Archive for the ‘making art’ tag
Arrested
You get out what you put in. Garbage in Garbage out. Read enough junk and you’ll write junk. Truisms, but there you have ‘em. I’ve been scrolling and scanning through pages of articles and websites online and most of the writing is thrown together with one eye on the clock and one eye on Google analytics. So when I called a halt today and picked up an actual book to read, the difference was like being offered clear well water after weeks of drinking soda.
The book I reached for is Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis, a collection of short stories, stories that are oblique and moving all at once. Each one of these pieces is so thoughtfully made, that they make me embarrassed of my own recent flailing both in writing and visual art. I’ve clouded my palate lately, cramming too much junk info. The foundation of every one of Davis’ stories is the act of observation, something that would seem to to be so easy that we possibly for get how to do it. But the acuity of her perception makes it clear that much of what I think of as observation in writing is simply repetition. At every turn I encounter how much I overlook.
It’s funny that I wasn’t twenty pages into the book than I had an idea for a new piece. I think of my self as relatively democratic in terms of taste, liking to take a lot of things in. But there are times when that can be as big an obstruction as having nothing to bounce off of. Even the majority of what I read here on LJ doesn’t help, because so often its interest is social or emotional: I read things here to find out how friends are doing, not for their serious writing, which so often happens elsewhere. There are people here whose writing I admire but I don’t demand of them that they be meticulous craftsmen. Such expectations would be unfair. We are all writing on the fly here.
Tags: daily photo, making art, online life, writing
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We are embarrassed again…
Big drawing day yesterday, most of it accomplished while R, the savvy intern, was sitting at the computer scanning slides from decades ago. While I usually like solitude for working, I was surprised to see how much I was able to focus with the right person there. There was something comforting in knowing that a project was moving along without me having to do every little bit of it. Suddenly felt like a real artist. (and just a note to my pals here on LJ: I’m sure the drawings will be visible at some point, but they weren’t of the “self daily” cartoon variety)
After working for a bit, I went on into Manhattan to have a a chat and a chew with Ryan Roman at the Reggio. I took the above picture there and then put my camera away, which meant that I didn’t return the compliment of taking his picture as he did mine. A lapse of photo/blog courtesy, but it was an engrossing conversation.
I wandered up and crosstown and suddenly remembered that I still had money left on the gift certificate that I’d gotten for Christmas to New York Central Art Supply. I went crazy in the paint and dowel departments. So, sculptures on the way.
From there it was Union Square for a salad, and finally I gobbled a Salty Pimp from The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. I’ll admit it – I’m getting crushed out on the ice cream man. The evidence was all over my mustache and beard as I stood there with soft serve and chocolate dripping off of me.
Today I’ll be working at Leather Pride Night, doing the volunteer thing.
Tags: food, making art, new york life, shopping
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Two things I know are true…
“If you have an idea, play half of it” – Hoagy Carmichael
“If you think you’ve gone too far, you’re half way there.” – Me
Tags: making art, musings
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I love my scanner (again)
An image that’s part of a project from 1987. I’ve had my new scanner for almost ten months, but I’ve neglected to test out the negative scanner until today. I unearthed the negs as part of the next phase of cleaning (stop sorting things into piles and go through those piles and evaluate stuff). I turned up a bunch of my original photographs for pieces from all the phases of my work over the past twenty or so years.
On one hand, thank god I hold on to everything. On the other, my god, I hold on to everything! I’m trying to devise a plan for turning a bunch of this stuff into new pieces that I can distribute and disperse.
For now I’m thrilled to find out that my scanner does such a good job so simply and quickly.
Tags: cleaning, making art, photography
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Returning thought…
Something that came up in class today that has stayed with me:
It’s very tempting for artists to try to explain themselves. Especially after the experience of art school, where one is always asked for clarifications and reasons for things. But the temptation can be to explain through the work itself, to include pieces or statements in shows that serve to guide the viewer to certain conclusions about your work. The problem is that explanation can easily slide into justification, and justification can easily turn to apology.. We need to ask ourselves this question: am I providing access to the work, or trying to justify it?
The urge to explain is strong. No one wants to be thought obscure. But someone else’s explanation can take me out of my own experience of the work.
As a viewer, I don’t mind working. I don’t mind having to return to a work of art to find something else in it. And as an artist, I’d like to think that I could attract viewers that were up to that challenge. Works of art at their best provide their own justification, not by spelling everything out, but by providing us with the opportunity for joyous experience. Artists – don’t explain, practice making those experiences.
Tags: daily photo, making art, teaching
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So many rules!
I am continually stumped by my own capacity to generate rules. Almost every thing I do comes with some appended rulebook, one that I’ve developed out of my own pointy little head. For example: pictures in this blog are horizontal, not vertical (Rule). I wanted to post the above picture because I liked the way it looked. But I also wanted to write a post about how inspiring it is getting to see my friend D-L and then I thought that a negative picture might connote a negative view (Rule) so I should really show the positive version.
But each one of my posts is a single picture (Rule) and an accompanying text (Rule). And I post once a day (Rule). So I couldn’t have both pictures in the same day.
Where did all of these rules come from? Me and me alone. Slowly, over time, a series of utterly arbitrary decisions has become the laws of my mind. When I look at them in that light, I can’t help but be horrified. One thing I try to do with my students is get them to recognize and rethink their rules. I need to do the same thing.
Why look at art? Why is it so pleasurable and nourishing to talk to other artists? To be reminded of the possibilities that are out there. Positive examples, I love em. D-L always provides those.
Tags: daily photo, friends, making art, rules
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Say hello to the black cube…
My pal D-L is staying with me for a couple of days and yesterday we hied ourselves off to the Whitney Biennial. I’ve said here before that the show is a no-win endeavor, given that it can’t really encompass what is truly interesting. There were people and works that I’ve liked in other contexts, but as a whole the show didn’t do much to restore my faith in the contemporary art scene.
A big problem is the current conventions for showing video. I’m part of the generation that has a very hard time not looking at any glowing screen in the vicinity. Because of this I hate the proliferation of TVs in bars and cafes, and now museums seem to be following the trend of incorporating video in almost every exhibition.
The Whitney does most of this on the third floor, which seemed to me on Sunday to be like one big, very unsexy maze of peep booths. The attempt to include video installation meant that there was a series of cubicles each with some sort of video or film projection in each. In practice it means that people are wandering down hallways peeking into rooms and usually seeing works from some odd point in the middle and then if they are sufficiently intrigued, waiting around to see where the beginning of the thing is and then watching it again. This is channel surfing made physical. Meanwhile, pokey old painting and sculpture just can’t compete. One of my favorite rooms in the show is a painting installation by R M Quaytman that requires time and acute viewing to reveal itself. The rest of the exhibition argues against that type of encounter with art.
The worst moment comes on the second floor where a group of drawings and a series of intimate photographs have to duke it out with a video piece that literally harangues the viewer for ten minutes at a time. If those were drawings I’d be pissed, not because the video piece is so bad (yelling at art patrons is not automatically a bad thing) but because there’s no way that the works can be seen as being on equal footing in terms of experience.
In the Seventies, artists began to critique the “white cube”, a shorthand term for the sterile exhibition spaces that began to crop up as containers for contemporary art. The understanding of the white cube as alienated has become so commonplace that art students now refer to it reflexively. What I saw at the Whitney, and what I’ve been seeing at other places is the rise of the black cube, a new standardized methodology for making and consuming video that seems just as alienating to me.
One good thing about going to show like this is that they provide negative examples. I came out of the show with a few ideas for new work.
Tags: art, daily photo, making art, video, Whitney Biennial
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Where to start?
Just had my first look at LJ in about six days. An 8am meeting at work today, so every time I look at the clock I can’t believe that it’s still so early in the afternoon. I bought lunch at 11:30 because I just couldn’t wait. And now I’m jonesing for a nap.
This is due in part to my efforts to finish a piece for an exhibition in in that’s opening tonight: http://www.annakustera.com/ . If you’re in New York City and feel like coming by, I’ll probably be there on the early side. After dropping off my piece last night I took this shot of a truck full of Richard Serra, probably destined for a Gagosian Show up the block.
I also took a trip to the Boston area this past weekend, and got to see some LJ folks there, including badfaggot and quirkstreet. It was a lovely weekend all in all.
Tags: daily photo, friends, making art, new york in black and white
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And on to David Antin and The Prisoner
A glimpse of my stroll west last night.
It was way way cold, and when I returned home I didn’t want to do anything but finish up my viewing of the Prisoner and my reading of A Book of One’s Own. I’m toying with the idea of trying to read at least a book a week this year. But no resolutions, especially with so many things in flux. I’m just happy that I can get pictures taken and a bit of writing.
Home wifi is still no-go, which is a bit of a blessing in that I have fallen into a bad habit of continual image skimming in recent months. With only my iPhone to rely upon this morning, I did a bit of Tumblr posting and then quickly got my nose back in a book. The current one is i never knew what time it was by david antin. (If you noticed, the link is to St. Marks Bookstore, where I bought my copy, since I’m going to try to link to independent media sellers these days, as much as I use Amazon).
Antin is someone worth looking into, if you’ve never encountered him before: a verbal essayist/performance artist/teacher/thinker, who does something not quite like any one else. I’ve seen his work in person a few times and each time it taught me volumes about ways of making art. Watching him deliver one of his talks one can never be sure how much is premeditated and how much is occurring to him on the wing. He takes apart the notion of the artist making something art simply by paying attention to it by making you ask what exactly is paying attention.
Mallon’s book proved to be inspiring as well – pointing me to dozens of diaries I’d love to read. My favorite books are those that expose my own blindspots, and few diaries that I have been able to make it all the way through.
As for The Prisoner, this was my first truly end to end viewing of it. Previously I’ve caught episodes in various PBS marathons, and while familiar with most of it, I’d never seen the full arc before. Its subsequent influence is so great that I have to keep reminding myself of how different is was in its time. Taken piece by piece you’d have to say that there was not much special about it, but taken all together it constitutes an almost perfect cult object: detailed enough to suggest the possibility if completeness, but fragmentary enough to provide space for the fan’s interpolations. The supposed rule for show biz success is to “leave ‘em wanting more”, but the cult success relies on leaving them wanting a specific kind of more: the tantalizing missing bits that fans can exercise their imaginations in fleshing out. It’s doubtful that one can really go about doing this deliberately, although the current generation of artists seems hell bent on trying over and over again. But people love OZ in the way they do in spite of what Baum was trying to do in his books and not because of it. Any number of tv shows have suffered the wrath of fans at the moment of conlclusion or payoff. That is because most complete works of art give us what the creator decided was ultimately the point of their invention, and in doing so shoulder aside our ideas about what it would be neat to see happen. Cult works need to be both episodic to give us a wealth of moments and yet ultimately shapeless so as not to preclude our sense of how they should go.
In other works of art, what we as viewers do with the complete or incomplete is very different. I don’t expect A Dostoevsky novel to be fully resolved, but neither do I desire to “spend more time in its universe”. I look to the kinds of experiences it generates and the way it’s made as being sufficient unto itself without embellishments from me.
Tags: daily photo, David Antin, making art, night, reading, The Prisoner, tv
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Free art Friday…
Opted out of of Black Friday to see some art with Dominic. We went over to LIC and checked the shows at PS1. There was a contemporary sculpture show that had some good word by some folks associated with Bard: Marc Swanson, Robert de Saint Phalle, and Penelope Umbrico. Upstairs was the Big 1969 show where we ran into my friends Renny and Judy. I found some inspiration in the documents of Scott Burton’s Streetworks, but the show as a whole seemed pretty subdued for being a representation of such a raucous time.
After a lunch at the diner during which we disagreed about the merits of the Monte Christo sandwich, we went off to the Sculpture Center to check out Mike Smith’s excellent Burning Man pisstake.
I made it home, heated and eated a holiday left-over pile, and have executed phase two of my little bit of anti-Black Friday plans: I made a bit bit of art and left it out on the street. Little anonymous gift there for somebody. makes me feel a little odd, but hopefully someone will like it.
Tags: art, big link friday, daily photo, friends, making art
