rirkrit tiravanija & relational aesthetics

While I was visiting the MoMA several weeks ago, I stumbled upon this installation/happening/experience orchestrated by NYC-based Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. The piece, a rendition of an event the artist first organized in 1992, and a recent acquisition of MoMA's collection, is basically, in the simplest of terms, a meal. Following in Gordon Matta-Clark's footsteps (see Food), Tiravanija has orchestrated a space in which viewers quite literally become a part of the work, activating it you might say, by partaking in  a bowl of vegetarian curry and rice (quite delicious I must add), experiencing the event alongside other visitors.

This type of social organization is part of the growing discourse surrounding the relatively new (past 20 years) artistic genre known as "relational aesthetics" or in some cases, "social practice."

(another work by Rirkrit Tiravanija featured on the cover of Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics)

Curator and critic, Nicolas Bourriaud coined the term "relational aesthetics" in 1995 and authored the seminal text of the same title (more here). In it, he defines relational art as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." So rather than producing objects (paintings, sculptures, photographs, etc.), artists in this field are more interested in eliciting audience participation, in staging interactions among viewers, and calling these events/interactions the work itself.

YouTube personality Hennesey Youngman does a pretty good job explaining the subject in a rather cynical, yet quietly hilarious manner. Notice he alludes to Rirkrit Tiravanija's "covivial happening in the  antiseptic confines of an art gallery." This guy knows his stuff, despite his appearance and less than tasteful vocabulary (please excuse the potty words). See more of his Art Thoughtz here!

richard serra's drawings

Richard Serra, "Drawings After Circuit"(1972), charcoal on paper

In thinking about how to integrate elements of drawing into my own practice (which hasn't come naturally for me), I've been drawn to artists, such as Richard Serra, who have taken more contemporary approaches to an age-old medium. Some go for a more conceptual approach, while others might rely on a more active physicality, but in the recent years, drawing has proven to be a quite limitless media that's most certainly worthy of our attention.

When I think of Drawing (with a capitol D) in this way, as an ever-growing, all-encompassing means of creating, I'm reminded of what Rosalind Krauss had to say about Sculpture in her famous 1979 essay "Sculpture in the Expanded Field." I won't go into details, but basically, what I mean to suggest by this is  perhaps that Drawing has entered an 'expanded field' of its own. Perhaps the line culture has "drawn" between drawing and sculpture isn't quite as clear as we may think. The same could be said for drawing and performance (in which the drawing is a record of performance - see Tony Orrico), as well as many other overlapping categories of art-making. John Dewey, in Art as Experience, makes a clear argument for this idea, suggesting that the various media "form a continuum, a spectrum, and that while we may distinguish the seven so-called primary colors, there is no attempt to tell exactly where one begins and another one ends."

My intention in this post was originally to highlight Richard Serra's accomplishments in drawing, but it seems I've gotten off topic. I'm on the verge of delving into a lengthy discussion of categorical classifications in art-making - its effect on art education - and many relevant opinions on the subject (this topic is discussed at length in Art School: Propositions for the 21st-Century)... but perhaps I'll save that for another day.

a site-specific drawing by Richard Serra

Instead, I'll leave you with this video about Richard Serra's drawings, made in conjunction with his recent retrospective organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the NY Times review of the show here.

ann weber

I'm not a HUGE fan of Ann Weber's work, but I can really appreciate her way with materials. She uses cardboard, staples, and polyurethane... and that's all! Her forms don't particularly grab me, but her ability to transform such a mundane material is really quite extraordinary. I've been soaking thinks in polyurethane lately... as well as building structures out of cardboard... perhaps now it's time I try the two together!

mona hatoum

 In preparation for the upcoming semester, I've been poring over some art theory textbooks (I'll be TA-ing for an intro Art Theory course) hoping to familiarize myself with the material before I have to discuss it with a class full of students (all by myself). Towards the end of one of the books, I came across a page or so about Palestinian artist, Mona Hatoum. The description of one of her most well-known pieces, Corps Etranger, particularly caught my attention. The video installation consists of projections, on the floor, of the artist's various bodily orifices. With the help of a doctor, she used an endoscopic camera to trace the surface and various orifices of her body, including the lining of her digestive track. Viewers were invited to step inside of a dark built cylinder, atop of the projection. I can only image how surreal and disorienting it must have felt - like being swallowed into the scale-less abyss of fleshy membranes.

In a fantastic interview with Janine Antoni, Mona Hatoum says of her work...

I want the work in the first instance to have a strong formal presence, and through the physical experience to activate a psychological and emotional response. In a very general sense I want to create a situation where reality itself becomes a questionable point. Where one has to reassess their assumptions and their relationship to things around them. A kind of self-examination and an examination of the power structures that control us: Am I the jailed or the jailer? The oppressed or the oppressor? or both. I want the work to complicate these positions and offer an ambiguity and ambivalence rather than concrete and sure answers. An object from a distance might look like a carpet made out of lush velvet, but when you approach it you realize it’s made out of stainless steel pins which turns it into a threatening and cold object rather than an inviting one. It’s not what it promises to be. So it makes you question the solidity of the ground you walk on, which is also the basis on which your attitudes and beliefs lie.

 (read the rest of the interview HERE)

I've come across Mona Hatoum's work in various forms, but never have I looked at it together, all at once, as a body, if you will. Despite the variety of materials and forms that they take on, her sculptures and installations deal with some over-arching themes/concepts that carry over quite nicely from piece to piece. The human body and its evocations of the familiar/ambiguous, enticing/disgusting, political/social, etc. Many of these themes (as well as some strikingly similar formal investigations of such) have been creeping up in my work as well.

Here are some examples of some of her other projects...

Marrow, 1996

rubber

Grater Divide, 2002

fabricated steel

Socle du Monde, 1992–93

iron filings on magnetic fabricated steel structure

Entrails (detail), 1995

silicon rubber

"Half-recollections emerge in feelings of unease, only to be held just out of reach in any kind of firm and knowable sense."   more here

merry christmas to me

                                        
 I may or may not have an art book addiction. Thanks to some amazon gift cards gifted by loved ones, I now own these books. yay! click on images to learn more!
 

open studios!!

The MFA candidates at the University of Maryland are hosting open studios on Wednesday December 14th from 5pm to 8pm.  The grads will be around to discuss their work.  Come and take a look at some exciting and interesting work that’s happening at the University of Maryland.

cardboard something

This is my most recent undertaking. Originally I had plans to show it standing upright, but as I was working, I came to find the interior to be much more compelling than what was happening with the exterior. I got a lot of helpful feedback at my critique yesterday, particularly concerning this piece. Everyone seemed to agree that the interior was most interesting, yet found the traces of text and labels from the boxes to be irrelevant and distracting. I'd like to see the interior treated in some way... with a white-wash perhaps. Another suggestion was that the exterior be hidden all-together - embedded in the wall maybe? I definitely would like to explore the possibilities of this process further... be it with different material, different form, scale, etc... we'll see!

layers of something

In attempts to "loosen up" (as I've been advised to do), I ventured to create these small layered pieces. They were each made in one sitting, and the materials were chosen quickly and at random (though with regard to aesthetic). I've been looking/thinking a lot about the many layers of the flesh and likening them to the layers of the earth. While one is super microscopic and zoomed in, the other is zoomed out, and neither of which are typically seen with the naked eye. I'm interested in exploring this idea of scaleless-ness and how it relates to both our bodies and our environments - what's inside of our skin, as well as what's outside of it.

Now, in attempts to loosen up some more, I plan to continue working in a similar way, but straying away from the safety and comfort that I find in the cube/rectangle...

 

materials include: pink and yellow fiberglass insulation, pink foam insulation, urethane foam, polyurethane, hotglue, and landscaping fabric

all set up for final critique

something's growing in my studio

Final critiques are in less than a week and I'm working hard to finish this piece. It's still very much a work in progress, but I'm excited about where it's headed. I like the looks of it standing up, but I think I actually prefer it laying down... that way you can see the interior as well! hmmmmm

william kentridge: anything is possible

"I am an artist. My job is to make drawings, not to make sense." WK

I just watched the PBS documentary on South African artist, William Kentridge, called Anything is Possible. I know I've seen it before, but I can't remember for the life of me when/where. If ever I teach a drawing class of my own, I will definitely show this film to my students. He pushes "drawing" like no artist I've seen. William Kentridge's work is quite amazing, involving so many factors yet flowing so smoothly. I particularly enjoy watching footage from the opera he staged and directed called The Nose. 
 

ashkan honarvar

These beautiful collages by Ashkan Honarvar remind me a lot of Wangechi Mutu's, but I think I may like these even better. His website is organized very nicely into distinct bodies of work that are definitely worth checking out. Some are a bit, ahem, "sexier" than others (yes, I can be a bit of a prude) but they're all quite striking and lovely. I particularly enjoy how he uses layering techniques to manipulate the human flesh and create new images that are gorgeously grotesque.

 "The saying goes that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. It occurs in places you least expect. Revealing its art in the human body, but also cruelly absent in the presence of deformations and scars, Ashkan Honarvar depicts an undeniable, unavoidable beauty by accepting the darker sides of human ‘nature’. The body, torn by acts of war, exploited by the sex industry or used as a tool for seeking identity, is the focal point of his work. This constitutes a search for a universal representation of the evil latent in every human, providing an opportunity for reflection. His aesthetic dissection has an intriguing macabre nature, which opens the images to interpretation." (from his website)     

wangechi mutu

 

Kenyan artist, Wangechi Mutu's gorgeously complex collages caught my eye last weekend at the Corcoran's 30 American's exhibition (definitely worth checking out if you're in DC).

(untitled)

... An intelligent and quietly hilarious film, (Untitled), delivers a fresh take on the contemporary art world and cleverly satirizes its various stereotypical players. There's Madeleine, the NY gallerist, who is committed to showing work that is odd and unsellable, such as Adrian's serious experimental music/sound art, but is forced to sell Adrian's brother's uninteresting commercial paintings to keep the doors open. 

It's hard to put into words how poignant this film really is... so much so that outsiders of the contemporary art world might not pick up on the blatant stereotypes that make it so entertaining. Does that make sense? Check out the trailer below for a better idea...

more on wim delvoye

I've always had a soft spot for some good (classy) potty humor... which naturally makes me a huge fan of Belgian artist, Wim Delvoye. The more I learn of his work, the more I fall in love with this guy. He has an incredible way with the subject matter that takes the yucky/gross/ew and turns it into beautiful/gasp/giggle! I'm particularly taken by his series of "anal kisses."

 Anal Kiss A 15 (left) and A11 (right), 1999

53 x 44 cm (framed)

lipstick on hotel stationery

Aren't they great?! I would LOVE to get my hands on a copy of this book - a collection of Delvoye's earliest work, completed between the ages of 3-6. I can only image what awesomeness it might contain. This is now at the top of my Christmas list!

This puzzle too! Oh boy... gotta have this! hahaha! 

drawing (droodling)

3" x 8"

ink on paper

I'm onto some new-ish things in the studio. This drawing above is the start of something. It's primarily serving as one of many studies for some larger paintings I plan to do with polyurethane and oil paint... so we'll see about that! I've been looking at a lot of photos online of skin... all kinds of photos... but the really zoomed in ones of skin layers are by far the best. I found these at sciencephoto.com 

WOW!

herb & dorothy

I finally watched this film... and I highly recommend it!

"HERB & DOROTHY tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy Vogel quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb's salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy's paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists including Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner. "

CLICK HERE or HERE to lean more - or watch the trailer below

rocks that wow

I think it's time I learn some more about geology. It's more aesthetic than I ever realized.

Yesterday I spent some time with the rocks in DC's Natural History Museum. I've been to the museum twice since moving to DC, but for some reason the dinos and dead animals always seem to take precedence. My friend Julia and I ventured upstairs this time to catch a glimpse at the Hope Diamond (though I still don't know what's so great about it) and found ourselves amongst the most incredible rocks/minerals/crystals we'd ever seen. I could've spent ages in that room just ooh-ing and ahh-ing at all the gorgeous forms and colors. It's amazing to think that all these things have formed naturally over time. So outrageous. Seeing them all has given me lots to think about - especially concerning the idea of the "organic." I've always thought of rocks as being so stationary (contrary to my impression of the organic) but after seeing how they grow into such incredible forms, I can't help but consider them organisms themselves.

I saw a lot of things that reminded me of elements and materials used in my own work. For example, there's a striking resemblance between this lava rock and this "Folded Flesh" painting I did last year...