|
Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
Digital Media Tree this blog's archive OVVLvverk Lorna Mills: Artworks / Persona Volare / contact Sally McKay: GIFS / cv and contact |
View current page
...more recent posts
In an earlier comment thread there was some discussion about Re-enchantment, a recent panel at the Art Institute of Chicago on art and religion (with Thierry de Duve, Boris Groys, David Morgan, Kajri Jain, Wendy Doniger, and James Elkins). In the comment thread Matthew Ballou, a faith-motivated artist who "spent a good number of sleepless nights on the ninth floor of that very same building in various states of woe over the issues under consideration by this panel" posted this link to a paper he wrote in response to the event. The paper is interesting, and I felt it was worth a front-page post. I am not a faith-motivated artist, but I very much appreciate the opportunity to hear about the "exclusion of spirituality from academic discussions of modernism and postmodernism" from the perspective of someone who is. Here are two bits that particularly gave me food for thought.
Simply put, the work of art that has the least potential for transgressing the self-conceived autonomy of the viewer is one most able to gain approval. The work that functions more as a sign than as a symbol is far closer to approval, since the sign tends to present itself to the autonomous self for review, whereas the symbol announces itself as avatar of a broader, even universal, conception which bears with it a kind of jurisdiction over the self.There is another response posted here, as well as readings submitted by some of the panelists.
[...]
Why is religio-spiritual content subject to the evaluation of theory and not the other way around? The problem with this arrangement is that theory denigrates practice by the expression of its critique. That is, the form of its existence is a questioning of praxis, hence the eternal strain inherent in the attempt to bridge the theory of a phenomena and the actuality of it. Any analysis of a particular practice, rather than reifying it, particularizes it in a hierarchical structure where the analysis plays the dominant roll of overseeing other. Thus by virtue of its own critical action, the theory of a discrete application becomes the arbiter of the value of that system. This is where the fundamental power of critique comes into existence. A theory of religious or faith-motivated art, then, must be a kind of violence exacted upon that art, for in its attempt to quantify, qualify, name, and place the systems and functions of that art, the theorizing acts as a systolic element that compresses the potentiality of anything it has defined. This is perhaps the fatal flaw of the Re-Enchantment panel: that their words could not seem to traverse the gulf between the disqualifying otherness of critique and the gut-wrenching, heart-felt arena of making artworks. They could not connect with the practice of making contemporary religio-spiritual art in any full measure; most of their time was spent describing it.
Standing Wave #3 2007 Digital C-Print, 50" x 74"
Standing Wave #10 2007 Digital C-Print, 50" x 74"
Andrew Wright: Water's Edge opens at Peak Gallery, 23 Morrow Ave. Toronto
on Thursday May 2, 4 to 8 pm.
I recently posted images of Andrew's previous work.
I've been on the board at Art Metropole for a couple of years now. For anyone who doesn't know, it's an artist-run centre that "specializes in contemporary art in multiple format: artists books, multiples, video, audio, electronic media, and so on." Art Metropole was founded by the Canadian artists' collective General Idea in the early 70s. Ann Dean is the director, and she's been with the institution in various capacities for a long time. Back in the early 90s I took some of my artists' books and flyers to Art Metropole to see if they might sell them on consignment. Ann was one of the first people to show enthusiasm for my work after I left school, and Art Metropole's support gave me tons of confidence. It also gave me a huge opportunity, as Michelle Jacques, curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario, saw my stuff there and subsequently gave me a major show in the AGO's Present Tense series.
There are tons of artists like me, working in strange media with queer and quirky concepts, who find interest, enthusiasm and distribution for their work at Art Metropole. Like Michelle, and countless other curators, collectors, writers, editors and artists, I have always gravitated there to browse and chat whenever the art system started to offer too much sameness and I was thirsty for something inspiring, smart and strange. It's also an incredible archive for all kinds of ephemera, posters, videos and books that give a tangible manifestation to the multi-farious history of conceptually-driven art.
Right now, the institution is setting up a second home in Second Life. Artist Ian Murray, (Ian Ah, in SL) is spearheading the project, and there are already artists gathering at the new space from all over the world. There's some reporting on the progress here, and a big opening event coming soon.
Art Metropole is currently publishing a new series of artists' multiples, the FWD Editions. Geoffrey Farmer's "Signs, Statements and Proclamations" launches this Friday. I hope everyone can come! (Friday May 4th @ 7pm - 10pm, 788 King St. West, Toronto)
Geoffrey Farmer, Signs, Statements and
Proclamations [Production Photo]
Below are images from the other artists in the series so far.
Derek Sullivan, Law & Order
(February 2007 - April 2007) [in progress]
Lucy Pullen, Infinite Outfit, Strip 4, 2005
Brian Jungen, Untitled, 2006
Wave 71 2004 Acrylic on board, 36 x 36 in.
Angela Leach : Abstract Repeat Series opens at Wynick Tuck Gallery,
401 Richmond St. W., Suite #128, Toronto on Saturday, May 5th, 2 to 5pm
