Week 10, 25-29 May 2020
Fine Arts Research presentation, feedback from mentors and Simon Morris's practice forum on provisional art practices and essay writing.
1. FINE ARTS RESEARCH PRESENTATION Brief: "outline your topic and describe relevant critical and historical information, sources consulted, and the argument you are developing around this research material. The material referenced may be closely related to your own practice but must be rigorously examined via the use of scholarly research methodologies."
A rather grueling 10 minute presentation by each of the 4th year students in our ropu. Feedback - Shannon: "conversations need to offer something new - we've been around for a while and know this stuff. Would have been more interesting to talk about your process - collaborative projects are hard to do." Richard: "what does 'constant state of becoming' mean to you?" Suzy: "I feel as if I may have missed the brief?!" Martin: "There is no wrong way"
Some reflection is required. After speaking with Richard he reflected that I presented a lot of research that seems to run parallel to my art practice. It was not clear how the research was informing my practice. This is useful.
Shannon and I had a follow-up conversation about re-engaging and reflecting on the artwork made, as art making is a research practice in and of itself and is as important as reading. He asked me to dig deeper into why I made the art I was making, why I chose the materials, why I chose to engage in a collaborative project with the parish, to look at how the work operated, to take 5 steps back to examine the layers surrounding the work e.g. culture, socio-demographics of participants. Reflecting on these questions will help me in the next step I take.
He recommended Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011
This is its blurb online - I have ordered it from Amazon
Living as Form Over the past twenty years, an abundance of art forms have emerged that use aesthetics to affect social dynamics. These works are often produced by collectives or come out of a community context; they emphasize participation, dialogue, and action, and appear in situations ranging from theater to activism to urban planning to visual art to health care. Engaged with the texture of living, these art works often blur the line between art and life. This book offers the first global portrait of a complex and exciting mode of cultural production―one that has virtually redefined contemporary art practice. Living as Form grew out of a major exhibition at Creative Time in New York City. Like the exhibition, the book is a landmark survey of more than 100 projects selected by a thirty-person curatorial advisory team; each project is documented by a selection of color images. The artists include the Danish collective Superflex, who empower communities to challenge corporate interest; Turner Prize nominee Jeremy Deller, creator of socially and politically charged performance works; Women on Waves, who provide abortion services and information to women in regions where the procedure is illegal; and Santiágo Cirugeda, an architect who builds temporary structures to solve housing problems. Living as Form contains commissioned essays from noted critics and theorists who look at this phenomenon from a global perspective and broaden the range of what constitutes this form. Contributing authors Claire Bishop, Carol Becker, Teddy Cruz, Brian Holmes, Shannon Jackson, Maria Lind, Anne Pasternak, Nato Thompson
The first thing this article has given me is a category or name for the St Alban's art project. I had flipped between participatory art and collaborative art, but socially engaged art finally resolves the dilemma. It feels the right fit and will lead me to other research articles and projects that will deepen my understanding of this art form.
I will write an essay on the St Alban's art project.
2. SIMON MORRIS'S PRACTICE FORUM Wonderful discussion on provisional art - a term I had not encountered before. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/provisional-painting-raphael-rubinstein-62792/
"Provisional paintings are those that might appear unfinished or incomplete; that court intentional awkwardness, physical fragility and instability; that reject the display of conventional skills; that discover beauty in the most unassuming materials; that sometimes grapple with painting's 'impossibility'." May 4, 2011, "Provisional Painting" at Modern Art (Contemporary Art Daily) contemporaryartdaily.com
We discussed and watched videos of artists mentioned in the article who do provisional art - Raoul De Keyser, Albert Oehlen, Christopher Wool, Mary Heilmann and Michael Krebber.
I really like provisional art - the unfinishedness of things, as if the artist has stopped mid stroke and left a potentiality of other possibilities and directions that the work could still go in. It creates a space for the audience to engage in.
Mary Heilmann Two Spot Charm