How to Write an Artist statement, word?!

Forget art school. Smizzy has the answers….. No I actually, I don’t have ALL the answers – but I do know where to find the answers that I seek.  Well, answers are usually more like tips to help you find your own personal answer – but resembles some sort of answer never-the-less.

I realized a while back that the institution is against folks like me – poor, working class, female (i’m not black but they’re against that too) and we agree to disagree when things are going good.

As an artist we are asked to write artist statements. A few months ago a tutor of mine told my class to look up a few websites that were supposed to offer support in writing that ‘perfect’ artist statement. In reality, however, didn’t offer any advise i didn’t know already and kind of didn’t help but made the process worse!  There was one website which stuck out where the writer describes writing a statement close to cooking a stew.  Bizar. But, it stood out!

So here is what I learnt from many art critics, writers, lecturers, artists, ect and from my very own experiences.  This isn’t fully comprehensive but should help you begin to help you on your journey (and myself!) on to producing an artist statement which will make mediocracy flee in fear!

What do you think? – -

Oscar Wilde wrote “It is more difficult to talk or write about a thing than to do it.” “Criticism is a creation within creation.” “The highest criticism is more creative than creation.” “Creation limits, while contemplation widens the vision.”

With this in mind, lets move on to the “tips” and examples.

A New Type of Artist Statement: Write in plain language. Keep it short, simple, to the point. Use your own syntax; write the way you speak. With gigantic abstractions (“nature,” “beauty,” “ambiguity”) say what you’re actually doing with these big things. Don’t be afraid to be funny/weird or your stupid self! A glimpse of real self is powerful.

It’s not that big words or art historical language is inherently wrong, it’s that it’s usually unnecessary and sounds foreign coming out on paper for people who don’t speak that way. If you’re someone that drops those words in conversation , you might be able to make them work, but if you’re trying to fit them in then they will ALWAYS sound clumsy.

I’d like to add that nobody gives a shit if you’ve “always been creative from the time I was 5yrs old”. It has no bearing on an informed body of work and doesn’t tell me anything.

The artist’s statement should give the reader another reason to look at the work. Anything too general or fuzzy won’t give the reader something more to see, or a new way to think about what they’ve already noticed. Many people are more verbal than visual, so the artist might need to give the reader another reason to spend time looking. Straightforward doesn’t mean too simple or easy. . .

and please don’t use the word, ‘heteronormative.’

it is very important that an artists statement is at least informally edited by a friend, like minded gallery person, professional writer. etc. No good writing occurs without an editor (good thinking, as people here constantly display, but there is nothing to sap an artist of their potential power then a badly written statement).

he truth of french theory and frankfurt school and lacan and all the other theorists that have informed artists is that these writers were really really smart and in order to write along with them you’d better start sharpening your head. Reading is one thing, but writing about these ideas is something else. Usually one gets pretentious garbled imitations of really great thinkers. Just because i have read Middlemarch 10 times does not make me George Eliot. Like all ‘influences’ outside of the appropriation discourse, they are most eloquent when they are invisible. I don’t think that there is a single anti-intellectual on here. But people do have bullshit meters. Amateur theory writing is about as effective as amateur surgery.

Also, avoid using Lacan, Baudrillard, Derrida, Kant, and Foucault names in your artist statement!

A clear statement is another tool in the artist’s toolbox: it is an opportunity to describe their work, and secondarily, it presents an opportunity for the artist to articulate their artwork in writing.

My feeling is to bring back the manifesto- to express what your values are, and aren’t. Historically artists used to hang out in different camps and their manifestos were about how they would change the world which revealed what values they held and that seems like fertile ground for an artist statement.

Watch out for the word “I.”

DO NOT use phrases like “My work is intended” or “My work is about.” The word “practice” is the same as the word work. Use one or the other.

Watch out for gigantic abstract words “nature, ambiguity, beauty, reconciling opposites.”

best one is Carter Ratcliff’s: “I am a poet who writes about art.”

EVen bad artists SAY interesting things about their work; I have never HEARD a dumb artist.

Just write how you talk: Keep it simple and NO PLADITUDES about GIGANTIC ABSTRACT IDEAS, dummies.

f you are going to refrence other artists watch out for Giants (Twombly, Picasso, Duchamp). They make you sound smaller and pretentous. We are all referencing those types of artists (by accepting OR rejecting them). Don’t name them in your statement. Period. You may name names of artists that emerged AFTER 1990. That puts you much more at risk.

Remember that you live in the 21st century; not the early 19th century. You are NOT a Romantic Artists fighting to replace God or save art’s life or restore balance to a universe peopled by unknown Gods. The stakes have changed. (I know that we still live in a word similar to this but the terms HAVE changed; GROW UP; Get Your Own Ideas; otherwise you die A LITTLE; even if you have to rip ideas from the hands of the dead; GET AN IDEA).

I also say, Keep it short! Say it in 100 words OR LESS.

There is nothing wrong with humor or irony in an artist statement.

No matter what get a trusted friend to read your Artist Staement BEFORE you put it out. Tell them to rip it to shreads or tell you if it sounds silly or empty. If one person says “It’s perfect” they are lying or scared to tell you or don’t know. Get one more person to read it. Repeat this until someone tells you some part of it that stinks.

other artist staements BEFORE putting yours out. You will see that almsot EVERY Artist Staement SOUNDS the same. If yours sounds like these, it stinks and is boring.

It all boils down to DON’T BE BORING.

Joe Fyfe suggests this: (Get ready; it’s long; but it will be helpful):

- Leonard Cohen, “How to Speak Poetry”
- From Death of a Lady’s Man:

Take the word butterfly. To use this word it is not necessary to make the voice weigh less than an ounce or equip it with small dusty wings. It is not necessary to invent a sunny day or a field of daffodils. It is not necessary to be in love, or to be in love with butterflies. The word butterfly is not a real butterfly. There is the word and there is the butterfly. If you confuse these two items people have the right to laugh at you. Do not make so much of the word. Are you trying to suggest that you love butterflies more perfectly than anyone else, or really understand their nature? The word butterfly is merely data. It is not an opportunity for you to hover, soar, befriend flowers, symbolize beauty and frailty, or in any way impersonate a butterfly. Do not act out words. Never act out words. Never try to leave the floor when you talk about flying. Never close your eyes and jerk your head to one side when you talk about death. Do not fix your burning eyes on me when you speak about love. If you want to impress me when you speak about love put your hand in your pocket or under your dress and play with yourself. If ambition and the hunger for applause have driven you to speak about love you should learn how to do it without disgracing yourself or the material.

What is the expression which the age demands? The age demands no expression whatever. We have seen photographs of bereaved Asian mothers. We are not interested in the agony of your fumbled organs. There is nothing you can show on your face that can match the horror of this time. Do not even try. You will only hold yourself up to the scorn of those who have felt things deeply. We have seen newsreels of humans in the extremities of pain and dislocation. Everyone knows you are eating well and are even being paid to stand up there. You are playing to people who have experienced a catastrophe. This should make you very quiet. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Everyone knows you are in pain. You cannot tell the audience everything you know about love in every line of love you speak. Step aside and they will know what you know because you know it already. You have nothing to teach them. You are not more beautiful than they are. You are not wiser. Do not shout at them. Do not force a dry entry. That is bad sex. If you show the lines of your genitals, then deliver what you promise. And remember that people do not really want an acrobat in bed. What is our need? To be close to the natural man, to be close to the natural woman. Do not pretend that you are a beloved singer with a vast loyal audience which has followed the ups and downs of your life to this very moment. The bombs, flame-throwers, and all the shit have destroyed more than just the trees and villages. They have also destroyed the stage. Did you think that your profession would escape the general destruction? There is no more stage. There are no more footlights. You are among the people. Then be modest. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Be by yourself. Be in your own room. Do not put yourself on.

This is an interior landscape. It is inside. It is private. Respect the privacy of the material. These pieces were written in silence. The courage of the play is to speak them. The discipline of the play is not to violate them. Let the audience feel your love of privacy even though there is no privacy. Be good whores. The poem is not a slogan. It cannot advertise you. It cannot promote your reputation for sensitivity. You are not a stud. You are not a killer lady. All this junk about the gangsters of love. You are students of discipline. Do not act out the words. The words die when you act them out, they wither, and we are left with nothing but your ambition.

Speak the words with the exact precision with which you would check out a laundry list. Do not become emotional about the lace blouse. Do not get a hard-on when you say panties. Do not get all shivery just because of the towel. The sheets should not provoke a dreamy expression about the eyes. There is no need to weep into the handkerchief. The socks are not there to remind you of strange and distant voyages. It is just your laundry. It is just your clothes. Don’t peep through them. Just wear them.

The poem is nothing but information. It is the Constitution of the inner country. If you declaim it and blow it up with noble intentions then you are no better than the politicians whom you despise. You are just someone waving a flag and making the cheapest kind of appeal to a kind of emotional patriotism. Think of the words as science, not as art. They are a report. You are speaking before a meeting of the Explorers’ Club of the National Geographic Society. These people know all the risks of mountain climbing. They honour you by taking this for granted. If you rub their faces in it that is an insult to their hospitality. Tell them about the height of the mountain, the equipment you used, be specific about the surfaces and the time it took to scale it. Do not work the audience for gasps ans sighs. If you are worthy of gasps and sighs it will not be from your appreciation of the event but from theirs. It will be in the statistics and not the trembling of the voice or the cutting of the air with your hands. It will be in the data and the quiet organization of your presence.

Avoid the flourish. Do not be afraid to be weak. Do not be ashamed to be tired. You look good when you’re tired. You look like you could go on forever. Now come into my arms. You are the image of my beauty.

Like Leonard Cohen says:

“…Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Everyone knows you are in pain. You cannot tell the audience everything you know about love in every line of love you speak. Step aside and they will know what you know because you know it already. You have nothing to teach them. You are not more beautiful than they are. You are not wiser. Do not shout at them. Do not force a dry entry. That is bad sex…”

“… be modest. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Be by yourself. Be in your own room. Do not put yourself on.”

It is just your laundry. It is just your clothes. Don’t peep through them. Just wear them.
If you declaim it and blow it up with noble intentions then you are no better than the politicians whom you despise. You are just someone waving a flag and making the cheapest kind of appeal to a kind of emotional patriotism.

Be specific ….

wE’Ve all read books, stop referencing them all!

From artist James Gurney:  (DON’T USE ANY OF THE BELOW STATEMENTS)

Add any 3 from columns 1 to 3 and, voila, instant artist’s statement…

“My recent work is:

Column 1
An exploration of the irreducible act of mark-making…
An investigation of the mimetic process…
An excavation of the inheritance of the past…
A disquisition on our shared narratives…

Column 2
…which seeks to unravel the threads of visual discourse
…which delves into the connectedness of the real and the abstract
…which re-encodes ambiguity and authenticity
…which reveals the undercurrents of ritual

Column 3
…by creating a conversation between color and texture.”
…by disjunctively animating it through a process of mimicry.”
…by mediating clichés through a retro-nostalgic lens.”
…by alluding to tropes of the built environment.”

Many thanks to Jerry Saltz, Matthew Weinstein, Oliver Wasow, 
michael corris, Wendy E. Cooper,
 Mark Staff Brandl, Lisa Beck, 
Dennis Kardon, and many more. 

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if you’re in cali?

If you are around the Santa Monica area anytime soon, drop into the California Heritage Museum to see the current exhibition,Skateboard: Evolution And Art.

Guest curated by Nathan Pratt in conjunction with museum staff curator Michael Trotter and advisory committee members Jeff Ho, Skip Engblom, Cris Dawson, Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta and Christian Hosoi. The exhibition traces the evolution of boards from pre-1950 to the present.

California Heritage Museum
2612 Main Street
Santa Monica Ca 90405

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Sim-City-Coke!

This is an advert for Coca-Cola, currently appearing on a number of bus shelters and street hoardings around Belfast. The SimCity-style recreation of the city suggests that Coke have employed a creative team who can whip one of these up for every major city they choose to advertise in. That said, they’ve got plenty of iconic buildings and details in, if not exactly in any semblance of geographical reality.

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The Sheffield Landscape

Wait-whaaaaart?

more info coming soon. word.

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bushwick biennial!

The constant flowering of bohemia is not a construct of advertising, nor of the whims of a dozen infamous gallerists. It is the generational engine of youth culture, alive and well, striving at the border of the mainstream, throwing out its various statements while at the same time contributing to a community that has registered a similar creative echo for at least 25 years.

Bushwick is the locus of new creative energies, the same ones that are active in many other parts of Brooklyn, especially its neighboring wards of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. This year saw the emergence of its first official celebration, The Bushwick Biennial, brainchild of NURTUREart gallery director Benjamin Evans, in collaboration with Austin Thomas of Pocket Utopia, Chris Harding of English Kills, and Jill McDermid of Grace Exhibition Space.

I first heard Ben utter these two words over a year ago, and since then he has worked hard to make it a reality. As the director of NURTUREart, he has seen first-hand what sort of influence the art community as a whole can exert when given proper focus within the scheme of the larger art world. Certainly the word ‘Williamsburg’ echoes out into the international art world, and so should its generative offspring. Just as Soho created the possibilities for Tribeca and Noho, Williamsburg has spread into the outlying areas of Greenpoint and Bushwick, and further, all along the corridors of the L train and the B61 Bus, and into the minds of New Yorkers, Americans, and people around the world.

Each of the three galleries I visited that weekend had a different focus of interest. The show Fortress to Solitude (an event that was actually part of the yearly organized Bushwick Open Studios, overlapping this year with the Biennial), curated in an independent studio space by Guillermo Creus and hosted by Brooklyn Fireproof landlord Burr Dodd, featured the work of some 22 artists, many of them working out the formal strategies of abstraction, some figurative, and some with text and a combination of elements.

Paintings by Amanda Church, Peter Fox, Lisha Bai, and Anna Pedersen presented drippy phantasms that were either visceral, limpid, or gossamer. Other abstract works were more structurally based, combining radically different mediums such as oil and spray paint (Guillermo Creus, Baptiste Ibar), making naturalistic allusions (Diane Carr), and stretching into hard edge materialism (Tom Meacham, Gary Petersen).

Another work by Peter Fox is a pale light blue canvas with two words painted in bold red letters, spelling out the expression ‘Idiot proof’, which is to say, anyone can get my art, and anyone could have made it. One very iconic portrait of President Obama by Tom Sanford is overlaid with the words What You Believe Is Already True emblazoned over a half quizzical facial expression of our fearless leader; is this just sloganeering, is the artist poking fun at authority, or is this just a painting about painting? Perhaps we will never know.

The title of this exhibition, a play on words originally describing the re-birthed spiritual home of the comic book legend Superman, is a telling narrative about the nature of creativity and how it is specifically vested in areas such as Bushwick. The overwhelming presence of abstraction in the exhibition can be characterized not only as the aesthetic bent of its curator (a painter himself), but also as a statement on the manic focus of Bushwick artists, whose concern is with forms of expression, and though they are a fairly idealistic bunch, such values do not always lead them down the primrose path of ideology. They remain committed to the formalism which inspires them.

Hung randomly with a lot of white space between them, we get the effect that spatial concerns still matter in the Bushwick of 2009 as they did in the Soho of 1969, and that giving artists room to think, and showing their work as existing within a systematic but disinterested locality is the best thing for them.

Finally Utopic is not just a pun, it’s the last show in the space that was once the studio of its director, the conceptual artist Austin Thomas, and features work by all the artists she has championed since her project began only two years ago. It has always existed as a sort of playground for artistic intentions, not taking itself too seriously, looking at art as if it were a form of conversation rather than a political slogan or commercial advertisement.

Molly Larkey, who is usually a sculptor, here presents gestural rather slapdash gouaches that intimate the beginnings of an idea that may later take physical form; Valerie Hegarty cracks the plaster of the wall before pasting a poster over the hole, that will ultimately rip the image along its ragged edge; Rico Gatson installs Systemic Risk Funky Revolution that is one part tautology and one part puzzle. The air overall is one of tentativeness, as if no one statement should predominate and none will last beyond the end of the space itself.

A strong tenor of idealism was evident in works at NURTUREart, curated by Benjamin Evans, though this motif was not always comprehensible in the same way; the works here were by and large non-abstract, or at least not within the limits of a formalist bent.

His own curatorial statement states that “These fourteen artists involve both optimism and melancholy, and reflect the tensions between doomed worlds, better places and personal mythologies.” Themes of transformation and strategies of transformative experience run through the work and link it to the neighborhood that is transforming all around (and partly because of) them.

Mike Estabrook’s video loop The Road to ‘Nam is both entertaining and pensive, as it combines images of brutality in war and the dour countenances of Kissinger and Nixon with a Bob Hope and Bing Crosby song “If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Of Baked A Cake.” We recognize the images from the front page of The New York Times, of a US Okie aiming his gun at a Viet Cong, with politicians thrown in for good visual sense; but the whole arrangement falls apart with the song resounding. It’s so cheery and chummy that war can almost be seen as a big party in which we laugh until we have to cry.

Audrey Russel made a special installation on the adjoining rooftop that created a visual and physical spectacle which gallery guests had to step around as they talked, drank, and shared their experiences of the past evening’s activities. Made from pink foam insulation, a large wooden pylon and Xmas lights, Beam Tower with Pink Grass waved around the roof like the froth of an ever renewing tide. There is something very energizing about always living on the edge, engaging with what seems newly relevant. The Bushwick phenomenon has us looking for the next aesthetic event around every corner.

» scramble’s blog

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FOOD Out of print catalogue: Gordon, Matta-Clark

http://www.publiccollectors.org/FOOD.pdf

download the whole publication here! ^^^^^

out of print, printed by White Columns NYC

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The Double Agent (first Draft – NOT Referenced properly yet!!!)

The Double Agent –   FIRST DRAFT, NOTTTT REFERENCED PROPERLY

How artistic collectivism and interventionist collaborative practices can be a confident move from Aesthetic autonomy to engagement with the social, the work place and the community.

“Despite the [above] reservations a community still seems the only means by which we can overcome the extreme isolation of our vacant subjectivity, and begin to deal with the larger world. Such form the basis for the de-structuring of the present artworld; its institutions and authorities.”

Karl Beveridge, 1975 Art & Language

Recession continues to loom above our heads, the house prices are crashing faster than Air France planes,  whilst the Exchange rate on the Euro is just about equal to the Sterling Pound and people across the Western world are loosing jobs. All the while, London Olympics 2012 is tragically economically raping the Arts Council funding, which typically would help the small artist organizations within the UK.  Things look bleak, but surprisingly, it’s not as bleak as a family holiday to Margate on a rainy day.

This paper may come across like I have over romanticized the idea of collectivity and the autonomy of the individual. Perhaps I have? But if art history, and inevitably life experience, has taught us anything it is that to get through depressions, recessions, and oppressive situations that there is power in numbers. Collectivity.

We can see that over the past 30 years or so, socially engaged artists have made ‘work’ that is, distributed into the public sphere using various mediums including, more recently, the internet (Yes Men, The Thing, etc). Although it usually holds no dominate place within collections and museums, it’s important work as it radicalizes the individual from precarious artworld viewing traditions such as the White Cube space and allows an unknown recipient to carry out the act of the street (or other space) intervention without necessarily recognizing its place within the field of art.

The list of artist collective groups is endless but for referencing points we can look to artists who have a heavy history linked to interventionist practice within art: Art&Language (NY); Artists Meeting For Cultural Change; PAD/D (Political Art Documentation/Distribution); Fluxus; Red Herring; Group Material; ABC NoRio; REPOhistory; Temporary Services; Anarchitecture; Yes Men; The Thing, etc.  They all have the same thing in common; A belief that through a collectivity, a collective unity, art as a communicative activity has the potential of disclosing hidden structures and power relations and repression within systems that rule our society (artworld and non art world).

Interventionist art is varied and wide, even though, many still consider it to be ‘outsider art’. This would be a mistake to believe this critical brush over.  There are many dominant key figures who have been individually, or more usually, collectively engaged in a practice that sometimes operates within an interventionist’s field – often for more political / social engagement, which that of the gallery can not offer.  Theorist Stephen Wright describes the interventionist as an ontological secret agent who is forced to don multiple identities: artist/activist, theorist/practitioner, participant/viewer, organizer/organized.[1] No doubt the interventionist curator will find such ontological fabrication indispensable, such as the street or publications apposed to the institution.

We know that the autonomy of art is a debate all on its own that deserves a separate paper on such a topic. The grounding for the ideas behind the autonomy of art can be found in Kant’s propositions about art’s ‘purity,’ and its total disengagement from practical concerns, such as commercial, ethical or religious.  At the level of production, Aestheticism, l’art pour l’art, most fully embodied this vision of art’s autonomy. And at the level of the consumption of art, the autonomy of art suited the evoloving structures of bourgeois society. While art’s status of autonomy keeps it ‘pure,’ it also effectively prevents art from influencing the way people live their lives, and indeed, the way they might change their lives – and society – for the better.

However, ultimately as Joseph Bueys said, “ Everyone is an artist.” This creating of meaning in the intersection of our individual being and the rest of the world is not limited to specialists like “artists”. It is part of the human condition, an existential need and challenge we all deal with continually in one way or another. Together we created a shared world. Art, it could be argued, is the result of a successful coming together, through a back and forth process of dialogue, between oneself and the surrounding world. The success of autonomy is experienced as meaning, and it depends on the ability to explore and create existing and new connections. Instead of the individual opposed to the collective or the artist deciding to work with the “community,” my contention is that “collectivity” in one form or another is virtually an ontological condition of modern life, thus autonomous.

This then, is a catch 22, art could be a pseudo-autonomous discipline limited by its own ideology, stuck in its own Kant paradigm.  Art history and theory define or imply a field of interest. Anything that happens outside this realm is not considered relevant. Art establishment intellectuals are quick to realize aesthetic potential, but everything within their scope reaffirms what they already know. The establishment academician recognizes art for its relevance to a historically developed view. She sets new art and new meaning in an academic context that justifies continued faith in the truisms of the prevailing institutions.

Unfortunately, the facts are that we are living in a leading global operating business world, where profit over takes the needs of the individual. This is becoming problematic in matters linked to the social and economic environments of which we surround ourselves with.  Living in such a crude marketing and privatizing culture leaves little room for true education, free healthcare and other necessities for living, where the institution leads!

For example, we can think of the issues surrounding the ideas of gentrification and regeneration. Gentrification is a young word that refers to the transformation of neighbourhoods from low value to high value. This change has the potential to cause displacement of long-time residents and businesses. Gentrification is a housing, economic, and health issue that affects a community’s history and culture and reduces social capital. Ultimately it is an aggressive process of the displacement of the poor working class residents and culture at the detriment to city culture. But this, folks, is just neo-liberal capitalism.

Ranciere’s text on the Politics of Aesthetics is a key text for any artist working today whereby he differentiates the different regimes of art, trying to link the worker with philosophy and the history with the process of theories of the art world.  These ‘regimes’ of course are Ranciere’s versions of Modernism.  His cleverness persists as he links history with the history of labour.   This is where it gets interesting. Ranciere believes that art is granted its own sphere with its own rules, and is somewhat superior to those of common craft. Politically, this second way of thinking about art objects corresponds to the bourgeoisification of the artist, her transformation into a figure with her own freedom and independence, elevated above the demands of common labor.

“The absolute singularity of art and, at the same time, destroy[ing] any pragmatic criterion for isolating this singularity. It simultaneously establishes the autonomy of art and the identity of its forms with the forms that life uses to shape itself.” (p.23)

Interestingly, Gregory Sholette (co-founder of PAD/D) asked in his article for Documenta 12 Whether it is too much to expect to ask why it is relatively easy to visualize political dissent by artists and art institutions, and so difficult to imagine radical social change in one’s workplace, neighborhood, or nation?[2] Indeed.

The group PAD/D (Political Art Documentation/Distribution) is a great example of this. The place, which they felt that they wanted to locate their political practice, was to the side of the institutional art world mixed with radical left politics.  A key project that they lead in the mid 80’s due to this rise in business culture, thus gentrification, was the NOT FOR SALE: A Project Against Displacement, which attempted to rebel against the gentrification and displacement of the Lower East Side community. A group of 40 something artists got together and diffused art and community meetings in order to stop the displacement, to let LES residents understand their tenancy rights and so forth.    They sorted to try and recreate an alternative, progressive art network resembling those of the 1930s.  Whilst this project was successful, the group died-out in 1989. However they inspired other groups such as ABC NO-RIO (which is still alive today) and The Real Estate Show by COLLAB all dedicated to stopping the negative effects of Gentrification.  This would be an autonomous and ontological drive, as it required dialogue to move it forward. Furthermore, activism is fascinatingly an action for its own sake, close to the sentiment “art for arts sake”. The second is antagonism, an oppositional stance and combative action directed against traditional aesthetics and social norms, which neatly sums up in two phrases the history of the avant-garde. Both of which are two key elements of collective art groups such as PAD/D.

As we head to our own existential crisis of the early 2000’s with recession and conservative governments, many groups/collaborative efforts have appeared proving that socio-political crisis’s are part of our environment, hence forth in the make up of our autonomy, and thus art.

Ironically, PAD/D’s work now has its very own collection at the MoMA, NY dedicated to social, and political activism art of the 70s and beyond.   In spite of this, here we see that Art’s supposed autonomy is a sham that defuses and absorbs revolutionary art forms before they can effect the status quo.  Greg Sholette also writes about this issue, referring it to the “dark matter of the art world”.

“… when mainstream cultural institutions try to incorporate transient forms of art, or devise terms like relational aesthetics to package it, the result typically comes off as so many frozen assets, so much art world real estate plopped down on the multi-billion dollar monopoly board … one eye scanning the next investment opportunity in Asia or Africa or Latin America.”

Much recent writing about artist group activities employs some of the most impractical academic theory and language, an approach that belies the cooperative tradition that many groups attempt to engage within their daily practice. There is a sensitivity that emerges for those that learn to work and enjoy working in a group; and rely upon group work. It’s an action that shows a down to earth homage to groups before that reveals itself through the very act of choosing to work with others.

The hyper-individualism, upon which so much of the art world relies, is part of a capitalistic strategy used to produce money, sex, power and  of course exclusivity with it’s middle class elitisms. Collectivity is autonomy that strives to be honest about the human costs created as a result of the production of art, and about the existence of underlying power structures within all of our relationships. To be in a team, a collective is a very special act. To be in a team that wants to better the world, to make a positive difference, to help others and not just as a career boosting object is a rare phenomenon and should be celebrated, and taught and re-lived and be an inspiration to not just artists but all people.

In time, the triumvirate of art, trophy collecting and capital elitism will succumb to its own exclusivity, and art will be liberated from its servitude to an exploitive ideology. Rather, as art critic Michael Corris said, “it is offered as a reminder that the conditions of freedom are always in need of reconstitution.”

What ever happens, I’m sure the double agent will be ready for it.

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[1] Stephen Wright, unpublished paper presented at the Townhouse Gallery, Cairo Egypt, December 13, 2005.

[2] Sholette, Gregory.  Documenta 12 http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/article.php?IdLanguage=1&NrArticle=643

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The Last Lecture

After I finished the 4 week teaching gig in Hastings last week, I got this awesome card off the kids saying thank you. That was great.

What was even more surprising than that was a card and a book off my monitor. Every teacher has a monitor who takes the kids to town and on trips with you, and helps you out with photocopying and stuff like that.  As the jobs kind of badly organised and directed, your monitor is the person who helps you understand how this crazy school works.

Anyways this book he gave me was a first edition, hardback copy of The Last Lecture by Randy Pursue.  It’s been a while since i read a book like this. I’ve been trying to re-read Jack Kerouc

I sat down and, although I haven’t finished the whole thing yet, I have read 3/4 of it and understand what it’s trying to say.

The book got me thinking.

What childhood dreams/hopes/ambitions have i genuinely wanted and out of them – how many have I achieved?

so here is a few:

• For about 12 years all I ever wanted to be was an animator for Disney. I’m not sure why I changed my direction to more contemporary art/architecture.  Did I ever achieve it? No.  Will I ever achieve it? Probably not. But that direction made me a skillful drawer.
• To live in NYC. My mom worked (and still does) long and many jobs to put food on the table. As a result I spent alot of time with the TV and Films. And brainwashed myself from a veryyyyy young girl that NYC is the place to be, regardless. I genuine feel like I was born in the wrong place.  But, I have actually done this, I have lived in nYC. for a few months. worked and lived in an apartment in Brooklyn. Sounds awesome right? I’d love to do it again. For a longer period. Like 5 years at least. I felt so happy and content there.
• To write for a magazine.  Well I’m working really hard on this, and i have a sneaking suspicion that I’m not a very good writer… but nevertheless… I’m working hard and have had a few things printed in magazines.
• which leads me on to my next ambition. I always wanted to be in a real published book. Now. The books that my work has been are very small publishing deals – not really the real deal. But it’s beeen VERY Cool. and it’s not too bad – I’m still just 21.
• i’ve ALWAYS wanted to work in film  whether that be behind in production or infront of the camera as an actress… this hasn’t happened.
• In the acting/performing side of things I have finally pursued one area of it which mixes my other childhood dream of becoming a rapstar. And that’s a slam poet. Now, albiet, not an amazing slam poet – i’m still coming into myself BUT i’ve performed and even set up my own night in sheffield dedicated to the artform. This is close enough for being a rap star.
• I always wanted to be a teacher and to be told that I’ve made a difference and that they’ll never forget me (i know the latter of that sentence is pretty genuine as i’ve used it a few times and you dont say it if you dont mean it… because there is no need to say it!)  and that happened with the Hastings job. That was my proudest moment! as a teacher. I’d love to have that feeling again.
• To have my own art gallery…. i helped CAKE collective set CAKE up and did the website: www.cakeartspace.co.uk
• to work in an awesome gallery. I worked at Postmasters Gallery, NYC and it is easily one of the bestest things in my whole entire life. its an opportunity that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
• To hitch-hike. I did this in the south of USA. Across the border of Mexico and on! awesome. I’d do it again. I’d love to do the cross country thing again!!!!
• To get a degree….. although I’m not graduated yet – i never thought that i’d get to university to do art. never in a million years. and now i’m a masters student. amazing.
• to be as famous as damien hirst in the artworld….. hmmmm that hasn’t happened yet. I dont think it will but you never know eh!?

There are more but they’re the ones that spring to mind straight away.  I can still see there’s lots to work with!

But I’m truly grateful for my life and where I can take it. debt, death, and bad relationships along the way.  How many dreams/ambitions have you achieved so far?

ABout THE LAST LECTURE

Randolph Frederick Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brown University in 1982 and his PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon in August 1988. Pausch later became an associate professor at the University of Virginia, before working at Carnegie Mellon as an associate professor.

He gave his “The Last Lecture” speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. Pausch conceived the lecture after he learned that his previously known pancreatic cancer was terminal. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical “final talk”, with a topic such as “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?” The talk was later released as a book called The Last Lecture, which became a New York Times best-seller.

Pausch was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science from 1988 until 1997. While there, he completed sabbaticals at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA). In 1997, Pausch became Associate Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design, at Carnegie Mellon University. He was a co-founder in 1998, along with Don Marinelli, of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), and he started the Building Virtual Worlds course at CMU and taught it for 10 years. He consulted with Google on user interface design and also consulted with PARC, Imagineering, and Media Metrix. Pausch is also the founder of the Alice software project.

He was a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. Pausch was the author or co-author of five books and over 70 articles. He also received two awards from ACM in 2007 for his achievements in computing education: the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award and the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education. He was also inducted as a Fellow of the ACM in 2007. The Pittsburgh City Council declared November 19, 2007 to be “Dr. Randy Pausch Day”. In May 2008, Pausch was listed by Time as one of the World’s Top-100 Most Influential People.

Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy) on September 19, 2006 in an unsuccessful attempt to halt his pancreatic cancer. He was told in August 2007 to expect a remaining three to six months of good health. He soon moved his family to Chesapeake, Virginia, a suburb near Norfolk, to be close to his wife’s family. On March 13, 2008, Pausch advocated for greater federal funding for pancreatic cancer before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. In the week prior to this, he had been hospitalized in order to have needle aspiration of pleural effusion in his right lung.

On May 2, a Positron emission tomography (PET) scan showed that he had very tiny (5 millimetres (0.20 in) or less) metastasis in his lungs and some lymph nodes in his chest. He also had some metastases in his peritoneal and retroperitoneal cavities. On June 26, 2008, Pausch indicated that he was considering stopping further chemotherapy because of the potential adverse side effects. He was, however, considering some immuno-therapy-based approaches. On July 24, on behalf of Pausch, a friend anonymously posted a message on Pausch’s webpage stating that a biopsy had indicated that the cancer had progressed further than what was expected from recent PET scans and that Pausch had “taken a step down” and was “much sicker than he had been”. The friend also stated that Pausch had then enrolled in a hospice program designed to provide palliative care to those at the end of life.

Pausch died from pancreatic cancer at his family’s home in Chesapeake, Virginia on July 25, 2008, having moved there so that his wife and children would be near family after his death. He is survived by his wife Jai, and their three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe.

REALLY ACHIEVING YOUR CHILDHOOD DREAMS

Pausch delivered his “Last Lecture”, titled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, at CMU on September 18, 2007. Randy Pausch gave an abridged version of his speech on the Oprah show in October 2007. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical “final talk”, with a topic such as “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?” Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, “Make me earn it,” someone in the audience shouted back, “You did!”

During the lecture, Pausch was upbeat and humorous, alternating between wisecracks, insights on computer science and engineering education, advice on building multi-disciplinary collaborations, working in groups and interacting with other people, offering inspirational life lessons, and performing push-ups on stage. He also commented on the irony that the “Last Lecture” series had recently been renamed as “Journeys”, saying, “I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it.” After Pausch finished his lecture, Steve Seabolt, on behalf of Electronic Arts—which is now collaborating with CMU in the development of Alice 3.0—pledged to honor Pausch by creating a memorial scholarship for women in computer science, in recognition of Pausch’s support and mentoring of women in CS and engineering.

CMU president Jared Cohon spoke emotionally of Pausch’s humanity and called his contributions to the university and to education “remarkable and stunning”. He then announced that CMU will celebrate Pausch’s impact on the world by building and naming after Pausch a raised pedestrian bridge to connect CMU’s new Computer Science building and the Center for the Arts, symbolizing the way Pausch linked those two disciplines. Brown University professor Andries van Dam followed Pausch’s last lecture with a tearful and impassioned speech praising him for his courage and leadership, calling him a role model.

THE LAST LECTURE

The Disney-owned publisher Hyperion paid $6.7 million for the rights to publish a book about Pausch called The Last Lecture, co-authored by Pausch and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Zaslow. The book became a New York Times best-seller on June 22, 2008. The Last Lecture expands on Pausch’s speech. The book’s first printing had 400,000 copies, and it has been translated into 17 languages. Despite speculation that the book would be made into a movie, Pausch had denied these rumors, stating that “there’s a reason to do the book, but if it’s telling the story of the lecture in the medium of film, we already have that.”

MEDIA COVERAGE

Pausch was named “Person of the Week” on ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson on September 21, 2007. His “Last Lecture” has attracted wide attention from the international media, became an Internet hit, and was viewed over a million times in the first month after its delivery. On October 22, 2007, Pausch appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show where he discussed his situation and summarized his “Last Lecture”. On October 6, 2007, Pausch joined the Pittsburgh Steelers for the day during their regular practice, after the organization learned that one of his childhood dreams mentioned in his “Last Lecture” was to play in the NFL.

A devoted Star Trek fan, Pausch was invited by film director J. J. Abrams to film a role in the latest Star Trek movie. Abrams heard of Pausch’s condition and sent a personal e-mail inviting Pausch to the set. Pausch accepted and traveled to Los Angeles, California to shoot his scene. In addition to appearing in the film, he also has a line of dialogue and donated the $217.06 paycheck to charity. On April 9, 2008, the ABC network aired an hour long Diane Sawyer feature on Pausch titled “The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life”. On July 29, 2008, ABC aired a follow up to the Last Lecture special, remembering Pausch and his famous lecture.

OTHER LECTURES AND APPEARANCES

Pausch gave a lecture about time management on November 27, 2007 at the University of Virginia, to an audience of over 850 people. In March 2008, Pausch appeared in a public service announcement video and testified before Congress in support of cancer research. On May 18, 2008, Pausch made a surprise return appearance at Carnegie Mellon, giving a speech at the commencement ceremony, as well as attending the School of Computer Science’s diploma ceremony, and on May 19 Pausch appeared on the Good Morning America show. His lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, was nominated at the 2007 YouTube Video Awards.

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‘fake’ revolution & art

 

Not sure how my paper (that i’m writing just for fun.. no purpose) is going to turn out but i’m enjoying researching it never the less…  but this cartoon is just a very very very small taster… and a helping hand to get me to start blogging again! come on smizzle…

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MARMA SPOT

 The Marma Spot. It’s an on-going archive of his interviews with creative people – Stefan Sagmeister, Geoff McFetridge, and Soft Gold USA, to name a few. His latest interview is with Mike Mills. Read it here.

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