From Afghanistan to Fort Collins

When I first brought this post idea to the editors, I was thinking that there might be a question about this work being “what we wanted to show” on our site and “what it represented” or what our audience “perceived”.

Everyone said go ahead.

As photographer Jeff Dale http://www.jdale-photography.com/-/jdale-photography/default.asp and I have been working over the last few months getting these images together, I have continued to think about how I am going to “position” this work in the context and mission of our website.

Jeff says about his life and work “Often it is difficult to shoot both my rifle and my camera – though time and time again I find myself carrying both. I am surrounded by surreal moments often ignored by other photographers for the common scenes found through the lens.”

Last night I was driving back to Fort Collins from an inspired afternoon at the UW Geological Museum in Laramie, Wyoming. The well known plains that surround “287” were performing that magnificent best tradition of the sun setting in the west. The land was bright gold, the skies lavender-pink and then deep purple, the air incredibly clear and bright, snowcaps in the background. At that point I knew how this work world be positioned.  I wouldn’t position it.

The art world that many of us know best is filled with posturing and positioning. It is tiresome. Why? That part of the practice is not integral to the making of work.  Making work is integral to the making of work. Since the beginning of time we have made things that reflect our environment to express to others how we feel. It is that simple. That will never change. We will create things. I continuously look to the words and conceptual work of Loretta Cummings who says that “art is just about the way we live our lives”.

Following is the work of Jeff Dale, who I have known for a number of years. He is currently serving in Afghanistan. This work is about the way Jeff is living his life.

Frankly, I can’t imagine why any art we make needs to be “positioned”.

The work is.

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In Praise of Drawing: CSU Drawing in the Expanded Field

Drawing in the Expanded Field is a powerful exhibition currently on view at Colorado State University’s Hatton Gallery . It is the principle of three simultaneous shows dedicated to the exciting and lively field of drawing. Two other drawing exhibitions, at moments equally provocative as their leader, highlight works by CSU graduate students and CSU and CU Boulder faculty.

“Drawing” was the brain-child of CSU Associate Professor of Drawing Mary–Ann Kokoska and her colleagues. Of the two jurors for this national exhibition, Deanna Petherbridge and Howard Riley, Ms. Petherbridge  attended the opening exhibition, presented a lecture based on her new book, The Primacy of Drawing, met with students and gave an informal gallery talk.

Of stunning significance was Ms.Petherbridge’s lecture.  With a light opening of fun self-deprecating English humor, referring to her new book as “nine pounds of heaving going”.  It is without a doubt monumental in the field of art and drawing and perhaps more importantly, a 10 + year labor of love.

Ms. Petherbridge whose profound appreciation and understanding steeped in scholarly research ranges from drawing in its richest historical context to the most contemporary experimental and innovative moments. She represents what is most important about being an artist. Understanding and working with the essence of material, technique and content.

I had the opportunity to have an animated discussion with Deanna Petherbridge regarding her thinking on the field, the education of young artists and what she referred to as the “Art worlds and Art markets”( Yes, no longer singular.)

In our conversation the most profound awareness she offered was the relationship of the body to the practice of drawing. “Drawing is a natural activity. We write with the same material with which we draw”. This says volumes about the important role that drawing has in our lives and its prominent existence in art making.  Ms. Peterbridge notes that in drawing we are able to take a small piece of paper anywhere with us; pull it out at any moment and make a response to our world. Drawing helps us see our world, record the world, and see where we fit in the world.

We discussed contemplative practice in drawing; an influence in teaching that dates back to the Bauhaus. It is a prominent consideration in many artistic practices in this part of the country. Ms. Petherbridge states a clear outcome for purposeful use of contemplative practice as a tool in drawing.  If the drawing is to be successful “it needs to communicate something”. At times contemplative practice causes a work to “turn in on itself” thus cutting that communication between the artist and viewer. “A work can flounder on intense investment of self”.

This led us to further discussion about what is occurring in art schools today and brought to mind conversations that I have had with artists and professors.  It appears that a debate is raging that can be seen as a paradigmatic shift. The shift is in a teaching approach that can simply be stated as teaching to the whole artist vs. teaching for the art market.  The strong influence of the art market paired with the expensive cost of going to graduate school has shifted course content in studio practice in professional art schools and universities. Deanna Petherbridge recognized the shift as we spoke. Among the positive roles for the The Primacy of Drawing is that it can hopefully be a connective line itself and in part can help bridge the gap of these two schools of thought. Having a professional studio based art education should be profound in its understanding and articulating of history, theory and practice as well as preparing to be smart in the art worlds and markets.

Deanna Petherbridge is an artist not an art historian. With an extraordinary list of accolades including that of Getty Visiting Scholar, Professor of Drawing the Royal College of Art in London and founder of the Center for Drawing Research also at the Royal College of Art, she is an artist who embodies the practice of art making, using drawing as a medium of expression and living in the world with that understanding and belief in its power. This is not a position that comes quickly or easily. It is about being a committed artist. “Just making the work”, Ms.Petherbridge told me, is what is of importance to her now.

There are historians, critics and theorists who are not familiar with making work as a practice. They have not been engaged in the process. There is a viewpoint, that if you don’t make work, it is difficult to express what the work is from any real sense of true understanding. Interpreting an image or object is not the same as making one.  Ms. Petherbridge represents the ideal: make work, teach and be the relationship between artist and material that is discussed by historians, critics and theorists.

The Primacy of Drawing raises good questions. As the debate of market and artist continues, does this text present artists’ with a moment to reclaim what it is they do, to speak for themselves? Depending on the year one was educated there were different skills and philosophies. As long as the dealer, critic, historian could speak for you, you did not have to interpret your own work, write about it, etc. The tables are turning. Artists “go around” the dealer, speaking for their work as well as their peers and also curate as Deanna Petherbridge does.

Artists need to be well educated. We need to make work from our bodies and know that. We need to be committed and deeply articulate (beyond finishing the last sip of the cocktail) about what it is we are doing and what we want our audience to feel as they engage with our work. Is this a contradiction to the time in which we live…? Sure, particularly if you are 30 something with a huge grad school debt and drooling to get into that market. But what about the exploration of the world in which we live, the interpretation of that world, the sharing of our vision? Oh, yes, that.

Drawing is among the most engaging contemporary art forms being created today. CSU has done a great service to the discipline and certainly to its students by engaging in this discourse.  The show is filled with fun, wisdom and commentary in a cutting edge manner.  Deanna Petherbridge’s presence added profound respect for studio practice and a resonance through history. Drawing in the Expanded Field speaks to us about how we can next engage the materials of our time in intriguing dance and break the boundaries of what anyone could imagine. Drawing can be liberation, it asks questions and it is a profound teacher.

Wave

Colorado State University Drawing Professor, Mary-Ann Kokoska created an on-site installation this summer at CSU’s Curfman Gallery. As the media today is covering world locations that are being faced with  floods of various forms, Wave is timely in many ways. The work filled and jumped from the wall of the Curfman, dancing around an ethereal grid. Kokoska’s work is  swirling energy on a large scale that will be exciting to see more of in the future.

CSU offers an MFA in drawing that should be considered by anyone who is seriously interested in exploring the role that drawing holds in the contemporary art world.

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One Year and Fifteen Minutes

Here is the beginning of a project I began 10 years ago. Images of the land for two years once a week intended to be used for the grand project that I never really found time to get to. So I figured I should just tackle a single year first. Discovered a video production program on my laptop and found images I kept in the back of my hard drive, like an old tool box. More to come.

Here is a better rendering on Vemio

Edinburgh in August – bagpipes, kilts, haggis (vegetarian) and a 24/7 Arts Celebration

How does a city decide that it will become a “City of Arts and Culture?”

Edinburgh, (Scotland, UK, Planet Earth,) has been an arts destination for some time now. Every summer the city hosts The Fringe Festival which is reputed to be the largest arts festival in the world – this year over 2000 different shows offered in hundreds of venues around the city. Yet the Fringe is only one of the summer events hosted by the citizens of Edinburgh. For the arts hungry traveller there is also The Edinburgh International Arts Festival (performing and visual arts), The Edinburgh International Film Festival, The Edinburgh International Book Festival, among others, all taking place during the summer months. (Scotland, somewhat wistfully I think, chooses to call July and August “summer”.) Even the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (ie: bagpipes galore), also in August, has its aesthetic component.  A lone piper spot lighted on the battlements of an ancient castle (this is not Disneyland, after all, but the real deal) that looms over one of the most beautiful cities in western Europe is a breathtaking sight. 

Though the weather can be dicey, the Scots are superbly hospitable. I believe they look forward to the shows, the excitement, the partying and the chance to see something they have never seen before, as much as the tourists and performers who come from all over the world to mob the city every year. Street performers and costumed actors roam the streets accosting all and sundry in order to pull in an audience for their performance. For sheer scale and mad cap exuberance it is impossible to describe in words the carnival atmosphere of the city….and during the Festival this goes on ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT LONG. 

I was wandering around the beautiful Old Town searching for a venue  (down a cobblestone street, up a treacherous fight of stairs, to the top floor of an ancient disused building… all dusty and gloaming) to see the next show I had booked, wondering “How did all this happen?”  Indeed….how did all this happen here?

John Knox and Scottish Presbyterianism cast a long shadow over the Scottish psyche giving the Scots a reputation for being dour, tight-fisted and straight-laced. With regard to the festival season in Edinburgh, however, nothing could be further from the truth. The Scots are incredibly welcoming to the troops of actors and performers and the tourists they attract. The money the Festival season brings, of course, is great, but if it was only that The Fringe Festival would never have become the hot bed of creativity and innovation that it is.

In some sense I think that Edinburgh and its citizens have decided to not pass judgment on the artists; to accept what they bring…all the off-beat, quirky, and experimental stuff that living as an artist entails.  Indeed, any culture that actively encourages men to wear skirts obviously has a penchant for dress up and a tacit acceptance of outre behavior. With flexibility and aplomb the Scots accept the undeniable craziness of the Festival season and in doing so they have made Edinburgh a city that is synonymous with creativity and artistic experimentation.

And as I return to the Front Range the take away lesson in all this for me was this…for those communities who wish to become an arts destination..for small scale, small time, small town aspirations it may be best to limit yourself to the art you feel comfortable with and can “understand.” However, if your community really does aspire to become a world-class arts destination this attitude will NEVER do.  To attract experimental, innovative and inspired artists and the mobs of tourists and locals who follow them around we have to be willing to live with the unpredictable…to be OK with what may make us feel uncomfortable, even angry or bewildered. As a community we need to pursue art that makes us think. As a community we need to say “Bring it on!”

Culling the Herd (in Chicago)

In the west we are familiar with the above phrase and understand its relevance to sustaining a healthy, some may even say, excellent standard.  Interesting, when it comes to art we don’t think on that level. As a result, this post will make some uneasy and others downright mad. There’s a moment when you need to point out that the emperor ain’t got no clothes on.

Culling the herd of artists that are producing in the art market is crucial.  For those of you thinking “Yea! Get rid of those contemporary art makers”… sorry, that’s not who I’m speaking of. I’m talking about the “dabblers” calling themselves artists and even some “professionals” who it’s clear want a label or to be part of a group. With no formal aesthetic awareness or understanding of creativity; they talk about things they have little understanding of, and do not make an object or experience of “cultural significance” for an audience. “False flaggers” you know who you are.  My suggestion, make a commitment, go to art school, a real one not a “McInstitute” of which there are many.

This week I am visiting my Alma mater, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, SAIC (yes the real one, with the museum, not the “McInstitute”). I am taking a three week intensive entitled Contemporary Studio Practice through the Lens of the Whitney Biennial.

If you are not up on art trends, SAIC is currently flying high in terms of its reputation. Schools in general ebb and flow depending on faculty and the graduates they produce. This is a good time for SAIC. Without going into a tremendous amount of cheers for the teachers I’m studying with as well as the incredibly outstanding visiting artists they bring in to talk with us; let’s just say, that I am working with a group of artists that teach and are beyond fucking brilliant which is one of the reasons SAIC has the reputation it does.

Graduate School at SAIC is $40,000 a year.  Next comes the question, is it worth it? Well, let’s look at this way.  You need to be mature to make this decision and need to have a vision of where you want to go and to know that you must be open to all the information that will come flying at you at lightning speed and that you will be surrounded by in general. Flexibility of mind is big. It is a furnace-like incubator. When I was there many years ago, as an under grad, my first year cost $3000.00. Times have changed. But one thing hasn’t. It is still worth every penny. If you  want to be a professional artist, this means being a professor, administrating, working in a museum or gallery, etc… clear your head of all that art star bullshit, step up to the plate, spend the $80,000 and work your ass off now and then be willing to go into the future the same way. If for any reason you don’t think this sounds good, it’s time to exit the field. There are far too many folks who do not have a clue about the work that goes into this life. It is (if you really do it right) just as much work as any other field with a high price tag.  Often artists complain about art isn’t free and we want to be paid… but we don’t want to pay for our educations. Who is going to change that systemic “tick”? Maybe our own attitude is part of that. What this points to is not everyone should be a professional artist or really has the balls (or ballette’s) to do it.  Any good art school should cull the herd.

A final note, as hard as it is to accept for all of the 50 and older artists (I run into many that are jaded and bitter). There is a very new and exciting thing happening; it is explosive and highly energetic and is filled with very very smart concepts.  Stop complaining about what you did not achieve and move over to give these new jacks and jackette’s the stage.  They are a tremendous creative force to be learned from. They are a whole new generation of art makers and they’ve got it going on.

The Delta (△) Moment

What is art today?  Cai  Guo Qiang, a Chinese installation artist, sums it up well when he states that art is “evidence of life lived”, others have defined art as “anything a human calls art”.  (Theirry de Duve, Kant after Duchamp, The MIT press, 1996)  But what sort of definition is that?  Art is a complicated social product, an aesthetic document of humankind and its culture.  Contemporary art often interrogates issues relevant to our times, and is a stimulant to further thought and discussion.  It can be strange and hard to understand, ugly and confrontational, and hard to define or classify.  Ultimately, art can act as a synergistic agent to affect a change in the viewer, be it joy, wonder, love, fear, disgust, or any of the varied human emotions, and through that change generate an awareness and connection to ones humanity.

The advancement of the ‘world wide web’, with the instantaneous, media infused, commercially motivated, culture of commodity, has created a time in which individuals are constantly bombarded with information and images, generating a disconnection with real events.  The world is experienced through our little boxes, be they television, computers, or mobile devices.  The overexposure and informational overload, has landed the individual into an isolated and false sense of reality that exists through our global connections. We have become a society of non-being beings, a network of public false identities.

This fracturing of our society has generated a backlash in the art world, against these technologies, and artists are now creating works that embrace the individual, the personal connections, and the novelty of a single moment, events to be enjoyed in the flesh with another human being.  Marina Abramovic states, “Life is getting faster so we absolutely have to make art slower and slower”.  In this fast paced world, the artists and the audience need to dedicate time to the works, actually make the effort to revel in the moment, to be fully present.  Her recent exhibit at the MoMA in NYC was a testament to this ideal, with “The Artist is Present” being the longest performance of her career.  The recent economic downfall has also created an opportunity for these types of objectless works, opening the door for performance, installations, and happenings where there is nothing to sell; it is a progressive move away from the focus on ‘the market’.  Art is not a commodity, but instead, it can be a “legacy of ideas” (M. Abramovic), a lasting impression and an enjoyable memory, and still be enough.

Nicholas Bourriaud, in his book “Relational Aesthetics” (Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, le presses du reel, ’98), addresses the differences between the current moment in the art world versus the prior (post-modern) times.  This is an art form that attempts to remove the membrane between the artist and the audience.  Intention is key, and the goal is to change the state of the viewer.  The transformation of the audience becomes the artwork, the relations of all parts the work- the artist, the audience and the materials/form.  As Bourriaud was unable to consider modernism as a model for postmodernism, the same is true with this new shift, it is something entirely different in theory, than what came before, unique and truly novel.

This new modality involves a synergistic experience between the artist, the form of the work, and the audience.  This triad of all three parts creates energy in the space between, a filling of the gap.  As the symbol delta (∆) is used in traditional and computer sciences as a signifier of the “change of state between two before and after state schemas”, it follows, that the thing which occurs in the viewers’ mind when witnessing art, creates what I call the “Delta (∆) Moment”.  The viewer is crucial to artwork in that “his interaction helps define the exhibits structures.” (Bourriaud)  It is this interaction, the meeting and conversion of all parts, the moments of interaction between all three that I see represented in the delta symbol, and the truth of artworks of this nature.

So where does this leave us?  With time, the ability to define and classify this era will become easier.  As Abramovic states, “We can’t do anything about the past, and we don’t have the future. We only have the present”, so we must stay vitally involved and connected to the contemporary artists working today within these modes, discussing the meanings behind the work, and in turn expanding ideas, our minds and cultures.