A quiet and uneventful weekend (thank goodness for that!)-- finally settling in and getting into the groove of the new term with plans coming together for some travel in the spring and summer for research and leisure (the best combo!). On the local front, there are many terrific art offerings here in Vancouver with the PuSh Festival getting into full swing. As for the Twitterverse, I don't know what was in the air this week, but the tweets seemed just a bit zanier than normal and the art news was especially entertaining (as you will see with my favourite tweets of the week). Grab a cup of coffee, click on the links and enjoy.
When Truffaut met Godard
Kafka's favorite exercise was the most popular one of the early 1900s, and works today. Here's how to do it. WATCH
Ottawa gallery to rent out space for porn shoots
The rising popularity of street art at auction
Student pays college tuition in $1 bills
Drunken frat party presented as artwork by London artist Ed Fornieles
It's Jeff Koons' birthday? Don't send him a floral puppy or a balloon flower as a gift. He might sue you.
Quite simply put, this is not your parents' art history textbook.
This is a picture of my very first art history textbook
Somewhere on my bookshelf I still have a copy of the first art history textbook that I ever used in school. It was Grade 12 and I had enrolled in Mr. Kennedy’s “Western Civilization” class (or Civ 12 as we called it then) with promises from other students who had taken the course that I was in for a fun class covering the best bits of the history of art. I still recall the first day when Mr. Kennedy arrived to class just a few minutes after we had all taken our seat, out of breath and clutching two trays of slides and pulling a video machine and TV on a trolley into class (yes, I went to high-school before the advent of PowerPoint and the digital projector). In the darkened classroom as the sliding projector hummed, Mr. Kennedy began telling us about his summer trip to Europe from which he had literally just returned the day before, showing us slide after slide of his adventures and all of the amazing architecture, paintings, and sculptures he had seen. He then had us open our art history textbook, Kenneth Clark’s Civilization (first published in 1969!) to the first chapter on ancient art and watch the accompanying video where we were all introduced to the task of appreciating the best of Western art as a series of great achievements by men of genius. I can still remember the dry humour of Sir Kenneth as he discussed the exploits of the Greeks and the intrigue of the Roman papacy. It was everything that a good art appreciation course was meant to be—entertaining, neatly laid out, and thoroughly uncritical.
The Octoberjournal is considered essential reading
for historians of modern and contemporary art and theory.
Art history has of course changed a great deal from the time of Sir Kenneth, but one thing that has continued to plague the discipline has been the problem of the survey text—more specifically, the dilemma of how to deliver the history of art in a more dynamic and self-reflexive way without the apparent goal of simply overloading students with thousands of images, biographies of artists, and decontextualized dates to memorize. Within the field of modern and contemporary art, this has proved even more difficult as art historians have recast the terms of debate around modernism, the avant-garde, and the recognition of the discipline’s privileging of particular discourses that often exclude the intersection of art and politics. In recent years, a number of very good textbooks have begun to appear, but perhaps the most rigorous textbook, and the one I consider essential reading to anyone interested in a dynamic account of the major debates and developments within modern and contemporary art is the somewhat controversial Art Since 1900 textbooks co-written by the daunting group of well-respected art historians Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, and Benjamin Buchloh. Daunting because these individuals represent a very important group of intellectuals linked to the prestigious academic journal October—a publication that was pivotal in introducing French post-structural theory and the interpretation of postmodern art and culture to the discipline of art history—and controversial because many art historians simply find the book far too challenging to incorporate into the typical survey art history class. That being said, whether it is used by art historians in the classroom or not, it is still the textbook in my experience that sits on more art historians shelves than any other.
Divided into two volumes—the first covering 1900-1944 and the second from 1945-present—the books are arranged by individual years with an accompanying essay written by one of the co-authors centering on one key moment in the history of art. For example, if you were to turn to the year 1920, an essay focused on the Dada Fair held in Berlin of that year introduces readers to a discussion of photomontage and new media forms that challenged both the popular media advertisements and politicized artistic engagement on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power. Keep in mind that most art history survey texts only mention Dada in a few short paragraphs and link it back to its earliest formations or only make reference to the works of Marcel Duchamp (of course, I probably don’t need to point out that I never learned anything about Dada from Sir Kenneth). In this sense, the book is invaluable for its rich historical and critical engagement and essential reading for those individuals wanting to fill in the gaps of their modern and contemporary art historical knowledge. Reading the two volumes is as close as you will ever come to taking a very well thought out history of modern and contemporary art course. But if you still feel nostalgic for some simple art appreciation, I am happy to direct you to some vintage outtakes from Sir Kenneth Clark’s work (see below).
Here is the opening six minutes to Kenneth Clark's Civilization video series--great vintage stuff!-- this is the same video that I watched on that first fateful day in Grade 12 Western Civilization class (it was dated even then!) and the series, if I were to be perfectly honest, first sparked my interest in art history. Below that is captured a great moment of pure Sir Kenneth that demonstrates his honest admission of enjoying the idea of the "genius artist" along with some other gems of art historical discourse that the last few generations of art historians have been trying to correct.
P.S. Thanks to Mr. Kennedy too if you are still out there!
This past week artist and activist Ai Weiwei watched as the Chinese government held fast to its promise of demolishing his Shanghai studio—the same artist who was recently honoured with a large scale exhibition in one of the most prestigious art museum’s in the world, London’s Tate Modern. When I first posted about Ai’s compelling and much discussed installation at the Tate this past fall, there were already many signs that the artist’s high profile presence on the world stage would have little impact on the persistent surveillance and suspicion to which he was subjected in his home country. In early November only weeks after Ai’s opening in London, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese writer and professor Liu Xiabo created considerable controversy within Chinese ranks. In fact, many observers now believe that this has lead to the increasing crack down by the Chinese government on dissidents, activists, professors and other individuals deemed “agitators” to the nation.
Hundreds of images of the demolition (like this one taken from flickr) have been
appearing on the Internet over the past week in both news and blogs.
As reported by numerous news outlets in early November, Ai was notified with little explanation or notice that his newly built Shanghai studio—a space that ironically enough the Shanghai authority originally asked the artist to build as an extension of his practice in his hometown of Beijing—was slated for demolition. In response Ai quickly began to organize what he called a “going away party” via Twitter and email, arranging for the demolition to be part of his first and last work of art in the Shanghai space. When word spread of the plans, China’s most internationally acclaimed visual artist was placed under house arrest in Beijing even as hundreds of supporters made their way to the site (many of them being questioned and detained by the local police). Still, the final demolition was postponed, and it was only last week without warning that the destruction began. Ai, tipped off by neighbours, made his way to the site and began shooting photos and videos of the demolition—images that have now been circulating for the past week on the Internet.
Ai Weiwei as a young artist in New York-- many of the
thousands of photographs he took captured scenes of
urban tension and protest.
What many people may not know about Ai WeiWei is that his interest in photography and capturing images of conflict have long and deeply connected roots to his early days as an émigré artist in New York City. As part of the first generation of Chinese students allowed outside of their country since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Ai captured his experience through more than 10,000 photographs from the early 1980’s to early 90’s. Looking at the images of the Shanghai demolition, I was immediately reminded of the images I had recently viewed in a video piece shot by filmmaker Alison Klayman chronicling the artist’s use of the camera and in particular the many images of protest and racial discrimination/tension that he captured (see video below). Klayman has been working on the first feature-length documentary on the artist called Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, and she reveals how most of these images remained untouched and even undeveloped until 2008 when a small number of them were first shown in a Beijing photography exhibition.
In an interview with the New Yorker this past week, Ai reflected on the Chinese government actions towards him and the apparent short sightedness the demolition of his studio carried within the frameworks of contemporary art production and circulation of meaning: “I thought, huh, the destruction of it has already made it art. Art exists in different forms. What is art? Should we go back to the age of only sculpture? At least a hundred thousand people knew this news over the Internet. They watched it in front of their eyes.” It will be fascinating to see what impact, if any, the circulation and broader news of these developments will have in the brewing debates and outcomes concerning China’s treatment of its public intellectuals, cultural figures, and especially its contemporary artists. If nothing else, it is certain that the continuing documentation and uncontrollable distribution of these kinds of images will keep the conversation going.
Alison Klayman's video piece created for Tate Shots and teaser clip from Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, set for release in 2011
Sunday night and my list of things to do is not nearly complete! Here are a list of my faves from the weekly Twitterverse-- off to get a few more things done before I watch the Golden Globes (my favourite of the more mainstream award shows). Curious to see how well The Social Network will do.... and what Ricky Gervais will say!
It's Wikipedia's 10th birthday. Explaining the site's chaotic ascendency by looking at Jesus's Wikipedia page.
Golden Globes tinged with Canadian flavour
The most powerful image of the protests to support WikiLeaks
Are collectors ready to buy million-dollar artworks online? Article from the Wall St Journal
Guest Blogger Jenna Kirouac is Avant-Guardian Musings Vancouver Arts Correspondent. To see her previous posts, please click here.
View from World Trade Centre in NYC (1984),
the year de Certeau wrote of his observations.
courtesy New York Times
When philosopher Michel de Certeau famously described the spectacle of looking down on New York City from the 110th floor of the World Trade Centre as “a gigantic rhetoric of excess in both expenditure and production,” he spoke of an experience that provided the viewer with an awe-struck feeling of personal power. Why? Because looking down on the city clearly lays out the grid-lined, bird’s eye view that reveals the organization and structure of the metropolis. It is a map, produced visually by one’s own sensory perception.
Maps make order. They identify and classify to help us navigate spaces. Of course I don’t really need to point out that Vancouver is not-so-much New York. But every metropolitan area is uniquely shaped in a few different ways: superficially by its structure, and linearly through history and culturally by the group of peoples that collectively call it home. Interestingly, the cultural shaping process is dynamic, not static. What if you could reinvent contemporary mapping practices to mirror the story of a human being? Take a second to think about your story, your narrative. What is the rhetorical discourse of your community? What we place importance on as a community reflects who we are as a collective group of peoples, and likewise we deflect what we chose to marginalize.
At the opening of the PuSh Festival next week—Vancouver’s much anticipated annual international performing arts festival— Jordan Bent and Eli Horns’ collaboration for the exhibit Counter Mapping (curated by Caleb Johnston) seeks to create a method of cartography that represents real life experiences rather than empirical data. Talking with Bent about the project as well as other future undertakings is an enlightening experience. Bent’s modest beginnings as a Vancouver artist began with a departure from the educational institution setting, straight to the local sea wall selling art. He describes the experience of interacting with people on such an organic level as an intense sensation of displacement without the safety and structure of operating within clear institutional boundaries. Bent has a commitment to interacting with his community through his work, even after the provincial cuts to art funding have made it harder for independent artists to live and practice in Vancouver. A narrative map of Vancouver will only faintly echo the voice of a creative collective if we choose to relegate our art community to a place of little importance.
Be sure to check out Bent and Horns’ instillation entitled Scratch Map at the Roundhouse for the opening of the PuSh festival on Tuesday, January 18th as well as former Simon Fraser University Fine and Performing Arts students featured in the show. Much like with DeCerteau’s reflections on New York, the gigantic rhetoric of Vancouver is undoubtedly concerned with expenditure and production, but what does it produce that’s worthwhile? You be the judge.
For a closer look at the brochure for Counter Mapping, click here.
Vancouver's PuSh Festival runs from January 18th-February 6th. See the following video for a taste of what will be offered:
