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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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While counselling me not to load up on too many courses in my first term, an adviser posed the ominous question "How long has it been since you've read Hegel?" I blinked at her like a deer in the headlights. "Uh, eternity?" (No kidding. I've barely read any Kant! And to answer the spirit of the question, my BFA with Art History minor was 17 years ago.)
In a state of not quite panic but something close I spent yesterday afternoon reading James Elkins' Stories of Art. It's a short book that summarizes various art history survey texts throughout the ages, (and around the world), and ultimately paints a picture of the study of art history as an inescapably western phenomemon. It's easy reading, and...Hegel shows up! yay. According to Elkins, Hegel is a bit of a thorn in the side of art history, a guy with a pernicious point of view that we'd love to purge, if only we could.
Among Hegel's many ideas about art, two have been particularly important for subsequent art history: the claim that art moves forward through time in accord with certain specifiable laws; and the claim that at any given time, all the arts of a culture are in harmony."At least these themes sound familiar. I did learn the term "teleology" back in school and it's stuck with me. I remember reading Stephen Jay Gould, not quite so long ago, as he argued against the sticky notion that evolution has a goal in mind (...and that human civilzation is its crowning glory). This is an easy idea to dismiss rationally, but it is much harder to divest our everyday thinking of such narrative trajectories. Progress is a pretty deeply embedded concept.
[...]
"In Hegel's view, art progresses: it actually moves forward rather than simply changing or wandering. His sequences are meliorist, that is, the art actually improves, because better expressions of the Idea or Spirit are to be desired over less accurate ones.
What is now often called the diachronic march of art through history is one of Hegel's two influential theories. The synchronic theory, which explains how art at any given time all hangs together, is just as important."
[...]
"Hegel is one of those insidious problems that seems easy to solve: afer all, can't I just say that I will stop assuming art progresses or that all arts are tied to a central spirit? It turns out that I can say it but I cannot write that way, because the resulting lecture or book will sound incoherent. Listeners, viewers, and readers expect sense and structure in their art history, and so far at least the overwhelming majority of attempts to write different kinds of art history have failed."
From James Elkins, Stories of Art, (New York: Routledge*) 2002, pgs. 52-55
Another thing this makes me think of if the physics problem of time — why does it only go one way? And philosophic problems of point of view and memory and consciousness. And other things I've thought about before sometimes like maybe even this old post on narratology and ludology.
So the upshot for me is that while Elkins' book makes the whole art history project seem mildly claustrophobic, I am starting to feel somewhat enthusiastic at the prospect of "reading Hegel" (ulp).
*I'm not normally too picky as a reader, but as a sometimes-editor I have to say: man this book is full of typos and clumsy hyphenation! What gives? I thought Routledge was the kind of press that wouldn't scrimp on editors and proof readers.
My charming new school...
Yesterday at grad student orientation at York University we were reminded that the campus isn't really safe for women walking alone after dark (bad news), but there is a free shuttle bus that we can take that will keep us all super duper safe and sound (good news). While standing in one of several administrative lineups I noticed a taped-up campus-wide memo about a sexual assault perpetrated by a guy on a bicycle*. Today, while in another requisite lineup, I noted yet another campus-wide memo about another different sexual assault perpetrated by a white guy with a bald head.
It was a beautiful day today and the campus was swarming with co-ed groups of frosh being herded around and forced to do charming embarrassing little indoctrination activities. The first group I saw were engaged in a friendly tousle in which the (very young) women were paired up against the (very young) men and instructed to wrestle. The second little bi-gendered pod I saw were marching and chanting military style:
Call: What are you here for?Super-duper charming! Makes me feel like re-reading Neal Stephenson's The Big U.
Response: Stroke my pussy.
Call: What are you here for?
Response: Stroke my pussy.
Refrain: Stroke my pussy, stroke, stroke, stroke my pussy (repeat)
* I must admit that, given the extreme remoteness from downtown of the campus, the fact that there was a cyclist on campus made me feel somewhat reassured, despite this particular cyclist's unsavoury activities.
Lots of shows coming up...September being what it is...
Neutrinos They Are Very Small
Rebecca Diederichs, Gordon Hicks, Sally McKay, curated by Corinna Ghaznavi
opens at Render Gallery in Waterloo on September 13th. We will also have a Saturday afternoon closing event later in October with performance lecture and an all ages Art and Science Lab. Come and party in the "Top Intelligent Community of 2007!"
Quantal Strife
Scott Carruthers, Crystal Mowry, Marc Ngui, curated by Sally McKay
opens at McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton on September 13th. Come and party in Steeltown! (Also watch Hamilton Life for a profile on the exhibition).
Granite Club - Persona Volare at the Tree Museum
Carlo Cesta, Michael Davey, John Dickson, Rebecca Diederichs, Brian Hobbs, Lorna Mills, Lisa Neighbour, Chantal Rousseau, Lyla Rye, Kate Wilson, and Johannes Zits
opens at the Tree Museum near Gravenhurst on Sunday September 16, 2007 noon to 5pm. Come and party in the woods!
In celebration of the Tree Museum's 10th Anniversary, Personal Volare is also mounting an exhibition at York Quay Centre The Road North/The Road South, September 14th. Come party at the Harbourfront!
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 I'm a novice when it comes to big international art exhibitions, but like all bloggers who've been to Documenta XII, I feel compelled to make a report. >>read the report (with pictures)>> |
At the CNE this week I sat inside this Snowbird and this light armoured vehicle. My main impression in both instances: "Man, this thing is small." The L.A.V. —which carries 10 including the gunner and driver—seemed a particularly tight squeeze. My petite friend and I were hunched over and bumping knees as the slightly-less-than-patient man in camo answered our questions and showed us where the light bulbs were. I'm not claustrophobic, but I was very glad the door and hatch were both open.  Also this band was playing...  It sure feels like war time around here, what with the news reporting near-daily Canadian casualities and all. I remember when I was a kid the idea of Canada going to war again was unimaginable and terrifying. Now I find it dismal, sad and mind-numbing. 2009 seems like a long way off. |