 |
| Thomas Hirschorn, Spectre of Evaluation, 2010, ink on paper |
October 31, 2012
Spectre of Evaluation
October 30, 2012
Sandy Troubles
As all of us know, Sandy has brought devestation to many areas throughout the north east. In preparation for the hurricane, many of my fellow dinner party go-ers had to cancel. I am now in the midst of rescheduling and figuring out logistics.
As of now the dinner parties are scheduled for:
4th of November (potentially-- see how many people can come to this one)
12th of November
30th of November
If you're interested email me at activistart@phoebebachman.com
Or just leave a comment below!
Hope you all were safe in the storm and don't have too much damage.
Here are some great quotes to leave you with:
"This is something essential to art: reception is never its goal. What counts for me is that my work provides material to reflect upon. Reflection is an activity." Thomas Hirschorn
“I have consistently been interested in addressing the art world. If wasn’t I would have obviously gone into politics or something else. I mean after all, lets talk real change." Suzanne Lacy (Bad at Sports Podcast)
As of now the dinner parties are scheduled for:
4th of November (potentially-- see how many people can come to this one)
12th of November
30th of November
If you're interested email me at activistart@phoebebachman.com
Or just leave a comment below!
Hope you all were safe in the storm and don't have too much damage.
Here are some great quotes to leave you with:
"This is something essential to art: reception is never its goal. What counts for me is that my work provides material to reflect upon. Reflection is an activity." Thomas Hirschorn
“I have consistently been interested in addressing the art world. If wasn’t I would have obviously gone into politics or something else. I mean after all, lets talk real change." Suzanne Lacy (Bad at Sports Podcast)
October 25, 2012
Andrea Fraser Podcast
Listen to this if you get the chance:
Andrea Fraser- Bad at Sports Podcast
She brings up some very salient points that resonated specifically with my own work. It's a long podcast with a lot of different ideas brought up so it becomes hard to narrow it down. I will say, that at a point she is speaking about performing her relationships to a group, instead of performing that specific group. In this way she is always present as herself while embodying other characters persona's. I find this extremely interesting because she is allowing herself to explore that in-between space of creating a dialogue within a larger conversation.
I think that these were some of the issues I have been trying to work through in my own performances. For me, it becomes less about the specificity of a character but about the nature of how I would interact with that character and what that interaction would look like. Who is that person to me? I'm speaking in reference to a piece I just did where I attempted to take on the persona of a 1970's feminist performance artists. After listening to Andrea's interview, I realize that there is an importance to scripting and truly investigating that person before allowing them to enter into our world. Then, once entered, I should ask, who are you as an artist in relation to this character?
She also brought up a point about the Woman's Building in LA, and the emphasis that those women placed on collective learning and group process. For the Pacific Standard Time show she attempted to find evidence of this process, but unfortunately she was unable to. I started to wonder what ever happened to that type of learning? I understand many of us do work collectively at times, but what about the beginning stages? I just finished with a collaborative piece for my Installation class and it did not go so well. Is there space for collaboration and collective learning in our individualistic society?
Might be a utopian ideal...
Off to crochet upside down triangles
Andrea Fraser- Bad at Sports Podcast
She brings up some very salient points that resonated specifically with my own work. It's a long podcast with a lot of different ideas brought up so it becomes hard to narrow it down. I will say, that at a point she is speaking about performing her relationships to a group, instead of performing that specific group. In this way she is always present as herself while embodying other characters persona's. I find this extremely interesting because she is allowing herself to explore that in-between space of creating a dialogue within a larger conversation.
I think that these were some of the issues I have been trying to work through in my own performances. For me, it becomes less about the specificity of a character but about the nature of how I would interact with that character and what that interaction would look like. Who is that person to me? I'm speaking in reference to a piece I just did where I attempted to take on the persona of a 1970's feminist performance artists. After listening to Andrea's interview, I realize that there is an importance to scripting and truly investigating that person before allowing them to enter into our world. Then, once entered, I should ask, who are you as an artist in relation to this character?
She also brought up a point about the Woman's Building in LA, and the emphasis that those women placed on collective learning and group process. For the Pacific Standard Time show she attempted to find evidence of this process, but unfortunately she was unable to. I started to wonder what ever happened to that type of learning? I understand many of us do work collectively at times, but what about the beginning stages? I just finished with a collaborative piece for my Installation class and it did not go so well. Is there space for collaboration and collective learning in our individualistic society?
Might be a utopian ideal...
Off to crochet upside down triangles
October 24, 2012
Organization/Reading
The first dinner party for young women activist artists is this Sunday! As the day approaches I am going a bit crazy trying to finalize all my plans and make sure confirm "reservations."
I can't wait to get this community together. It is already looking like an amazing group of women.
Right now I am reading a few books:
Frances Stark- I suggest that you go read her as soon as you can. One of my professors gave me an excerpt form the "Architect and the Housewife" then one of my good friends lent me his copy of the book "This could become a gimick [sic] or an honest articulation of the workings of the mind."She has a way of explaining herself so that you can understand exactly where she is coming from. Each piece of writing is candid, stark and authentic.
I am also reading Claire Bishop's Installation Art book- (at the section about Activated Spectatorship)
Great book for learning about historical and contemporary installation art practices.
Last but not least, I am reading "Jane {a murder}." I'm not quite sure what I would call this book, but for now it is a collection of poems and excerpts, gathered and (some) written by Maggie Nelson. The book is about Jane, Maggie's aunt who has been murdered just a few years before Maggie was even born. Through beautiful and powerful prose, Maggie takes us on a journey through Jane's life and her untimely death.
I can't wait to get this community together. It is already looking like an amazing group of women.
Right now I am reading a few books:
Frances Stark- I suggest that you go read her as soon as you can. One of my professors gave me an excerpt form the "Architect and the Housewife" then one of my good friends lent me his copy of the book "This could become a gimick [sic] or an honest articulation of the workings of the mind."She has a way of explaining herself so that you can understand exactly where she is coming from. Each piece of writing is candid, stark and authentic.
I am also reading Claire Bishop's Installation Art book- (at the section about Activated Spectatorship)
Great book for learning about historical and contemporary installation art practices.
Last but not least, I am reading "Jane {a murder}." I'm not quite sure what I would call this book, but for now it is a collection of poems and excerpts, gathered and (some) written by Maggie Nelson. The book is about Jane, Maggie's aunt who has been murdered just a few years before Maggie was even born. Through beautiful and powerful prose, Maggie takes us on a journey through Jane's life and her untimely death.
October 17, 2012
Doin' it in Public
Check out this site
Feminism and Art at the Womans Building!
Explore to your hearts desire-- I recommend the Video Herstories and the suggested readings. While I have not read all of the readings, I am familiar with many of the names. I was actually just reading some of the original Chrysalis (Chrysalis Magazine. (10 issues published from 1977-1981)) this afternoon at the special collections at my library!
Few of the links pulled from their site:
Lacy, Suzanne. “Artist Resource Site, Three Weeks in May: She Who Would Fly,” September 27, 2003. http://www.suzannelacy.com/1970sviolence_3weeks_fly.htm
Judy Chicago & the California Girls. Dir. Judith Dancoff. Perf. Judy Chicago, Faith Wilding, et al. 1973, 1993. DVD. http://judychicagoandthecaliforniagirls.com/index.html
Lynn Hershman-Leeson, !Women Art Revolution. DVD. Trailer: http://www.womenartrevolution.com/
Edelson, Mary Beth and Arlene Raven, "Happy Birthday America." Chrysalis Magazine, 1.1 (1977): 49-53 [PDF]
This is especially relevant to me right now because I am in the midst of performing a character from the 1970's feminist art movement. Just held my first -- well she, Molly Seiden, just held her first consciousness raising group last night and will be doing a body art performance piece this evening. (9pm tyler school of art)
Get ready for some quintessential early feminist performance art.
Feminism and Art at the Womans Building!
Explore to your hearts desire-- I recommend the Video Herstories and the suggested readings. While I have not read all of the readings, I am familiar with many of the names. I was actually just reading some of the original Chrysalis (Chrysalis Magazine. (10 issues published from 1977-1981)) this afternoon at the special collections at my library!
Few of the links pulled from their site:
Lacy, Suzanne. “Artist Resource Site, Three Weeks in May: She Who Would Fly,” September 27, 2003. http://www.suzannelacy.com/1970sviolence_3weeks_fly.htm
Judy Chicago & the California Girls. Dir. Judith Dancoff. Perf. Judy Chicago, Faith Wilding, et al. 1973, 1993. DVD. http://judychicagoandthecaliforniagirls.com/index.html
Lynn Hershman-Leeson, !Women Art Revolution. DVD. Trailer: http://www.womenartrevolution.com/
Edelson, Mary Beth and Arlene Raven, "Happy Birthday America." Chrysalis Magazine, 1.1 (1977): 49-53 [PDF]
This is especially relevant to me right now because I am in the midst of performing a character from the 1970's feminist art movement. Just held my first -- well she, Molly Seiden, just held her first consciousness raising group last night and will be doing a body art performance piece this evening. (9pm tyler school of art)
Get ready for some quintessential early feminist performance art.
Creative Time Summit
This past weekend I attended a two day summit hosted by Creative Time at NYU. After getting up at 5:30 am, walking to a friends house with the moon still out, then taking a 7 am train, then getting stuck in morning traffic on the NJ turnpike, we finally arrived in Soho.
The Skirball center was filled with people attempting to get their badges and a good seat. Pablo Helguera started us off with a song and a few games, then Marth Rosler took the floor.
Marth Rosler is a political female artist who has been working since the late 60's and is still working today. She has a show going up at Moma in a few weeks which she spoke briefly about: Garage Sale MOMA
Her name is the one that pops up on every other piece about political artwork. Many people know her for her work Semiotics in the Kitchen (here is the video.) I was first introduced to her work through her collages.
... eh to quote from creative time:
"Although Martha Rosler suggests that “all artists want to change the world,” her oeuvre is distinguished for its exceptional commitment to this elusive goal, particularly with regard to feminism. As a native of Brooklyn, New York, much of Rosler’s work—which includes video, installation, photo-collage and performance—engages urban space. Rosler is perhaps most well known for her works exploring feminist issues."
One thing that she said that I've been thinking about is "what is the social value of art and its social investigations."
Each of the presenters had some very interesting things to say, and seem to be doing some pretty amazing things. Of course, Suzanne Lacy was wonderful and inspiring -- the pairing of Suzanne and Jodie Evans worked really well. They spoke about violence women and individually the work Suzanne has done and Jodie has done through Code Pink.
Tom Finklepearl spoke from the Queens Museum and gave a similar lecture to the one he gave at Temple-- just a lot shorter. There was mention of Fluxus- Yoko Ono, Suzanne Lacy, Rick Lowe, Santiago Sierra, and Tania Bruguera. He then quoted Tania saying that it is time to return Duchamps urinal to the bathroom. This followed by a talk about the usefulness of art and its function in society.
For those of you who don't know about Tania's piece that is going on right now, through the Queens Museum, :"Immigrant Movement International (IM International) is a five-year project initiated by artist Tania Bruguera. Its mission is to help define the immigrant as a unique, new global citizen in a post-national world and to test the concept of arte útil or “useful art”, in which artists actively implement the merger of art into society’s urgent social, political and scientific issues.
After Tom we had Fernando García-Dory who was the prize winner for The Leonore Annenberg Prize For Art and Social Change and Slavoj Žižek, the other key note speaker.
I am sure there are much better summaries of the experience on numerous blogs. From a personal point of view, I want to say that it was a great experience to be in one place with all of these amazing influential artists and thinkers. I got to speak with a few of them during the lunch that conflict kitchen put together. The lunch itself was great, half of us were South Korea and the other half North Korea. The food menu was designed so that we each got different dishes for our country and then could share them "across the border." I sat across from the woman from the presenter for Taring Padi.
We shared food and spoke about her activist artwork and then she showed me this incredible book that Taring Padi put together that encompass many of their prints and pieces.
The second day was full of discussions with specific artists and creative time facilitators. The first session I went to was Suzanne Lacy's and Jodie Evan's "Elephant in the room." We spoke about the importance of context and understanding yourself and why you are going into a community. In both this session and my next one we spoke about honesty being extremely important. The second session was led by Fernando Garcia-Dory and it was very intimate, about ten people were there. I'm glancing at my notes from the session and I have the term "horizontal social relationships"-- what does this mean? I also have scribblings about the relationship between urban environments and rural environments. The different roles an artist can play in those two places.
The last session I went to was about the "Art User" and paticipatory works, led by Pablo Helguera. He posed three questions to us before we broke into groups:
What does it mean to have the producer disappear?
Can we create a way of art making that allows every to have a stake in it?
Is everyone an artist/ art user?
My group ended up discussing a totally different question but we had some interesting dialogue about the role of art in society, and how different cultures view the art producer in a different light than we do.
The summit ended with that last conversation and then a few friends and I went to grab food on the lower east side. We continued to babble about our role as artists and how we engage community, who those communities are, how we validate our work, how we research, how we make the day-to- day happen, whether we were being honest, how much we are going to let aesthetic dictate our work...
I'll just say, that it was kind of amazing to be in a place with so many critical thinkers who want to reach out into the world and change peoples lives.
http://creativetime.org/summit/
The Skirball center was filled with people attempting to get their badges and a good seat. Pablo Helguera started us off with a song and a few games, then Marth Rosler took the floor.
Marth Rosler is a political female artist who has been working since the late 60's and is still working today. She has a show going up at Moma in a few weeks which she spoke briefly about: Garage Sale MOMA
Her name is the one that pops up on every other piece about political artwork. Many people know her for her work Semiotics in the Kitchen (here is the video.) I was first introduced to her work through her collages.
... eh to quote from creative time:
"Although Martha Rosler suggests that “all artists want to change the world,” her oeuvre is distinguished for its exceptional commitment to this elusive goal, particularly with regard to feminism. As a native of Brooklyn, New York, much of Rosler’s work—which includes video, installation, photo-collage and performance—engages urban space. Rosler is perhaps most well known for her works exploring feminist issues."
One thing that she said that I've been thinking about is "what is the social value of art and its social investigations."
Each of the presenters had some very interesting things to say, and seem to be doing some pretty amazing things. Of course, Suzanne Lacy was wonderful and inspiring -- the pairing of Suzanne and Jodie Evans worked really well. They spoke about violence women and individually the work Suzanne has done and Jodie has done through Code Pink.
Tom Finklepearl spoke from the Queens Museum and gave a similar lecture to the one he gave at Temple-- just a lot shorter. There was mention of Fluxus- Yoko Ono, Suzanne Lacy, Rick Lowe, Santiago Sierra, and Tania Bruguera. He then quoted Tania saying that it is time to return Duchamps urinal to the bathroom. This followed by a talk about the usefulness of art and its function in society.
For those of you who don't know about Tania's piece that is going on right now, through the Queens Museum, :"Immigrant Movement International (IM International) is a five-year project initiated by artist Tania Bruguera. Its mission is to help define the immigrant as a unique, new global citizen in a post-national world and to test the concept of arte útil or “useful art”, in which artists actively implement the merger of art into society’s urgent social, political and scientific issues.
After Tom we had Fernando García-Dory who was the prize winner for The Leonore Annenberg Prize For Art and Social Change and Slavoj Žižek, the other key note speaker.
I am sure there are much better summaries of the experience on numerous blogs. From a personal point of view, I want to say that it was a great experience to be in one place with all of these amazing influential artists and thinkers. I got to speak with a few of them during the lunch that conflict kitchen put together. The lunch itself was great, half of us were South Korea and the other half North Korea. The food menu was designed so that we each got different dishes for our country and then could share them "across the border." I sat across from the woman from the presenter for Taring Padi.
We shared food and spoke about her activist artwork and then she showed me this incredible book that Taring Padi put together that encompass many of their prints and pieces.
The second day was full of discussions with specific artists and creative time facilitators. The first session I went to was Suzanne Lacy's and Jodie Evan's "Elephant in the room." We spoke about the importance of context and understanding yourself and why you are going into a community. In both this session and my next one we spoke about honesty being extremely important. The second session was led by Fernando Garcia-Dory and it was very intimate, about ten people were there. I'm glancing at my notes from the session and I have the term "horizontal social relationships"-- what does this mean? I also have scribblings about the relationship between urban environments and rural environments. The different roles an artist can play in those two places.
The last session I went to was about the "Art User" and paticipatory works, led by Pablo Helguera. He posed three questions to us before we broke into groups:
What does it mean to have the producer disappear?
Can we create a way of art making that allows every to have a stake in it?
Is everyone an artist/ art user?
My group ended up discussing a totally different question but we had some interesting dialogue about the role of art in society, and how different cultures view the art producer in a different light than we do.
The summit ended with that last conversation and then a few friends and I went to grab food on the lower east side. We continued to babble about our role as artists and how we engage community, who those communities are, how we validate our work, how we research, how we make the day-to- day happen, whether we were being honest, how much we are going to let aesthetic dictate our work...
I'll just say, that it was kind of amazing to be in a place with so many critical thinkers who want to reach out into the world and change peoples lives.
http://creativetime.org/summit/
October 4, 2012
October 3, 2012
Jane Golden Session
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| (I did not take this Photograph, but I really like it!) |
If you ever have the chance to visit the Mural Arts Building, I suggest you do it-- it is incredible. We walked up the few floors to her office and began to speak about the project. Coffee was poured, recorders were prepared, and all was ready to go.
Our conversation began how all of my sessions do, with talking about the artist's background. Where they grew up, how they got started as an artist, members of their family...ect. From the beginning I could see that Jane has an abundance of passion. Her heart belongs with the program and it was mesmerizing to hear her speak with such conviction.
I will save most content of the interview itself for a later date, but I thought I would touch on a few things Jane said that have stuck with me throughout the day. When Jane began her first mural in LA, she was too late to be considered for the grant, but she would not take no for an answer. Asking what the hypothetical application would be like she organized all the needed materials. From community members, to an interesting wall, to ideas for the mural itself she orchestrated the whole process. It was this persistence that landed her the grant. She even knocked on Jane Fonda's door to ask her dedicate the mural (and she did!)
Jane is tenacious and brave. And while she may not paint anymore, she makes and effort to reach out to the various divisions of the ever-growing Mural Arts Program. We spoke about how murals can be politicizing, even if they are just a landscape. That good murals can create this domino effect in neighborhoods, from painting, to cleaning up the streets, to fostering a sense of community.
One other piece that I found very interesting, was when Jane described artists as being able to make social change relevant for citizens. As an artist myself, I often wonder how I can create change. Does it come from direct engagement outside of the art world? Or can the art world function as a catalyst for change? I guess the only way to find out is through trying and putting myself and my work out there.
Our conversation drifted in and out of herself as an organizer and the Mural Arts Program itself. When I asked her whether she is interested in being a role model for future generations, she responded, of course. She said that she is inspired by young people and their drive. She wants them to understand what it means to be on the ground working in these real situations. It is one thing to speak about doing them, it's another to execute them. I had actually just had this same conversation the night before with a friend of mine. He said, you can go read a critical book about social practice or you can talk to people to people who are working with that practice every day. They are the ones facing the challenges and building a system that works within that public space.
So all in all, it was a wonderful experience and I hope to have a strong relationship with Mural Arts in the future. Thank you to Jane who was so generous with her time.
Here is a link to Mural Arts Program and the muralLAB.
"muraLAB: To push its creative boundaries, Mural Arts has developed an experimental creativity hub called muraLAB. muraLAB is a laboratory for investigating muralism in the 21st century, as artistic media evolve, technologies emerge, the concepts of real/virtual communities merge, and the lines between public and private space dissolve. muraLAB will serve as a think-tank as we critically explore our dual role of expert in traditional community-based public art practices and leader in the conversation about muralism’s future."
The muralLab has a program LEAPs (Local Emerging Artists Program,) which gives the chance for young emerging artists to do temporary artwork in the city through the Mural Arts Program. One of the commissioned artists last year was Jess Perlitz, a great artist who just happens to be my performance professor.
Oh and saw this so I thought I'd pass it along
Though Experiments- Conversation
Lastly,
Thank you to all the women who have been mentoring me thus far. It really means a lot to learn from all of you. I look back to the beginning of the project and I can't believe how much I've learned. It's an incredible gift I have been given, and I hope to share it with whoever is interested.
October 1, 2012
Zines, Book Fair, Lucy Lippard and More!
As I procrastinate on a paper, I figure I should at least update this blog.
This past weekend I went to the New York Art Book fair (something like that) with my lovely mother. She is a rad librarian that really believes in extending the idea of what constitutes the book. As we squeezed through large masses in the school yard tent at PS 1 Moma, I came across some pretty amazing zines and artist books. The first one I picked up was a zine on Allen Kaprow. While Allen was not a female, he was a mentor to some female artists such as Suzanne Lacy.
To quote from the zine (strong language included!):
"Who the Fuck was Allan Kaprow?
.... Kaprow's legacy on contemporary art is pretty intense. Dude started out in New York for a minute doing action paintings because he liked jazz. But for Kaprow, painting wasn't the right vehicle to totally make art all about life. Paintings are totally constructed, right? I mean, what if there was an art form that didn't rely on things like composition, color, aesthetics or talent?
In 1958, Kaprow wrote an essay called 'The Legacy of jackson Pollock.'... Anyways, Kaprow demanded in his essay that the way that art was made be changed. He thought that it should include things from everyday life that we don't normally associate with art objects.
The works that Kaprow would start to do in the following years would have a profound effect on art making in general, later influencing a fuckton of movements. You can blame Kaprow almost entirely for performance art, relational aesthetics and social practice. The new mode of making that Kaprow pushed involved events known as 'Happenings.' He died in 2006 in San Diego after a long career, numerous published works and a lot of teaching (it pays the bills when you don't make objects and are kind of a bitch about documenting ephemeral works.)"
Ok, so that was a lot and pretty intense. But I think that this excerpt gets to the point and makes reading about this artist accessible. The zine was put together by Social Malpractice Publishing.
The next zine that I picked up was a tiny one on the incredible Judith Butler.
I really enjoy this page and the expression on Judith's face. There is also a quote on the next page which I really like which states: "Butler never shies away from political activism, speaking up against zionism, racism, homophobia, and transphobia, offering her voice in support of anti-oppression causes, like the Occupy Wall Street Movement." Go JB!
(Side note) In the midst of all this DIY zine reading I've started to miss the process of making. Though, I know that more making will come sooner than later as I prepare for three major installations.
After picking up a couple of more zines and talking with artists at the fair, my mother and I went into the "performance tent," for the Lucy Lippard talk.
Ms. Lippard is the author of numerous books including, The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist art (1995), Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object (1973), and Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America (1990, 2000.) Lucy is also a curator and activist. She is one of the founding members of Printed Matter in NY and, as she said in her talk, has been re-examining the role of artist books throughout the past few decades. The talk took a historic look at where artist books have come from and how they are functioning in today's world. Some more recent groups (and people) she mentioned working with this medium were Fierce Pussy, LTTR, and Clarissa Sligh.
(Side note)One of the artists I have interviewed, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, was a founding member of LTTR along with Emily Roydson. Ginger continued to work with artist books and zines through her bookmobile project.
Lucy spoke about accessibility in book arts (and I guess art in general) being a utopian idea. Even if zines are distributed and affordable, many times they are aestheticized to a point where they become inaccessible. Which brings up the question, how do we disseminate information through artistic means without it becoming too insular?
A few other things I picked up... a book on Fluxus and "A Country Road a Tree Evening." -- while picking up this one I met the artist Paul Chan and spoke briefly about my work. Turns out he is coming to Philadelphia this November to speak at the PMA with Calvin Tomkins.
Three more female activist artists you should know about:
Ulrike Müller
Favianna Rodriguez
Allison Smith
I am lucky enough to get to have mentoring sessions with two of these women in October. I will also be having a mentoring session with Jane Golden from the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program this week. Now there is the matter of disseminating this information...
Check these out!
http://www.youtube.com/course?list=EC0FA67827C82639EB&feature=plcp
Awesome Exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum
Mickalene Thomas - she is an incredible painter. If you're in BK you should go see this show that is called Materializing "six years": Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art. Both of these shows were incredible.
Oh shoot, I am supposed to be writing about validating justice through the institution-- back to the evidence!
This past weekend I went to the New York Art Book fair (something like that) with my lovely mother. She is a rad librarian that really believes in extending the idea of what constitutes the book. As we squeezed through large masses in the school yard tent at PS 1 Moma, I came across some pretty amazing zines and artist books. The first one I picked up was a zine on Allen Kaprow. While Allen was not a female, he was a mentor to some female artists such as Suzanne Lacy.
To quote from the zine (strong language included!):
"Who the Fuck was Allan Kaprow?
.... Kaprow's legacy on contemporary art is pretty intense. Dude started out in New York for a minute doing action paintings because he liked jazz. But for Kaprow, painting wasn't the right vehicle to totally make art all about life. Paintings are totally constructed, right? I mean, what if there was an art form that didn't rely on things like composition, color, aesthetics or talent?
In 1958, Kaprow wrote an essay called 'The Legacy of jackson Pollock.'... Anyways, Kaprow demanded in his essay that the way that art was made be changed. He thought that it should include things from everyday life that we don't normally associate with art objects.
The works that Kaprow would start to do in the following years would have a profound effect on art making in general, later influencing a fuckton of movements. You can blame Kaprow almost entirely for performance art, relational aesthetics and social practice. The new mode of making that Kaprow pushed involved events known as 'Happenings.' He died in 2006 in San Diego after a long career, numerous published works and a lot of teaching (it pays the bills when you don't make objects and are kind of a bitch about documenting ephemeral works.)"
Ok, so that was a lot and pretty intense. But I think that this excerpt gets to the point and makes reading about this artist accessible. The zine was put together by Social Malpractice Publishing.
The next zine that I picked up was a tiny one on the incredible Judith Butler.
(Side note) In the midst of all this DIY zine reading I've started to miss the process of making. Though, I know that more making will come sooner than later as I prepare for three major installations.
After picking up a couple of more zines and talking with artists at the fair, my mother and I went into the "performance tent," for the Lucy Lippard talk.
Ms. Lippard is the author of numerous books including, The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist art (1995), Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object (1973), and Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America (1990, 2000.) Lucy is also a curator and activist. She is one of the founding members of Printed Matter in NY and, as she said in her talk, has been re-examining the role of artist books throughout the past few decades. The talk took a historic look at where artist books have come from and how they are functioning in today's world. Some more recent groups (and people) she mentioned working with this medium were Fierce Pussy, LTTR, and Clarissa Sligh.
(Side note)One of the artists I have interviewed, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, was a founding member of LTTR along with Emily Roydson. Ginger continued to work with artist books and zines through her bookmobile project.
Lucy spoke about accessibility in book arts (and I guess art in general) being a utopian idea. Even if zines are distributed and affordable, many times they are aestheticized to a point where they become inaccessible. Which brings up the question, how do we disseminate information through artistic means without it becoming too insular?
A few other things I picked up... a book on Fluxus and "A Country Road a Tree Evening." -- while picking up this one I met the artist Paul Chan and spoke briefly about my work. Turns out he is coming to Philadelphia this November to speak at the PMA with Calvin Tomkins.
Three more female activist artists you should know about:
Ulrike Müller
Favianna Rodriguez
Allison Smith
I am lucky enough to get to have mentoring sessions with two of these women in October. I will also be having a mentoring session with Jane Golden from the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program this week. Now there is the matter of disseminating this information...
Check these out!
http://www.youtube.com/course?list=EC0FA67827C82639EB&feature=plcp
Awesome Exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum
Mickalene Thomas - she is an incredible painter. If you're in BK you should go see this show that is called Materializing "six years": Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art. Both of these shows were incredible.
Oh shoot, I am supposed to be writing about validating justice through the institution-- back to the evidence!
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