BIO
The Rematerialization of Art
>>What exactly is the problem with organizing a show around collected artwork?
"Organizing a show around collected artwork"--no problem; that happens all the time. "Organizing a show around collecting work"--it's not enough, considering all the other things there are to talk about. It's like my complaint about "art about the art world"--it's too insular and meta.
>>What is the problem with good artists making
money selling GOOD work?
Are you addressing this question to me? Seems I've been defending that proposition all along.
"Organizing a show around collected artwork"--no problem; that happens all the time. "Organizing a show around collecting work"--it's not enough, considering all the other things there are to talk about. It's like my complaint about "art about the art world"--it's too insular and meta.
>>What is the problem with good artists making
money selling GOOD work?
Are you addressing this question to me? Seems I've been defending that proposition all along.
The Rematerialization of Art
Yes, Olia, that kind of proactive statement is what we need--what I was trying to say earlier is the junk assemblage in the Whitney and NewMu is old news, more exciting things are happening right now. In New York we have several galleries that are well along in this discourse of hybrid gallery-specific/net-specific art which may be partly why I am irritated with a show that still frames the issue defensively. As I said somewhere back up the thread, talking about how the embodiment of the art changes art is an interesting topic. That is not the topic of the show you are in, which is "proving new media art is sellable"--but hopefully you can turn it into something interesting.
The Rematerialization of Art
A painting is labor invested towards an idea. Once the painting is finished it becomes a product that keeps on communicating the idea, long after the artist ceases to be associated with it. Despite the immateriality of art thought process and the potential for misunderstanding of the idea as embodied in the object, a consensus emerges about what the object means and its value. Hence an art market. It is now possible to have this same symbolic discourse with DVDs and data burned to hard drives, which, although not as durable as paintings can still be archived and owned. Can we please move on?
The Rematerialization of Art
Clarifying:
"My point is that's a better way to bring art into the computercentric world the rest of us live in than these circle the wagons exhibitions."
By the rest of us I mean most of contemporary culture where jobs mean staring at a computer all day, banks are doing away with paper checks and urging you to go online, etc. You don't have to ask the gallery to show an actual computer, just get it to acknowledge its own retro devotion to old handmade forms as a misplaced antidote to computercentric culture, which is the norm outside the galleries (even in Mongolia).
"My point is that's a better way to bring art into the computercentric world the rest of us live in than these circle the wagons exhibitions."
By the rest of us I mean most of contemporary culture where jobs mean staring at a computer all day, banks are doing away with paper checks and urging you to go online, etc. You don't have to ask the gallery to show an actual computer, just get it to acknowledge its own retro devotion to old handmade forms as a misplaced antidote to computercentric culture, which is the norm outside the galleries (even in Mongolia).
The Rematerialization of Art
I must have missed Cao Fei that, Jaume Plensa, Jenny Holzer, John Simon, Lincoln Schatz, Cory Arcangel in the Whitney and NewMu this year. I will go back and check.
Jenny Holzer got her start tacking truisms up on New York phone poles, not in the new media sphere.
Rather than a show about packaging/marketing, it would seem better to pair new media sphere artists with non, and not make a big deal about what you're doing.
An example off the top of my head: pair Douglas Gordon's 24 hour Psycho with Cory Arcangel's Slow Tetris. This bootstraps Arcangel into the discourse of a known "media art genius" from the gallery side and he comes off rather better for the comparison, because his piece is more cheeky/fun. The theme is "time in media," not sales.
Not saying this isn't being done with Arcangel--it is (maybe even with those pieces, I forget). My point is that's a better way to bring art into the computercentric world the rest of us live in than these circle the wagons exhibitions.
Jenny Holzer got her start tacking truisms up on New York phone poles, not in the new media sphere.
Rather than a show about packaging/marketing, it would seem better to pair new media sphere artists with non, and not make a big deal about what you're doing.
An example off the top of my head: pair Douglas Gordon's 24 hour Psycho with Cory Arcangel's Slow Tetris. This bootstraps Arcangel into the discourse of a known "media art genius" from the gallery side and he comes off rather better for the comparison, because his piece is more cheeky/fun. The theme is "time in media," not sales.
Not saying this isn't being done with Arcangel--it is (maybe even with those pieces, I forget). My point is that's a better way to bring art into the computercentric world the rest of us live in than these circle the wagons exhibitions.
