is to attempt to erase the eccomnomic weapon that has been and is still used to splinter the world into guarded kingdoms. Sexism is the same in this way. Everything that holds true for the illusion of race hold true for the illusion of sex ad gender.
As I said previously if I were to do anything about being black I would like it to be about exploration of ethnicity…but there was one thing I did leave out. African American ethnicity in America is a much different problem to tackle that say the ethnicity of an Italian American, mostly due to the fact that Africa is not a country and is not a small region consisting of an overall homogenous larger region. The African American is often displaced within their own history. Its is not unlike the”Jew.” People of the Jewish faith are not from Irael unless they came from Israel. Many existed as Europeans and carpatheans and even “Africans.” What I mean to say is that there may be no common concept of shared ethnicity outside of sharing in the concept of race. One might hope that a concept of a shared spiritual homeland might talke root like Israel for the jewish. But that also seems to be a function of power and privelidge. No one carved out a place amist the many waring and impoverished African states and stated “displaced black people of the world…your new homeland!”
A case for why - Race
If I were to make art about race it would be to attempt in dismantling the constructs of the idiosyncrasies of race and racism. This instance would seem a natural extension of my altruistic attitudes about race. My fundamental standpoint on race comes from my understanding of the origins or the necessity of establishing race, which is monetary and physical exploitation. I understand that people have prejudices and prefer the familiar to the foreign. To have these dispositions are as natural as they are human. I feel however that in order to exploit someone you must play off those fears and defense mechanism that make people stick to their own. Money and the fear of loosing a status of power/privilege has the power to intensify fear and distrust into hatred.
So if I say I want to talk specifically about race then I feel I must talk about that. The definition of how race is constructed and disseminated.
If I were to do work with race it would have to be a mission of understanding and teaching. A mission steeped in healing for which I know many of us a badly in need of. That’s why I SHOULD do work on race. That is the only reason to do work on race, to combat the malignancy of history and present wrongs that are waged in the name of combating terrorism, illegal immigration.
But most of all to combat racism is to attempt to erase the economic weapon that has been and is still used to splinter the world into guarded kingdoms. Sexism is the same in this way. Everything that holds true for the illusion of race holds true for the illusion of sex ad gender.
The only odd problem about talking about the so called “black race” in America. African American ethnicity in America is a much different problem to tackle that say the ethnicity of an Italian American, mostly due to the fact that Africa is not a country and is not a small region consisting of an overall homogenous larger region. The African American is often displaced within their own history. Its is not unlike Jewish. People of the Jewish faith are not Israeli unless they actually came from Israel. Many existed as Europeans and Carpathians and even Africans. What I mean to say is that there may be no common concept of shared ethnicity outside of sharing in the concept of race. One might hope that a concept of a shared spiritual homeland might take root like Israel for the Jewish. But that also seems to be a function of power and privilege. No one carved out a place amidst the many warring and impoverished African states and stated, “Displaced black people of the world…your new homeland!” There is only an occasional black positivism/community trend that speak to brotherhood and kinship.
Sonali said I should write about why I should and should not do work about race. This is the first of several internal conversations. These are not supposed to be difinative but a work in process of my thinking.
A case for why or why not- Race
If I were to make art about race only two reasons stand out. One would be to seememly make reactionary art which would stem from a primal point of personal pain in expereining the effects of descrimination. The other would be to attempt in dismantaling the constructs of the idiosyncrasies of race and racism. This would seem a natural extension of my altruistic attitudes about race. My fundamental standpoint on race comes from my understanding of the origins or the necesisity of establishing race which is monetary and physical exploitation. I understand that people have prejudices and prefere the familiar over the foreign. To have these dispositions are as natural as they are human. I feel however that in order to exploit someone you must play off those fears and defense mechanism that make people stick to their own. Money and the fear of loosing a status of power/privelidge has the power to intensify fear and distrust into hatred. Once those who attain power usually find ways to segment those who might disrupt that status quo. I had an irish friend who when shown a old passage out of a history book that stated “the Irish are the niggers of Europe.” was so taken aback all he could say was that the Irish weren’t niggers, that they weren’t black. He couldn’t see that there were twoo things being said in the same sentence. Yes the literal statement likens the Irish to black people, but in reality what the statement was saying was the Irish are the most dispised people of European decent, according to whom ever said such a thing. This is unfortunately for an Irish Person even worse than being openly disrespected as Irish that the concept of being black might actually be worse. Unfortunately for black people when called a nigger there is very little one can say to disbleive that they are talking about you- however I have seen some people bite on the line “well if they talking about stupid black people then yeah they’re talking about niggers…” Not the case. I also take the history of the United States. Before there were white people and black people there were distinct European ethnicities and the Irish were pretty low on the totem pole, so were the Italians, but as soon as there was the idea of a new race vying for economic prosperity there was a cementation of what was considered white. Now I realize that there are some other factores such as the melting pot of American homogeny to contend with but the time roughly coincided. But the reality was that if you were poor and in the south what race would afford a white indentured servant wasn’t much better off than a black slave.
Slavery made it’s way round the ethnic block so to speak in America first starting with the American Indian, made it’s way to the Chinese and then I believe to the African slave. That is why they say the Chinese built the great American railroads, and then ultimately it was the poor, andless vagrants and criminals.
I do not want to sit here and knit pick but there is an anger here with in me that exist that has nothing to do with race other than to aknowledge the fact that racism becomes institutionalized though decmination of power and, well great PR. If you tell people that they can’t have a job at your company because you don’t want to pay them $2 you’ll be in trouble. But if you tell people they can’t have a job because they won’t work for $1 but a Mexican will then the Mexicans are in trouble. All of a sudden it’s the Mexicans who are taking all the jobs. Fear of loosing one’s place or status with in the status quo to another especially when “another” is the “other.”
So if I say I want to talk specificly about race then I feel I must talk about that. The definition of how race is constructed and deceminated. But for me it is such a taxing road to cover. Racism is determined by trying to hide behind something else. Here I must confess that I do like to talk about race in conversation and debate. In conversational mode I feel very well versed. I have a languge that most of the time I can wield very well. I feel like with art I may not have that language with which to properly discuss such things. Even in a conversation there are those time you miss and things go afoul and misunderstood. I hate loosing that conversation because it feels like when I loose it gives credence to such preposterous concepts as “reverse racism.” There is no such thing as racism in reverse. Racism is racism, but here again your saying two things with the same sentence. One is “hey that’s not fair!” and the other is “your not supposed to do that/ now it’s not me has the upper hand!” It’s so nuanced.
Having said that if I were to handel race artisticly it is like I said hopefully born out of the tradition of tolerance and equality from which I am sown. However I know that I have a vindictive side to my personality. It has the voice of the victim that delights in the idea of the tables being turned. That is a hard wound to heal and I am getting older and more set in my ways and experiences.
If I were to do work with race It would have to be a mission of understanding and teaching. A mission steeped in healing for which I know many of us a badly in need of. That’s why I SHOULD do work on race. That is the only reason to do work on race, to combat the malignancy of history and present wrongs that are waged in the name of terrorism, illegal immigrants and the retaliation the comes along with it.
But most of all to combat racism is to attempt to erase the eccomnomic weapon that has been and is still used to splinter the world into guarded kingdoms. Sexism is the same in this way. Everything that holds true for the illusion of race hold true for the illusion of sex ad gender.
As I said previously if I were to do anything about being black I would like it to be about exploration of ethnicity…but there was one thing I did leave out. African American ethnicity in America is a much different problem to tackle that say the ethnicity of an Italian American, mostly due to the fact that Africa is not a country and is not a small region consisting of an overall homogenous larger region. The African American is often displaced within their own history. Its is not unlike the”Jew.” People of the Jewish faith are not from Irael unless they came from Israel. Many existed as Europeans and carpatheans and even “Africans.” What I mean to say is that there may be no common concept of shared ethnicity outside of sharing in the concept of race. One might hope that a concept of a shared spiritual homeland might talke root like Israel for the jewish. But that also seems to be a function of power and privelidge. No one carved out a place amist the many waring and impoverished African states and stated “displaced black people of the world…your new homeland!”
A case for why - Race
If I were to make art about race it would be to attempt in dismantling the constructs of the idiosyncrasies of race and racism. This instance would seem a natural extension of my altruistic attitudes about race. My fundamental standpoint on race comes from my understanding of the origins or the necessity of establishing race, which is monetary and physical exploitation. I understand that people have prejudices and prefer the familiar to the foreign. To have these dispositions are as natural as they are human. I feel however that in order to exploit someone you must play off those fears and defense mechanism that make people stick to their own. Money and the fear of loosing a status of power/privilege has the power to intensify fear and distrust into hatred.
So if I say I want to talk specifically about race then I feel I must talk about that. The definition of how race is constructed and disseminated.
If I were to do work with race it would have to be a mission of understanding and teaching. A mission steeped in healing for which I know many of us a badly in need of. That’s why I SHOULD do work on race. That is the only reason to do work on race, to combat the malignancy of history and present wrongs that are waged in the name of combating terrorism, illegal immigration.
But most of all to combat racism is to attempt to erase the economic weapon that has been and is still used to splinter the world into guarded kingdoms. Sexism is the same in this way. Everything that holds true for the illusion of race holds true for the illusion of sex ad gender.
The only odd problem about talking about the so called “black race” in America. African American ethnicity in America is a much different problem to tackle that say the ethnicity of an Italian American, mostly due to the fact that Africa is not a country and is not a small region consisting of an overall homogenous larger region. The African American is often displaced within their own history. Its is not unlike Jewish. People of the Jewish faith are not Israeli unless they actually came from Israel. Many existed as Europeans and Carpathians and even Africans. What I mean to say is that there may be no common concept of shared ethnicity outside of sharing in the concept of race. One might hope that a concept of a shared spiritual homeland might take root like Israel for the Jewish. But that also seems to be a function of power and privilege. No one carved out a place amidst the many warring and impoverished African states and stated, “Displaced black people of the world…your new homeland!” There is only an occasional black positivism/community trend that speak to brotherhood and kinship.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Sunday post 09/14/2008
1. Sunday Entry:
Highlight an artist of interest that relates to your work. Provide the following information:
- Artist Biography and brief explanation of work (can use quotes from critics or galleries)
Ana Mendieta
1.
The photographs of Ana Mendieta document private sculptural performances enacted in the landscape to invoke and represent the spirit of renewal inspired by nature and the power of the feminine. In her Silueta series (begun in 1974), created on location in Iowa and Mexico, Mendieta carved and shaped her own figure into the earth to leave haunting traces of her body fashioned from flowers, tree branches, mud, gunpowder, and fire. A typology of Siluetas emerged, including figures with arms held overhead to represent the merging of earth and sky; floating in water to symbolize the minimal space between land and sea; and with arms raised and legs together to signify a wandering soul. By 1978, the Siluetas gave way to ancient goddess forms carved into rock, shaped from sand, or incised in clay beds.
An exile from Cuba, Ana Mendieta was sent from her native homeland to an orphanage in Iowa at age 12. This traumatic experience had a tremendous impact on her art. She felt that, through her art, her interactions with nature and work in the landscape would help facilitate the transition between her homeland and new home. By fusing her interests in Afro-Cuban ritual and the pantheistic Santeria religion with contemporary aesthetic practices such as Earthworks, Body art, and Performance art she maintained ties with her Cuban heritage.
2. (another slightly different take)
Cuban-born Ana Mendieta produced work in the seventies in which she used her own body as a medium. In opposition to the predominant modernist theories of the time, this concept was being used by several other women artist as a feminist assertion of female body as a vehicle for personal and social expression. These women's emphasis on the female body as a realistic tool for the woman artist, challenged the male tradition of the idealized female nude; and was a precursor to the direction toward the refiguration of the body in the rest of the art community during the eighties.
Mendieta sought to establish a "dialog between the landscape and the female body return to the maternal source." She envisioned the female body as a primal source of life and sexuality, as a symbol of the ancient paleolithic goddesses. Between 1973 and 1980, Mendieta created her signature series, entitled "Silueta" or silhouette. Here, Mendieta used her body or images of her body in combination with natural materials. The pieces were transient, created and then photographed just before or during their destruction. The materials used were highly symbolic. In one work from the "Silueta" series, she outlined her figure with gunpowder, creating a shape reminiceint of prehistoric cave paintings. By setting it alight, she incorporates the ritualistic use of fire as a source of exorcism and purification. Mendieta also used flowers as mediums in her series, quoting the folk traditions of Mexico. Her primary material was the earth itself. In her "Tree of Life" series, she covered her naked body with mud and posed against and enormous tree. Ridding herself of her color and form, she is visually united with the tree, arms raised in supplication.
Tragically, Ana Mendieta died at age thirty-six, the result of a fall from an apartment window in New York in 1985. She left over 200 photographs documenting her body works, and a generation indebted to her innovation and ideals.
- 4 images and / or video/sound clips of artwork
- a link to an interview with the artist or a review
http://www.offoffoff.com/art/2004/anamendieta.php
- link to gallery representing artist
at the time of her death- http://www.galerielelong.com/
-artist website
NA
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Thursday post 09/11/08
Did anyone critique your work this week? If so, what were their impressions?
No
What was the most motivational or creative moment of the past week?
Finally not being sick and able to work-to find 6 books that are actually relevant to my practice.
What do you want to achieve in next week's studio practice?
Tie up the loose ends in my new work
What did you achieve in your studio this past week?
To create those loose ends
What has been an artistic failure this week?
My last shoot wasn’t effective enough-I need to shoot more.
What was the most profound thought in relation to your practice this week?
That I was able to tie in Edward Hopper to what I want in my studio practice.
If there was a visiting artist this week, what is your impression of their work and process in relation to your own?
NA- But next week!
No
What was the most motivational or creative moment of the past week?
Finally not being sick and able to work-to find 6 books that are actually relevant to my practice.
What do you want to achieve in next week's studio practice?
Tie up the loose ends in my new work
What did you achieve in your studio this past week?
To create those loose ends
What has been an artistic failure this week?
My last shoot wasn’t effective enough-I need to shoot more.
What was the most profound thought in relation to your practice this week?
That I was able to tie in Edward Hopper to what I want in my studio practice.
If there was a visiting artist this week, what is your impression of their work and process in relation to your own?
NA- But next week!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Sunday post 09/07/2008 pt2
Highlight an artist of interest that relates to your work. Provide the following information:
- Artist Biography and brief explanation of work (can use quotes from critics or galleries)
Pia Linderman
Born in Espoo, Finland, Pia Lindman received her MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Finland, and then as a Fulbright scholar received a Master of Science in Visual Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She now lives and works in New York City.
Lindman takes the site-specific art tradition as a point of departure. Her work evolves around the themes of social context and space, as well as the performative aspect of making and experiencing art. By engineered social contexts like the Hybrid Sauna at M.I.T. in 1999 and Public Sauna at P.S.1 in 2000, Lindman aims to provoke members of the audience to perform and experience a particular social practice, forcing a re-evaluation of notions of corporeality and public sphere. Lindman’s approach to drawing is informed by the tradition of performance art. After videotaping herself re-enacting gestures of mourning captured in photographs in the New York Times, she traced these gestures from video stills with pencil. By exhibiting both the tracings and the enactments, she tries to illuminate some of the relationships between a photograph, its mediation, and the idea of original content, in this instance human emotional reaction to terrorism.
Lindman has mounted solo exhibitions and screenings at “the lab”, N.Y.C., Galleri Leena Kuumola in Helsinki Finland; the Institut Finlandais in Paris, France; Artist-in-Akiya in Tokyo, Japan; Kluuvi Gallery in Helsinki, Finland; and Galleri FABRIKEN in Gothenburg, Sweden. She has been included in group exhibitions and screenings in New York such as: “Premieres” at the Museum of Modern Art in N.Y.C., “BLIND DATES” at Sculpture Center L.I.C., "The Suburban Backyard" at Socrates Sculpture Park L.I.C., "Lobby Projections" at Museum of Modern Art in Queens; "New Views, World Financial Center", with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the World Financial Center Arts & Events; and "Greater New York" at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, L.I.C. Her video series Thisplace is in the MoMA collections. She has shown internationally in galleries and art institutions such as: Kunsthalle Exnergasse in Vienna, Austria, Millais Gallery at the Southampton Institute, U.K., San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, SF, FIAC with Luxe Gallery, Paris, France, Kunstbunker in Nuremburg, Germany, Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland, and Beaconsfield in London, UK. She has lectured widely, among other at Yale University School of Art and Architecture, New Haven, New York University School of Visual Art, Institut Française d’Architecture in Paris, France, and the Rhode Island School of Design. She has received numerous awards, including those from AVEK (The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture in Finland, FRAME (Finnish Fund for Art Exchange), the Council for the Arts at MIT. Lindman’s work has been reviewed in many periodicals and journals including: Times Higher Educational Supplement, PRINT Magazine, Rethinking Marxism, Artforum.com, Brooklyn Rail, Art Press, The New York Times, The Village Voice, ARTnews, Technikart, Thresholds, Time Out New York, and Time Out London.
- 4 images and / or video/sound clips of artwork
- a link to an interview with the artist or a review
http://www.re-title.com/artists/Pia-Lindman.asp
http://www.m-cult.org/performingplaces/presenters/lindman.htm
- link to gallery representing artist
http://www.luxegallery.net/web/default2.asp?active_page_id=166
- artist website
http://web.mit.edu/pialindman/
- Artist Biography and brief explanation of work (can use quotes from critics or galleries)
Pia Linderman
Born in Espoo, Finland, Pia Lindman received her MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Finland, and then as a Fulbright scholar received a Master of Science in Visual Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She now lives and works in New York City.
Lindman takes the site-specific art tradition as a point of departure. Her work evolves around the themes of social context and space, as well as the performative aspect of making and experiencing art. By engineered social contexts like the Hybrid Sauna at M.I.T. in 1999 and Public Sauna at P.S.1 in 2000, Lindman aims to provoke members of the audience to perform and experience a particular social practice, forcing a re-evaluation of notions of corporeality and public sphere. Lindman’s approach to drawing is informed by the tradition of performance art. After videotaping herself re-enacting gestures of mourning captured in photographs in the New York Times, she traced these gestures from video stills with pencil. By exhibiting both the tracings and the enactments, she tries to illuminate some of the relationships between a photograph, its mediation, and the idea of original content, in this instance human emotional reaction to terrorism.
Lindman has mounted solo exhibitions and screenings at “the lab”, N.Y.C., Galleri Leena Kuumola in Helsinki Finland; the Institut Finlandais in Paris, France; Artist-in-Akiya in Tokyo, Japan; Kluuvi Gallery in Helsinki, Finland; and Galleri FABRIKEN in Gothenburg, Sweden. She has been included in group exhibitions and screenings in New York such as: “Premieres” at the Museum of Modern Art in N.Y.C., “BLIND DATES” at Sculpture Center L.I.C., "The Suburban Backyard" at Socrates Sculpture Park L.I.C., "Lobby Projections" at Museum of Modern Art in Queens; "New Views, World Financial Center", with Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the World Financial Center Arts & Events; and "Greater New York" at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, L.I.C. Her video series Thisplace is in the MoMA collections. She has shown internationally in galleries and art institutions such as: Kunsthalle Exnergasse in Vienna, Austria, Millais Gallery at the Southampton Institute, U.K., San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, SF, FIAC with Luxe Gallery, Paris, France, Kunstbunker in Nuremburg, Germany, Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland, and Beaconsfield in London, UK. She has lectured widely, among other at Yale University School of Art and Architecture, New Haven, New York University School of Visual Art, Institut Française d’Architecture in Paris, France, and the Rhode Island School of Design. She has received numerous awards, including those from AVEK (The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture in Finland, FRAME (Finnish Fund for Art Exchange), the Council for the Arts at MIT. Lindman’s work has been reviewed in many periodicals and journals including: Times Higher Educational Supplement, PRINT Magazine, Rethinking Marxism, Artforum.com, Brooklyn Rail, Art Press, The New York Times, The Village Voice, ARTnews, Technikart, Thresholds, Time Out New York, and Time Out London.
- 4 images and / or video/sound clips of artwork
- a link to an interview with the artist or a review
http://www.re-title.com/artists/Pia-Lindman.asp
http://www.m-cult.org/performingplaces/presenters/lindman.htm
- link to gallery representing artist
http://www.luxegallery.net/web/default2.asp?active_page_id=166
- artist website
http://web.mit.edu/pialindman/
Sunday post 09/07/2008 pt1
- Artist Biography and brief explanation of work (can use quotes from critics or galleries)
Chris Burden (born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1946) is an American artist.
He studied for his B.A. in visual arts, physics and architecture at Pomona College and received his MFA at the University of California, Irvine from 1969 to 1971.
Burden's reputation as a performance artist started to grow in the early 1970s after he made a series of controversial performances in which the idea of personal danger as artistic expression was central. His most well-known act from that time is perhaps the performance piece Shoot that was made in F Space in Santa Ana, California in 1971, in which he was shot in his left arm by an assistant from a distance of about five meters. Burden was taken to a psychiatrist after this piece. Other performances from the 1970s were Five Day Locker Piece (1971), Deadman (1972), B.C. Mexico (1973), Fire Roll (1973), TV Hijack (1972), Doomed (1975) and Honest Labor (1979).
Several of Burden's other performance pieces were considered somewhat controversial at the time: another "danger piece" was Doomed, in which Burden lay motionless in a museum gallery under a slanted sheet of glass, with a clock running nearby. Unbeknownst to the museum owners, the concept of Doomed was that Chris was prepared to remain in that position until someone from the museum staff interfered in some way with the piece. Forty-five hours later, a museum guard placed a pitcher of water next to Burden, thus ending the piece.
In 1975 he created the fully operational B-Car, a lightweight four-wheeled vehicle that he described as being "able to travel 100 miles per hour and achieve 100 miles per gallon". Some of his other works from that period are DIECIMILA (1977), a facsimile of an Italian 10,000 Lira note, possibly the first fine art print that (like paper money) is printed on both sides of the paper it is printed on, The Speed of Light Machine (1983), in which he reconstructed a scientific experiment with which to "see" the speed of light, and the installation C.B.T.V. (1977), a reconstruction of the first ever made Mechanical television.
In 1978 he became a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, a position from which he resigned in 2005 due to a controversy over the university's alleged mishandling of a student's classroom performance piece that echoed one of Burden's own performance pieces.[1] Burden cited the performance in his letter of resignation, saying that the student should have been suspended during the investigation into whether school safety rules had been violated. The performance allegedly involved a loaded gun, but authorities were unable to substantiate this.
In 2005, Burden released Ghost Ship, his crewless, self-navigating yacht which docked at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 28 July after a 330-mile 5-day trip from Shetland. The project cost £150,000, and was funded with a significant grant from the UK arts council, being designed and constructed with the help of the Marine Engineering Department of the University of Southampton. It is said to be controlled via onboard computers and a GPS system, however in case of emergency the ship is 'shadowed' by an accompanying support boat.
- 4 images and / or video/sound clips of artwork
- a link to an interview with the artist or a review
http://artforum.com/diary/id=8299- link to gallery representing artist
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/chris-burden/
- artist website
- NA
Chris Burden (born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1946) is an American artist.
He studied for his B.A. in visual arts, physics and architecture at Pomona College and received his MFA at the University of California, Irvine from 1969 to 1971.
Burden's reputation as a performance artist started to grow in the early 1970s after he made a series of controversial performances in which the idea of personal danger as artistic expression was central. His most well-known act from that time is perhaps the performance piece Shoot that was made in F Space in Santa Ana, California in 1971, in which he was shot in his left arm by an assistant from a distance of about five meters. Burden was taken to a psychiatrist after this piece. Other performances from the 1970s were Five Day Locker Piece (1971), Deadman (1972), B.C. Mexico (1973), Fire Roll (1973), TV Hijack (1972), Doomed (1975) and Honest Labor (1979).
Several of Burden's other performance pieces were considered somewhat controversial at the time: another "danger piece" was Doomed, in which Burden lay motionless in a museum gallery under a slanted sheet of glass, with a clock running nearby. Unbeknownst to the museum owners, the concept of Doomed was that Chris was prepared to remain in that position until someone from the museum staff interfered in some way with the piece. Forty-five hours later, a museum guard placed a pitcher of water next to Burden, thus ending the piece.
In 1975 he created the fully operational B-Car, a lightweight four-wheeled vehicle that he described as being "able to travel 100 miles per hour and achieve 100 miles per gallon". Some of his other works from that period are DIECIMILA (1977), a facsimile of an Italian 10,000 Lira note, possibly the first fine art print that (like paper money) is printed on both sides of the paper it is printed on, The Speed of Light Machine (1983), in which he reconstructed a scientific experiment with which to "see" the speed of light, and the installation C.B.T.V. (1977), a reconstruction of the first ever made Mechanical television.
In 1978 he became a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, a position from which he resigned in 2005 due to a controversy over the university's alleged mishandling of a student's classroom performance piece that echoed one of Burden's own performance pieces.[1] Burden cited the performance in his letter of resignation, saying that the student should have been suspended during the investigation into whether school safety rules had been violated. The performance allegedly involved a loaded gun, but authorities were unable to substantiate this.
In 2005, Burden released Ghost Ship, his crewless, self-navigating yacht which docked at Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 28 July after a 330-mile 5-day trip from Shetland. The project cost £150,000, and was funded with a significant grant from the UK arts council, being designed and constructed with the help of the Marine Engineering Department of the University of Southampton. It is said to be controlled via onboard computers and a GPS system, however in case of emergency the ship is 'shadowed' by an accompanying support boat.
- 4 images and / or video/sound clips of artwork
- a link to an interview with the artist or a review
http://artforum.com/diary/id=8299- link to gallery representing artist
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/chris-burden/
- artist website
- NA
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
visual grammar of suffering-Grad Research Assignment: Discussion Questions on Article or Essay
From: THE VISUAL GRAMMAR
OF SUFFERING
Pia Lindman and the
Performance of Grief
Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art - PAJ 84 (Volume 28, Number 3), September 2006, pp. 77-92
(This article refers to "the New York Times" performances by Pia Linderman)
I find it interesting that points were brought up in this article concerning bias of representation as Lindman's work questions representation and the authority of re-representation. This is something that I do not have much background in questioning or considering. I have always come from a point of view of the "artist." That the artist has a viewpoint- and orientation, a grudge if you will. It seems that to use race and gender or other sujects deemed as unequal in current power structures invites by default a sense of victimhood. So it would seem here in Lindman's work it is preferable to avoid such subjects to get at the meat of the matter- not to let the specifics of wheather it is a korean monument or a vietnam memorial- the polotics of/ the history of get in the way of what she is trying to highlight.
I am not exactly sure yet. I am unsure of how to make my own work that is at once personal, make it accessable as universal but not be specific about it to land it in a trap where it gets mired down and exploited? I believe thatt one of the things that I believe in art is that everyone should have a voice, both in art but also in life. So I tend to come back to art that speaks for those who can not speak. I could not speak for a time, and then I fear I spoke too much. This speaking too much is that trap. I do not wish to do art that speaks to victim hood rather bears witness to it and can speak outwardly to everyone.
OF SUFFERING
Pia Lindman and the
Performance of Grief
Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art - PAJ 84 (Volume 28, Number 3), September 2006, pp. 77-92
(This article refers to "the New York Times" performances by Pia Linderman)
"She does not address particular site-specific issues, such as genocide or mass rape in Sudan,
terrorism, human rights abuses of prisoners in Iraq, etc. Instead she draws on images
of people who have suffered abuse or the violent death of loved ones to explore how
the representation of vulnerability calls on us to react. I read her work as paralleling
the discourse of Judith Butler and Adriana Cavarero who have turned away from
arguments based on the notion of feminine experience to explore how any “structure
of address” introduces its own “moral authority.”4"
terrorism, human rights abuses of prisoners in Iraq, etc. Instead she draws on images
of people who have suffered abuse or the violent death of loved ones to explore how
the representation of vulnerability calls on us to react. I read her work as paralleling
the discourse of Judith Butler and Adriana Cavarero who have turned away from
arguments based on the notion of feminine experience to explore how any “structure
of address” introduces its own “moral authority.”4"
- Is this a question of how does one remove the question of personal/secular bias on the part of the artist?
I find it interesting that points were brought up in this article concerning bias of representation as Lindman's work questions representation and the authority of re-representation. This is something that I do not have much background in questioning or considering. I have always come from a point of view of the "artist." That the artist has a viewpoint- and orientation, a grudge if you will. It seems that to use race and gender or other sujects deemed as unequal in current power structures invites by default a sense of victimhood. So it would seem here in Lindman's work it is preferable to avoid such subjects to get at the meat of the matter- not to let the specifics of wheather it is a korean monument or a vietnam memorial- the polotics of/ the history of get in the way of what she is trying to highlight.
- How does one get to the point where one can strip down all the elements to what Kevin Everson refered to a fighting weight?
I am not exactly sure yet. I am unsure of how to make my own work that is at once personal, make it accessable as universal but not be specific about it to land it in a trap where it gets mired down and exploited? I believe thatt one of the things that I believe in art is that everyone should have a voice, both in art but also in life. So I tend to come back to art that speaks for those who can not speak. I could not speak for a time, and then I fear I spoke too much. This speaking too much is that trap. I do not wish to do art that speaks to victim hood rather bears witness to it and can speak outwardly to everyone.
"The journalistic photograph lies precariously between empirical evidence (the witnessing of the Other’s pain) and outright propaganda (the manipulating the way we see). The image also cultivates a public awareness of the plight of the Other. It constitutes public taste and the aes-
thetics of Otherness. In the process, it tells us not only who the Other is, but how
to read the Other. Through an intricate process of identification, “we” are addressed
as a virtual subject and then are asked to witness “events,” experience these “events”
by proxy, and ultimately react to such “events” by giving consensus."
thetics of Otherness. In the process, it tells us not only who the Other is, but how
to read the Other. Through an intricate process of identification, “we” are addressed
as a virtual subject and then are asked to witness “events,” experience these “events”
by proxy, and ultimately react to such “events” by giving consensus."
Thoughts of interest – Sometimes you find wierd coincidences and-but even moreso on the web.
One of the terms/ art vocab thown around last year was the myth of Sisiphus. The implication for my work and others was the idea of unending or fruitless tasks. I raqndomly found a website called "The Sisyphus Files -Climbing up the mountain again and again…" so if you want you can go there if you want a brief recap about who Sisyphus was:
"He was a king punished in the Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll down again, and repeat this throughout eternity. Today, Sisyphean can be used as an adjective meaning that an activity is unending and/or repetitive. It could also be used to refer to tasks that are pointless and unrewarding.”
You can also go there to find out what the author thinks of artist Pia Lindman!? Funny and small internet world of blogging. Paul posted something on Pia for me the other day so I could check her out. And I have!
- Answer the following questions:
- Post 1 picture, video, etc. of your choice
One of the terms/ art vocab thown around last year was the myth of Sisiphus. The implication for my work and others was the idea of unending or fruitless tasks. I raqndomly found a website called "The Sisyphus Files -Climbing up the mountain again and again…" so if you want you can go there if you want a brief recap about who Sisyphus was:
"He was a king punished in the Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll down again, and repeat this throughout eternity. Today, Sisyphean can be used as an adjective meaning that an activity is unending and/or repetitive. It could also be used to refer to tasks that are pointless and unrewarding.”
You can also go there to find out what the author thinks of artist Pia Lindman!? Funny and small internet world of blogging. Paul posted something on Pia for me the other day so I could check her out. And I have!
- Answer the following questions:
- Did anyone critique your work this week? If so, what were their impressions?
- What was the most motivational or creative moment of the past week?
- What do you want to achieve in next week's studio practice?
- What did you achieve in your studio this past week?
- What has been an artistic failure this week?
- What was the most profound thought in relation to your practice this week?
- If there was a visiting artist this week, what is your impression of their work and process in relation to your own?
- Post 1 picture, video, etc. of your choice
Grad Research Artist Statement and New Semester Work Documentation
My work explores the fears, frustrations and alienation that occur in institutional settings. The institutions: the office, the school, the hospital, places that are historically thought of as umbrellas for the masses. Harboring each individual with their own sense of history, culture and sense of self. The specter of the institution has proven often to be just the opposite. These spaces that should canonize acceptance, care and guardianship are in fact a place of ostercization, humiliation and conformity. These are surrogate spaces that attempt to function as homes might have.
Issues of repetition, restlessness, tasking without resolution, boredom, confusion and complacency are all themes that are found in my work.
The use of video allows the viewer to experience the weight of time as well as the actions portrayed in each work more effectively that the single photograph. Contrived sound is integral as well as it allows the viewer auditory clues and prompts offering tools to better interpret the visuals spectrum.
Institutions such as hospitals, high schools, churches and factories are fundamental contributing factors in the history of progress. However, in the same breath these same institutions have resulted in many grievous wrongs against the history of the human condition.
Issues of repetition, restlessness, tasking without resolution, boredom, confusion and complacency are all themes that are found in my work.
The use of video allows the viewer to experience the weight of time as well as the actions portrayed in each work more effectively that the single photograph. Contrived sound is integral as well as it allows the viewer auditory clues and prompts offering tools to better interpret the visuals spectrum.
Institutions such as hospitals, high schools, churches and factories are fundamental contributing factors in the history of progress. However, in the same breath these same institutions have resulted in many grievous wrongs against the history of the human condition.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
National Portrait Gallery and Native American Museum
Here are some images from another visit to the district.One is a statement found at the new Native American History Museum. The attention to layout and presentation is very progressive and deserves another visit definitely. The Second photo is of my brother who is still in the process of recovering from Schidzophrenia despite ever shrinking federal funding.
The Third photo is by Kehinde Wiley and is at the National Portrait Gallery- Much more impressive in person than in print. and the last is a small statue of some wonderful mythic creature carved from stone. This again I found at the Native American History Museum.The nature of what race means in your work....pt1
The following excerpt I found from the New York Times Website with some quizzical dates attached. I assume that 1997 was the original published date.
The salient characteristics of his film installations are their physicality and narrative openness: the first is a strength and the second is sometimes a problem. In particular, Mr. McQueen relies on post-modern ambiguity, and the viewer's ability to supply alternative readings, in a way that can be overly familiar.
Saturday, August 30, 2008 (?)
Art in Review
The salient characteristics of his film installations are their physicality and narrative openness: the first is a strength and the second is sometimes a problem. In particular, Mr. McQueen relies on post-modern ambiguity, and the viewer's ability to supply alternative readings, in a way that can be overly familiar.
On the physical side, however, there is clear originality. Mr. McQueen favors wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor projections that thrust images into the room to visceral effect; extreme camera angles and passing shots that make one super-conscious of the camera as both an object and a participant in the action, and dramatic sequences that emphasize the human body either in gigantic close-up or in motion. The artist, who appears in several sequences, and his actors are black, which makes race an intrinsic element of the work, a kind of linchpin between form and content.
Paul asked me to look into how British artist Steve Mcqueen responds to questions of race in his art or statements of intent along those lines. All I have seen is purposeful evasiveness. My task is in response to my personal idea that the reason I am so impressed specifically with the work "Bear" is as follows: When encountering "Bear" you enter a room in which the film is projected larger than life on a wall filling the whole surface. The image presented is that of two black males in various stated of physical and non physical engagement. Sometimes grappling, some times leering, sometimes outwardly smiling at one another. The film is very minimalistic and is shot in black and white. What I was presented with was at once so simple, and so open ended that I was confounded suddenly. I was confounded not because of some complicated piece of empotional of graphic manipulation, I let my own self, my own personae and history fill in what I was looking at. my reaction was fueled by personal notions and societal perceptions of race, gender and sexuality. Once I was able to set those aside I was able to see that what I feared hindered me to seeing what was really great about the piece. What I find amazing is the simplicity of the beauty of movement, the dance, the humanity that is displayed. What I absolutely love is that there are two black males displayed on screen and in one fail swoop it I can see that it is about black males but not about race...but it is. It IS about race for me in that there is nothing specificly being said visually about this piece that says it has to be black males. There are no props, no location, just two bodies. There is no verbal dialogue to place national or regional dialect. This piece if it had two Caucasian males would have almost none of the same potential baggage. But since that baggage even the sexual implications is contextural to society we ourselves place that upon the piece.
For me the triumph is that the piece is about representation of black males in film and being able to read it as pure and without stigma. I am going to assume you are following this because I am not very good at explaining when something is not about race when it seems like it is...and it is...not! All I know is that thus far I have not found any interview in which Mcqueen speaks directly about the importance of race, rather there are numerous occasions in which there are representations of black people in his pieces. They are "black" by nature of being born with a melanin disposition of dark skin, they are included in the films based upon personal associations and mutual interests(ie siblings, friends), and exist fundamentally as people in a film that by the director verbally disavows as being about race.
It seems to me that being able to use language to talk about race is useful and necessary but can also be problematic when it becomes defining or expected of the artist. I think in Mcqueen's case he uses things that are quite simply unsettling at times. The usage of such device forces a emotional and intellectual conflict in the viewer. If the viewer can get though this, they allow themselves to view the real beauty of the "thing" presented. But to boil it down, make it about race, or something else makes that struggle too easy to write off . Race for example is constructed, it has no real scientific foundation for the hierarchical staging of our society. So therefore we see race where it does not exist, but it does exist in our mind. So then what is true?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Steve Mcqueen- the basics of what follows...
Exerpt taken from a review of "Mighty Silence," by Michael Rush Performing Arts Journal 19.3 (1997) 59-64The Johns Hopkins University Press. All rights reserved.Copyright © 1997"...The artist then startles us with a shot (from guess where? yes) looking up at a man (McQueen himself again) pissing a substantial amount of liquid onto the camera. (The gallery notes tell us that he shot this through a glass tabletop.) Like Bruce Nauman who juxtaposes seemingly incongruent images next to each other on different monitors, McQueen jolts our passive viewing with forceful shifts of content and emotion. Just as we are luxuriating in the gentle sway of the woman's dress, he literally pees on us and says, "She's not yours to have." Again McQueen denies any political, racial, or social subtext to these shots, but what's a viewer to think when the film's director urinates on her? He's not merely appearing in the frame (as stage director Tadeusz Kantor used to do from the sidelines in his plays); his editing of these images together may easily be seen as an aggressive and even hostile act. In a not very informative interview in early 1997, McQueen was asked about the significance of this scene. The interviewer said the scene reminded her of the opening sequence of Sunset Boulevard, where the camera looks up at the body of William Holden floating in a pool; to this McQueen responded, "I wanted a situation where I was peeing while people, the audience, would be under me, as it were--the dynamics of that situation." Of course. "The dynamics of that situation." What??? And what exactly are the dynamics of that situation? And who but a movie-drenched critic would think of Sunset Boulevard, while the director of the film she is watching is peeing on her? Certainly this is a strong image (if not original, as anyone aware of the early work of Robert Whitman, Shigeko Kubota, and various Fluxus and Happenings artists is well aware), replete with interpretative and emotive possibilities of which even the director was perhaps unaware...."
Steve McQueen, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Spring, 1997
Profile link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/544419.stm
STEVE MCQUEEN
Artist Bio
Born: London, England, 1969
Education: Chelsea School of Art, London, England, 1989-90
Goldsmith College, London, England, 1990-93
Tisch School of Arts, New York University, New York, New York, 1993-94
Awards: Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London, England, 1999
DAAD Artist in Residence, Berlin, Germany, 1999
ICA Futures Award, 1996
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2007
"For Queen and Country," A Commission by Steve McQueen, Manchester Central Library, England. 2006
"Caresses," Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Marugame, Japan.
Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris, France. 2005
“Steve McQueen,” Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy.
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
2004
South London Gallery, London
Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts 2003
"ARC/Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Tate Egg Live," Tate Britain, London, England (one-time performance) 2002
"FOCUS: Steve McQueen," Art Institute of Chicago
"Steve McQueen: Caribs' Leap/Western Deep" ArtAngel at Lumiere, London, England; Fundacio de Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, England; Fundacio Tapies, Barcelona, Spain 2001
Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris, France
Vienna Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria
Museu de Arte Moderna de S 2000
Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela
Institute for Contemporary Art, Cape Town, South Africa
'Barrage,' DAAD, Berlin
'Cold Breath', Delfina Projects, London
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, New York
1999
"Steve McQueen," Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England; Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France
1998
"Four Projected Images," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam
1997
"Deadpan," The Museum of Modern Art, Project Room, New York, New York
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, New York
Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany
Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Institute of Visual Arts (INOVA), Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1996
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2008
" The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image," The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC 2007
52nd International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy.
"Edit! Photography and Film in the Ellipse Collection," Ellipse Foundation, Cascais, Portugal,
"Equal, That Is, To The Real Itself," Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Curated by Linda Norden,
"Electrones Libres: A Selection of Works from the Lemaître Collection," Tabacalera Donosita, San Sebastian, 2006
"The Starry Messenger: Visions of the Universe", Compton Verney
2005
Double Feature, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
2004
"Die Neue Kunsthalle III," Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
"WOW (The Work of the Work)," Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
"Faces in the Crowd, Picturing Modern Life from Manet to Today," Whitechapel, London, England 2004-03
"Fast Forward: Media Art from the Goetz Collection," ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
2003
-"Utopia Station," Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
-"Outlook," Technopolis, Benaki Museum and The Factory, Athens, Greece
"Utopia Station Poster Project," Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2002
Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany
"Moving Pictures," Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
"Video Acts: Single Channel work from the collection of Pamela and Richard Kramlich and the New Art Trust," P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York 2001
"Public Offerings," The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California
"Mirror's Edge," Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy; Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland 2000
"Beauté in Fabula," Palais des Papes D'Avignon, Avignon, France
"Mirror's Edge," Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia
"Unhoused," Antiquo Collegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City
1999
"Kunst mit art with architecture," Villa Merkel und Bahnwärterhaus, Esslingen, Germany
"Geschichten des Augenblicks," Lenbachhaus Kunstbau, Munich, Germany
"infra-slim spaces," Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
"Seeing Time: Selections from the Pamela and Richard Kramlich Collection of Media Art," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
"Retrace your Steps: Remember Tomorrow," Sir John Soane's Museum, London, England
"Mirror's Edge," BildMuseet, Umea, Sweden
"Common People," Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene d'Alba
Turner Prize, Tate Gallery, London
1998
"Ironisch/Ironic," Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland
"Images," Festival of Independent Film and Video, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
"Wounds," Moderna Museet, Stockholm
1997
Documenta 10, Kassel, Germany
2nd Johannesburg Biennial, Johannesburg, South Africa
1996
"Timing," De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
"Life/Live," ARC/Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1995
"Mirage: Enigma of Race, Difference and Desire," Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
The British Art show 4, Manchester and tour
"X/Y," Musée National d'Art Moderne-Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1994
"Acting Out: The Body in Video, Then and Now," Royal College of Art, London, England
©Marian Goodman Gallery
Books and media under review:
Isaac Julien- True North/Fantome Afrique -Kestnergesellschaft 2006
Isaac Julien- Irish Museum of Modern Art 2005
Isaac Julien- Livre numero 8- Centre Pompidou 2005
Steve Mcqueen- Speaking in Tongues- Musee d'Art Moderne De La Ville De Paris 2003
Spellbound- Art and Film- Hayward Gallery 1996
Second Arrivals- Landscape and Belonging in Contemporary Writting of the Americas- Casteel- University of Va Press 2007
Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask (video) - Isaac Julien- California Newsreel- 1995
The Wretched of the Earth- Frantz Fanon- Grove Press, inc. 1963
If anyone has suggestions please feel free!
Isaac Julien- Irish Museum of Modern Art 2005
Isaac Julien- Livre numero 8- Centre Pompidou 2005
Steve Mcqueen- Speaking in Tongues- Musee d'Art Moderne De La Ville De Paris 2003
Spellbound- Art and Film- Hayward Gallery 1996
Second Arrivals- Landscape and Belonging in Contemporary Writting of the Americas- Casteel- University of Va Press 2007
Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask (video) - Isaac Julien- California Newsreel- 1995
The Wretched of the Earth- Frantz Fanon- Grove Press, inc. 1963
If anyone has suggestions please feel free!
Thoughts in reveiw:
Did anyone critique your work this week? If so, what were their impressions?
Did anyone critique your work this week? If so, what were their impressions?
- I gave a presentation of work "up until now" in studio. Impressions were mixed, generally there was empathy for the work, sympathy for it projection quality which was very poor(not bright enough). Overall I need to teach myself to speak more confidently, more decisively even when I do not feel as such. Got to get a spiel on. I obviously need to do at least one piece on race just so I can have something to say about it. I don't feel like I can try and simply recontexturalize my old work in terms of race, but I do think I need to learn how to speak about those pieces in terms of how people see race. The unfortunate thing is that people find it easy to comment on race in relation to a person of color's art but not in terms of a white (yes I said it) artist's. Is the tennant of identity laced with the other and why is the other not always the other. Furthermore is it a matter of responsibility? Responsibility to myself? To others? To a social construction? I also need to stop fearing the label of "black artist." I am so glad being a male artist isn't marginalized for I might be afraid of being one of those too!
- What was the most motivational or creative moment of the past week?
- Motivational moment: realizing I now have permission to do work on race.
- What do you want to achieve in next week's studio practice?
- Iron out what the most interesting of several new ideas will be and start researching.
- What did you achieve in your studio this past week?
- scheduling classes saying goodbye to summer.
- What has been an artistic failure this week?
- speaking like a monk. With out confidence, without certainty. Without a spine.
- What was the most profound thought in relation to your practice this week?
- I don't talk about race enough. If identity is what I am avoiding- meet it head on.
- I was asked "what do I fear?" last year. This is one of those fears- to get pigeonholed.
- If there was a visiting artist this week, what is your impression of their work and process in relation to your own?
- NA-No visiting artist. However I did attend A sculpture crit class (audit) which was very positive. It reaffirms my notion that we need more interaction between the Pollock Camp and the FAB camp.
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