Art Here and Now » Multidiscipline

“Please Don’t Touch the (Touchable) Art.”

Trout Monfalco — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:00:57 +0000

I’ve had friends who collected Star Wars toys and kept them in the original packaging to protect their value. This certainly protects the monetary value, but doesn’t it deprive you of getting everything out of that toy it was created for? If you want to spark your imagination, have a fun afternoon, and play with your friends, you need to rip open that package and start shooting storm troopers and levitating x-wings. It’s almost impossible to experience all the joy, fun, creativity and bonding with friends those toy-makers intended if you leave the toys in their package.

For much of the art in the world, you can look at it or listen to it and get everything the artist intended. It doesn’t matter if most paintings are behind glass, you can still see it just fine and get the full effect. Like a baseball card collector who keeps his cards in plastic sleeves, you can still see the cards just fine and enjoy them to their full effect. Their monetary value is still protected too.

But more and more contemporary art is created by artists who intend you to play with it. The full meaning and experience of the work requires you to interact, contributing your ideas and sometimes even physically building what the work becomes. This work needs to be touched for it to have any significant form, emotion and meaning.

Most museums and galleries are the stewards of the art in their collections. All objects are treated as historic artifacts, and must be maintained, restored, protected and studied. Museums must also protect all the money they’ve invested in building and maintaining the collection. Insurers, donors and the community, also understandably want to protect their own investments. Insurance rates may go up if art isn’t thoroughly protected from accidents, wear and theft. Many museums and galleries sometimes borrow work from other organizations. Obviously they want to return any work leant to them in the same condition it arrived, and want the same for their own work that’s been let out into the world.

Unfortunately, for that growing collection of contemporary artwork that gets its primary meaning, emotion and significance from interacting with it, keeping it locked behind glass isn’t good enough. Most museums and galleries have not caught up to this idea, even though this type of work has existed for almost a hundred years. All objects, regardless of the artist’s intent, are treated the same.

I first noticed this when I attended a Yoko Ono retrospective in the ’90s. In most of her work, Yoko gives direct instructions to be completed, sometimes completely in the reader’s imagination, other times interacting with objects she’s made. In this exhibition, though, there were guards and watchers in each room who would stop anyone from touching anything, even when Yoko’s instructions told you to. One example is Play It By Trust, a long table with 10 completely white chessboards. In Montreal, 2009, it happened as it should:

Yoko Ono’s idea of license, the setting up of a situation where others could complete a work of art instead of the artist, was a radical departure from the existing concept of the role of the artist. – Jon Hendricks

Yoko Ono’s work continues to cause interaction problems for museums. In August of this year, the Seattle Art Museum fired a security guard who interacted with Painting to Hammer a Nail In, a piece which asks you to hammer a nail into the painting. On the wall next to the painting was this text placed by the museum, along with a box of nails:

Museum visitors are invited to pound a nail into this painting. Like so
much of the work in this exhibition, while the idea might at first seem a
destructive, physically aggressive act against the accepted traditions of
painting and museums in general, in the end the concept opens up new
potentials for painting, and for bringing others besides the artist into
the creative act.

Yoko Ono herself poetically states her intentions.

What I’m trying to do is make something happen by throwing a pebble into the water and creating ripples…I don’t want to control the ripples. – Yoko Ono

In 1957, Paris, a group of “reactionary nihilist intellectuals” stormed a Dada exhibition and grabbed Man Ray’s piece titled Object to Destroy. They threw it on the ground and shot it with a pistol before police arrived and arrested them for doing just as the title commanded. Time Magazine wrote about the incident at the time in The Theater: Battle of the Nihilists.

How do we know what’s allowed and what isn’t? Should we do what the artist tells us or follow the rules of a museum? Who gets to decide? A simple, direct solution is presented by The Onion in Struggling Museum Now Allowing Patrons To Touch Paintings:

“Though it contains more than two million pieces and represents a profound legacy of artistic achievement, most people remain completely indifferent to our museum,” Met director Thomas P. Campbell said. “So we decided to try something a little different and give visitors a chance to experience our timeless works of art up close and personal.”
“You can’t grasp the brilliance of a great painting just by looking at it,” said Phil Brehm, 32, who acknowledged that he hadn’t set foot inside a museum since a mandatory field trip in high school. “To truly appreciate fine art, you need to be able to run your fingers over its surface and explore its range of textures.”
“Or just rub your face all over it, like I do,” Brehm added.

Of course, In the real world, I hope for a middle ground. Museums need to determine which pieces derive a large part of their meaning and significance from interaction. For these pieces, the museum’s primary purpose should no longer be to simply protect their objects. They must protect the full artistic experience, so that people can feel for themselves the art’s purpose and meaning.

One museum that gets this is the Tate Modern. I visited several years ago and found the five-story swirly-slide by artist Carsten Höller. Laughter echoed around the large room as people slid down the tubes.

In 1971, the Tate exhibited a very interactive artwork, Bodyspacemotionthings, by artist Robert Morris. After only four days, and many splinters and bruises, the artwork was broken by all the interaction and then closed. Last May, a new version of the work was exhibited, and this is what it looked like:

Even knowing the potential for destruction, possibly higher insurance rates and injured patrons, Tate did it anyway.

So what’s the answer? And why should we care?

I forgot to mention that I had lots of Star Wars toys when I was growing up. I played with them all the time. They ended up with broken arms, unrecognizable dog-chewed heads, peeling paint and caked-in mud. Every dent and scrape added more to their made-up history in my imagination, making them even more fun and interesting. Today, I no longer have them. If I did, I certainly couldn’t sell them for any money. No one would want them.

I don’t want irreplaceable, important parts of our history destroyed. But in the museum’s Star Wars collector zeal, preserving every piece of art behind plastic and glass, we lose the art’s spirit, we lose it’s importance, the very reason it’s worth collecting to begin with. And the people visiting this work are disconnected from it. They don’t get it, shrug and move on. This is the very work that has the most potential to deeply connect with people in our modern world.

I think there must be a middle way.
Maybe museums can have artists build two copies of each work. One to protect for value and history, the other to take out of the box, to get dirty and broken. That’s what the most passionate toy collectors do.

Time Magazine, The Theater: Battle of the Nihilists, April 1957
Yoko Ono’s Official Site
More about Man Ray
What is Conceptual Art?
The Seattle Art Museum
The Stranger Slog, Dear Yoko: This is an Intervention
Tate Modern, Bodyspacemotionthings
BBC, What Closed Tate’s 1971 Art Show?
Artists Robert Morris and Carsten Höller

Buy stuff:

Conceptual Art – Not a Good Investment

Trout Monfalco — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:54:42 +0000

Conceptual Art relies on ideas (concepts) and audience participation for it’s effectiveness, where many other kinds of art rely more on the object, and the skill the artist used to create it.

The New York Times asks Has Conceptual Art Jumped the Shark?

…conceptual art after Duchamp reminds me of paging through old New Yorker cartoons. Jokes about Cadillac tailfins and early fax machines were once amusing, and the same can be said of conceptual works like Piero Manzoni’s 1962 declaration that Earth was his art work, Joseph Kosuth’s 1965 “One and Three Chairs” (a chair, a photo of the chair and a definition of “chair”) or Mr. Hirst’s medicine cabinets. Future generations, no longer engaged by our art “concepts” and unable to divine any special skill or emotional expression in the work, may lose interest in it as a medium for financial speculation and relegate it to the realm of historical curiosity.

I think the premise of the story – that conceptual art doesn’t have good resale value – is sound. It’s hard to determine a piece’s monetary value when the object itself isn’t where the value lies. Because the artistic merit of something as etheral as an idea is very subjective and changes through time, how will you have any idea what it’s worth? This is in contrast to an object, good idea or not, that is created with a great deal of skill and effort. Even if the idea is a bad one, or whose merit fades over time, the high level of craft will likely still be appreciated.

This really raises the question – how should conceptual artists make a living? Those New Yorker cartoonists still get paid to create cartoons, even though the cartoons might not have the same impact 20 years from now. I’m sure some are understood to have a cultural lifespan. Yet their current value is still understood, and artists are paid. If this is true, that some conceptual art has concepts which have a lifespan, how can artists pay for their livelihood and efforts just like those cartoonists?

I have some ideas, but what do you think?

Books on conceptual art.

Art, Artists, & Climate Change, Resources and Inspiration – Blog Action Day 2009

Trout Monfalco — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:30:44 +0000

This is a post for Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change.

A few years ago, I wrote a post for Blog Action Day presenting ideas for creating art in more environmentally friendly ways – Making Art Without Unmaking the Environment. Art supplies and other byproducts of our work is notoriously toxic. Just like businesses and construction are changing to be more green, artists must update their ways of working as well, to minimize their long term affects on our planet.

But artists are more than businesses manufacturing a product. We are cultural messengers. We are here to speak about and reflect things that are important to us and our cultures. One common message we have been signaling, regardless of our country or medium, is that we must pay more attention and care to our planet. The Earth’s climate is changing, and we must take action to stop or reverse it. According to the United Nations, “There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed.” The Earth is the only home we have, along with the millions of other species who share it with us.

If you disagree with the idea that the climate is changing, or that humans are causing it, I would only ask you to consider the odds and the consequences. Many scientists believe this is happening and it is caused by human action. But what if you’re right, and it was only a 50/50 chance we were responsible. Do you think humanity’s fate, and the fate of many other species, should be decided by the toss of a coin?

So what are artists doing to make a difference? Here are some stories about artists affecting our collective approach to climate change through their work. There are many great stories of well known musicians and filmmakers putting together concerts, films and other events to make a big difference. But I wanted to shine a light on people you might not have heard of.

Portrait of an artist as a climate activist from Grist magazine. Senator Barbara Boxer held up a photograph by Subhankar Banerjee to the full floor of the Senate, to prove the Alaska refuge was not a “flat white nothingness.”
Early artists key to Yellowstone Park’s preservation, helenair.com. The paintings of Thomas Moran and photographs of Henry Jackson were critical to the U.S. Congress creation of Yellowstone, the first national park.
In 2005, Grist pleaded What the warming world needs now is art, sweet art and four years later, followed it up with Climate Art is Hot.
SEED Magazine says The Arts Community is Responding to Climate Change, and Changing the Conversation in the Process.
Green Theater Initiative talks about Addressing Climate Change One Theatre Artist at a Time.
Here is an entire episode of the PBS series Art:21 devoted to Ecology and art.
Climate Change Education has a great Media and Arts section, including great lists of artwork and artists broken down by discipline: painting, sculpture, video and new media, and more.

Now, how can you make a difference? Here are pointers to more information about grants and funding, exhibitions, shows and more. If you know of other resources, or other stories about artists making great work, post a comment below and I’ll continue to update this post.

Climate Change Art Resources

Green Museum informs, inspires and connects people through environmental art and encourages the creation of new work that serves communities and ecosystems.
Ars Natura, nature in art, art in nature.
Strange Weather, a resource hub about climate change for artists, writers and activists.
Landscape and Arts Network brings together landscape architects, engineers, architects, artists, educationalists and ecologists who feel passionate about improving and sustaining the quality of our urban and natural environment.
Free Soil, an international hybrid collaboration of artists, activists, researchers and gardeners who take a participatory role in the transformation of our environment.
Ear to the Earth heightens environmental awareness through sound, inspires engagement in environmental issues, and sustains engagement through ongoing activities. The website is a forum for composers, sound artists, and everyone interested in sound to listen and participate.
RANE – Research in Art Nature and Environment actively seeks creative methods through which art can impact on our current environmental predicament. Using artistic practice the group aims to offer interpretations and models of thinking about the natural world that help to promote a sustainable future.
Eco Arts Online brings together science, environmental, arts, indigenous, and other organizations to offer you a wide variety of events – performances, exhibits, talks, tours, films, fairs, and more.
The Ashden Directory, bringing together environmentalism and the performing arts.

Climate Change Art Exhibitions, shows, festivals

Participate or Die, Wooloo.org. Wooloo.org is organizing the people of Copenhagen to open their homes to thousands of environmental artists during the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Denmark this December. By asking artists to develop happenings and reflections for a new life – and then request that thousands of participants implement them – Wooloo.org aims beyond the traditional art exhibition to become an active organizer of experiments in civic engagement and social empowerment.
Lake, a journal which publishes contemporary art that engages with ecological issues.
ecoartspace, promotes a diverse range of artworks that are participatory, collaborative, interdisciplinary and uniquely educational. “Our philosophy embodies a broader concept of art in its relationship to the world and seeks to connect human beings aesthetically with the awareness of larger ecological systems.”

Climate Change Opportunities for Artists
Calls for Artists, Grants, Residencies, Commissions and more

Green Museum, Calls for Artists
Artists Project Earth Funding
Artist as Citizen, connecting art students with donors to help them create projects on social issues.

Get the work of Thomas Moran, Henry Jackson and Subhankar Banerjee.

From 1987, Computers and the Arts

Trout Monfalco — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:09:34 +0000

The Computer Chronicles series ran for 20 years, covering the new and ever-changing world of computers for a broad audience.

In 1987, they presented a show titled Computers and the Arts.

United States Candidates – positions on The Arts

Technology Infrastructure as Artistic Medium

Trout Monfalco — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:00:13 +0000

The New York Times explores the “global movement is hacking, subverting and critiquing the hardware, software, content, visuals — even the philosophy of the wired world.”
This work is created using and hacking the very same technologies and methods it is often commenting on.
Examples include

Hacking Nintendo cartridges to create new games, music and video art
Subversion and satire of sites and online experiences, such as http://www.gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com/
Texts and images are provided in the recreation of a copyshop, allowing everyone to copy and alter any of the artwork

Read more from the New York Times:
At Last, Artists Harness the Internet

Learn more beyond the article:

Beige programming ensemble
Aleksansdra Domanovic
Oliver Laric
Rhizome, aristic practices that engage technology
Superflex
Collectif 1.0.3

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on iTunes

Trout Monfalco — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 23:57:13 +0000

The iTunes Music Store has an iTunes U section where universities put lots of classes, information and events up for everyone to use, all for free. Some other organizations have also put up some great information, audio and video. One of them is the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). If you have iTunes, check it out here.

Negativland Compilation

Trout Monfalco — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:27:41 +0000

Negativland is a group that creates mash-ups of existing music, sound and video. They have been sued for this, but believe firmly that art belongs to society. They are releasing a compilation of their work, Our Favorite Things, which properly has been mashed up yet again by other artists. They started doing this pre-YouTube and pre-filesharing lawsuits. Adding to yesterday’s post, this is more to show what can be done once work hits the public domain and can be mixed, used and cut up to make something new. (Though Negativland doesn’t wait for the public domain to kick in.)

Read about Our Favorite Things in Wired.

Buy work by Negativland.

Japan Ink – Inside the Manga-Industrial Complex

Endurance Art – Six Hours is Too Long

Trout Monfalco — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:54:45 +0000

Over the past few weeks, Elevator Repair Service has been in Portland and Seattle performing Gatz, their performance which involves the complete six hour reading of The Great Gatsby. I intended to go. But I just can’t bring myself to do it.

I’m up for any strange art thing, I mean I’m one of the odd kinds of people who would even hear “six hour performance” and seriously think about it. But you know, I have things to do. Laundry, walking in the park, making art, writing this blog, seeing other art, eating, etc. If I can’t bring myself to go to this thing, who does go to it? If I had gone, maybe I could have interviewed people in the audience and asked them.

There are other ridiculously long performances out there, like Philadelphia’s Brat Productions, which tours with a 24 hour marathon performance of Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano. The play isn’t 24 hours long, they just finish and start over again and again for 24 hours straight. I almost saw that one too (a long time ago), but I just couldn’t do it.

There are also abnormally long films. I love Peter Greenaway but have never brought myself to sit and watch The Falls because of it’s mere 3 hours 5 minutes running time, which really isn’t that long. (There’s a legend that the original cut and showing of the film was 6 hours long, but I can find no record of that online.) There are other truly long films, like The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World, running at 48 hours long. This seems more like ambiance and you could come and go if you wanted, drink heavily, take a nap, go clubbing with friends, then return where you left off.

And of course, opera is notoriously long. Get there at 6, leave at 11:30.

Certainly it is an amazing feat for performers, and acts to strengthen and train their focus and abilities. You could say the same for audiences, that it allows them to test their endurance, after which a three hour movie doesn’t seem so bad. For the ambient work, where you can come and go, eat, drink, talk with friends, the endurance isn’t really there. It’s incidental art that doesn’t require your full focus, and if a performer messes up or needs a break, nothing is broken.

In a time where most people find it hard enough to go see a two hour performance, busy with other things in their life, and someone like me won’t go who isn’t that busy and has devoted their life to art of various strange sorts — who and how many show up for a six hour performance? Why do they go?

Read more: Peter Greenaway’s The Falls, interview with Brat Productions about the 24 hour Bald Soprano, and a review of Elevator Repair Service’s Gatz.

Get: the work of Peter Greenaway, The Great Gatsby, long operas by Richard Wagner, great strange plays by Eugene Ionesco

Constanza Macras, Dorky Park – Back to the Present

Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) – A Model for Artists?

Trout Monfalco — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:55:20 +0000

On large farms, sometimes only one crop is grown. Many times these crops are corn or soy beans. These crops are more lucrative because they are used in many processed foods and may be subsidized.

Small farms, on the other hand, often have many crops that rotate and change over the course of a growing season. Smaller farms may have smaller quantities of a larger variety of food and other goods. This may be less lucrative but is more environmentally sustainable, for the farm and the planet.

One solution to help small farms run in a more sustainable way, at the same time providing food that is seasonal and locally grown, is Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA). Usually in a CSA, people subscribe to a farm or group of farms. Subscribers are often given a choice of receiving a small, medium or large box, and might be able to choose how often they receive a box (twice a week, once a week or once every two weeks). Each box contains a small portion of all the things the farm has harvested at that time. What you get in the box is a surprise. Most of what’s in the box are common ingredients, like tomatoes, garlic, herbs, onions, peppers, and similar food (this varies depending on your location, since the farm is local). Some amount of the food is always unusual, and may have you looking up recipes, wondering things like “Hmm, what can I make with three rutabagas?” It’s up to the CSA to get the mix of common and unusual foods right, so that people look forward to what might be in the next box, but still have plenty to use in common dishes. If people aren’t happy with the mix, obviously they will stop subscribing.

Some CSAs have delivery vans that drop off boxes to people’s doors. Others have drop off locations, where all the boxes are stacked. Subscribers know where their drop off location is and pick up their box on their scheduled day.

The subscription model lets farms support the ongoing growing season with less risk. This way they don’t have to worry about selling an entire harvest based solely on demand and weather. They also don’t have to worry about putting so much money into the start of a season since some of that money starts coming back in with new subscribers.

So what does this have to do with art?

Why couldn’t a group of artists form a Community Supported Art program? They could get subscriptions to their work, and deliver a box of artwork from the artists every few weeks. They could offer different sized boxes, maybe different quality levels (some work is quicker or cheaper to make than others), and possible different types. (Music or Dance? Traditional or Modern? Paintings or Sculptures? The grand mix of everything? The adventurous subscribers could choose to get all types. Who knows what art would be in their box? Can you imagine opening a box of original art delivered to your door, having no idea what was inside until you opened it? It would be lots of fun.) The actual artwork included at any time would depend on what the artists had made, what was completed at the time, with a mix of smaller, easier to make objects with bigger, more complex pieces. It would be up to the CSA to make sure the prices of the boxes and mix of art seemed of value to the subscribers and sustainable for the artists.

This way, the artists involved would have a steady stream of at least some income, and a way to have guaranteed distribution and sale of their work before the work was even created. It would also allow the benefits and value of known artists to assist up and coming artists to become better known. Subscribers would have the thrill of getting a box of art of their own, from a range of known and unknown artists, without even having to leave their house.

I know various artists over time have sent out periodic small works to friends and patrons. But I don’t know of any effort like this, on a paid subscription basis that gathers and distributes art from a pool of artists.

If you know of something like this, post in the comments! If there isn’t something like this, and this inspires you to start one, please let me know and if you don’t mind, mention us so we get some love

I want this to happen!

Learning to Love You More – Miranda July, Harrell Fletcher and The Oliver Family

Trout Monfalco — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 09:47:40 +0000

Over the last five years, artists Miranda July (most widely known for making the film Me and You and Everyone We Know) and Harrell Fletcher have provided 63 art recipes or assignments as part of the project Learning to Love You More. Over 5,000 people have completed assignments and submitted them to the web site. Their work has then been included in exhibitions and presentations, and will be included in the upcoming book about the project.

One Seattle family, The Olivers, completed all 63 assignments.
For “#37 Write down a recent argument,” The Olivers chose an argument between Carol and younger son Pete over when it’s time to go to bed. I never go to bed on time myself, and hearing Mom say why he needs to go to bed and Pete’s careful reasons why he doesn’t need to is the debate I have in my own head every night. Something like “You always get started on something and get excited and don’t go to bed until it’s done,” to Pete’s “I’ll go to bed when I’m tired, like a normal person.” Story of my life. It was funny to see it all spelled out so clearly for me.

“#31, Spend time with a dying person,” “#59, Interview someone who has experienced war,” or “#30, Take a picture of strangers holding hands” are all moving.

I learned about oldest son Nigel in “#35, Ask your family to describe what you do.” He works the sidewalks of Seattle gathering signatures for Greenpeace so he can party and meet girls. I learned how Carol heals herself and the family, and her favorite book from the 5th grade (she had to reread it for #45). I learned what Mike wants done with his body when he dies (#51).

All together, these 63 very specific assignments turn into an audio-visual autobiography. The Olivers are funny, thoughtful, smart, silly and very creative. Seeing their artwork makes you wish you knew them, and makes you wonder what you might be missing – what great people might be living in a house just around the corner.

Related sites -

Learning to Love You More (all assignments and exhibition of many completed assignments from people all over the world)
The Olivers work from Learning to Love You More
The Oliver Family blog
site of Miranda July

Get the work of Miranda July, including Me and You and Everyone We Know and the upcoming book showcasing the work created from Learning to Love You More.

i. ii. iii. I. Love. You. Onochord. by Yoko Ono.