off the wall friend

Does Art Outside London have to Try to be Nice?

2012-02-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

In a recent article in the Guardian 'Off to Market: Why Art Needs Comerce' by Matt Roberts who is the Chairman of 'Matt Roberts Art', based in London (Vyner Street) we are told that there has been too much of an emphasis in the recent past on making art work based on getting public funding, and how the commerical-system is viewed by in large among other descriptions as being London-centric. The article then taking a flight of fancy attempts to describe what the artistic community define as being 'too-commerical', work "seen to focus more on aesthetic values rather than political or philosophical enquiry," before we are introduced to the idea of there being a conflict between "commerical and non-commerical activity".

By in large Matt Robinson is based in London (Vyner Street) and is making a living selling ‘nice’ art. Matt is upset that not everyone one agrees that this is what artist should be doing, and is surprised that public funding in the past hasn’t encouraging what he feels has wrongly been labeled ‘too-commercial’ art, then champions this as art attempting to be more commercial, and gives examples of the various art fairs that encourage/market this 'nice' art.

To cut a long story short, what Matt has written in his article is true, that with less public funding, more artist led organisation, and with more activity country wide there is more of a need to be commercial. Though this doesn't mean that artist need to start trying to be nice, if anything judging by the commercial success (although this may not be instantaneous), not to mention the social benifits (art that makes people talk) of art that uses "shock and awe" tactics , that inevitably brings into focus political, philosophical, and even aesthetical values, surly it's the opposite?

The Old School Room, East Coker (Sommerset)

2012-02-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

Having been invited to an art venue in West Coker, Somerset (near Yeovil) to view an art exhibition including work by Rebecca Strain, made in collaboration with the artists who are based there and the community who live near by, and to take part in an organised event. In keeping with the title of the work 'Show and Tell' each of the invited geust artists gave a presentations of their work.
Working as an artist in London selling art work and being commissioned to make work, Simon Lee Dicker then embarked on an out of London based practice, in Somerset. Work, for example, involved working with an artist find out name who makes children's playgrounds for children with learning difficulties, and working with the few organisation that exist in the area. Now Simon alongside his partner Chantelle have bought 'The Old School Room', a stone building typical of the kind found in the rural village two miles south of Yeovil which has a history as a community building, with a history that Simon wants to incorporate into the work that is made there.Using the space as part studio and part venue space, add the black and white photo of the long lunch with a caption.
It is such a great building for exhibiting art in, we were told that what has worked well are events like private views, presentations, lunches (like today), and not so much a two month long exhibition were the work is installed and then removed. This is because Simon has noticed that there isn't much call for this kind of (commercial) gallery in West Coker, an issue perhaps shared with other out of London projects, such as a group from 'Bristol Diving School', which is an arts venue/organisation set up by themselves in 'the docks' area of Bristol City Center, who were at the meeting, and like wise Tim Martin who joined the group that day in the capacity of an artist and at the same time curator. Working for 'The Brewhouse' which is an arts venue in the town of Taunton, Tim confirmed what Simon had said, that in a place like Somerset "Often events work better at creating a critical mass than exhibitions." Art has always been in this country London-centric, is there now more outside of London? Artist want to shock, is there now an audience country wide that want to see what these artists are doing, were as in the past this may not of been the case? and as the artists working in outside of London based practices are faced with different challenges, what difference does this make in the characteristics of the work being produced? perhaps its less art-centric? Should artist try to be nice to this new audiance?

New York 2012

2012-01-31T07:11:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Ted Janis for being such a good host and for his friends Adam, Jay, Joe, and Aron for showing me what a great city New York is! What’s good about America is there’s more togetherness than there is in Britain. On the first night my American host a childhood friend who served in the military who now studies at Columbia University, with two others took me for food and then onto drinks. We ended up in a karaoke bar so choosing a song whilst my host ordered more drinks meant that by the time it came my turn to sing ‘Girls Jus Wanna Have Fun’ by Cyndi Lauper my singing voice wasn’t the best it could be, not helped by the fact that every other person at the bar that night seemed to know exactly how to sing their chosen song! My conclusion is that this has to do with this togetherness, that with the American Dream there comes a responsibility to sing the song as it’s used to being heard, and this isn’t the case in Britain. Thinking back when in art collage being taught about the ideas from the past 100 years, that there was art made in America not to dissimilar to what was being made in the Soviet Union at the same time. After some girls in the bar that night came over and took the microphone off me just as my singing was wavering, giving me a chance to recover and just about make it to the end of the song, there was undoubtedly recognition from my fellow drinkers that night. Ricky Gervais was on the other side of the pond at the same time presenting the Golden Globe Awards, relying on the same kind of anarchism.

Having the rest of the week to see what New York has to offer in terms of museums and art galleries and getting into some of the more expensive ones for free thanks to Ted and his Columbia student card, left me with no doubt that New York is the best for art! Built in a time when cars already existed New York was able to sprawl, but what are some of the other reasons that makes the Big Apple such a good place for art? Perhaps it is that visitors to its shores are bringing what America needs/can make use of (as mentioned before), what is more because of this as a foreigner you’re likely to be given the time of day regardless of what your name is, who you know, or where you came from (something us Brits can learn a lot from), though given a chance at having a shot if you don’t nail it you can find yourself alone here real quick! What then given a chance to do you do?

Too often my feeling is that artists choose to go for what is safe, Museums do this as well. After visiting St Patrick’s we (Ted and his two pals from the army) went from a Cathedral of the past to one of today’s, and in MOMA on the second floor there where two exhibitions. The first room there was an exhibition of Fluxes Art, in one piece insert title of piece four black and white photos with a few words in the text describing what is in the photo as being ballet. It attempted to tell it like it is, what’s real today, that some removal men going down a fire escape carrying a couch should be considered as important as a ballet performance at the Lincoln Center.

Image from 'Black Swan' (2010)

In the room next door there was an exhibition dealing with revolutions and public action first exhibited in the MOMA in 1931. In the Diego Rivera painted murals we were shown graphic images of soldiers trying to hold back a crush of people that had woman and children on the ground, and Adam who is in the military said “I’m on the wrong side of that picture”, he wasn’t though because he was there in the museum viewing the work, and so he was on the right side. Heading up to the fifth floor we saw the best collection of modern painting and sculpture, likewise on the fourth floor, and work that neither painting or sculpture (DuChamp), Brilliant. Knowing how to get from one floor to the next isn’t so straight forward, so we got lost in the Conceptual Art section. In one piece there was a tiny thread that ran from the floor to the ceiling, had the security guard not posted himself directly behind it in his black suit it would have been easily passed by, in fact he seemed to take it upon himself to do so.

What is there to value in this work that often gets treated with suspicion? Is it not based on insecurities which in turn is collected by and encouraged by others with the same insecurities? The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy describes the context conceptual artists where working in “Conceptual art, politicised and influenced by events such as the 'May Days' in Paris (1968), the 'Hot Autumn' in Italy (1969), the Vietnam War” which might help to make sense of the On Kawara exhibition ‘Date Painting(s) in New York & 136 Other Cities' recently on show at David Zwirner’s two massive spaces at 525 and 533 West 19th Street. Doug Wheeler’s post conceptual installation also on show at David Zwirner, however, didn't do much to pursued me otherwise.

Then after one more floor of delights (a wide ranging collection of photography), we arrived at the Contemporary Art floor. Artists on this floor wern't being subversive, rather choosing to take what already exists and finding a new use for it, after all, if you had recently visited the Brooklyn Museum to see 'HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture', you would at one point of walked through a darkened room and seen six LCD monitors each showing a cinematic portrait of a different model made by Andy Warhol, and you would have been tempted to arrive at the same conclusion. All that can be hoped to be done has be done, here is the real shock value and all, beautiful.

So let’s not bother shocking or reminding audiences of what is real, let’s not be subversive, and instead work alongside with what we already know. Artists exhibited on the Contemporary Art floor were for example Rirkrit Tiravanija, who rebuilds his Manhattan apartment in the museum and prepares some soup served with his native Thai hospitality for anyone who visits, and Daniel Pflumm who appropriates company logos to be appreciated for their atheistic. This art captures the audience that previously would have walked past the galleries (the other), this sounds to me like a ‘safe option’. Why isn’t what’s happening at the occupy wall street, where in the paper that same day six protesters had been arrested for "lying down," how has this been represented in the MOMA Contemporary Art Floor? As well as these ‘safe options’ there are ‘traps’ such as, technology being a re-occuring one, artists using plinths and/or digital projectors as if this alone justifies the work, more often than not what ends up being shown is just that, here is a plinth or here is a projection, HD/DSLR video is going to transform the production of media, when all TVs come internet ready and people will choose online content such ‘Art Stars’ or ‘Hennessy Youngman’ (both on you tube) over what cable companies produce, spending $1000s of dollars on the equipment alone though doesn’t justify it, photo realism paintings rarely end up showing anything new, and computer generated images doesn’t make it contemporary.

These traps can be avoided, if you do your homework. Let me at this point champion performativity in Aesthetics, a good introduction into this is David Davies’ book ‘Art as Performance’, and it was in the Guggenheim Museum shop that on my visit was sold to me for knock down price of five bucks! Dorothea Von Hantelmann’s ‘How to do Things with Art’, one of a steadily increasing number of publications making use of this meaning (of arts performativity). Based on this ontology of art (that on some leval all art has involved some kind of performance) builds a referencential model, through the discussion of five selected artists, in this case, pointed towards a common goal for art that it should have a social impact, and provides a pragmatic understanding for anyone concerned with work that does more than it says.

It would after all be nice to be remembered and if the photography exhibition ‘The Radical Camera, New York’s Photo League, 1936-1951’ currently showing at the Jewish Museum is anything to go by, its young ideological youth in artist centred practices (making work for each other), positioning themselves outside what we already know that gets remembered. The question is how when seeking outsiders do you bring the alternatives in as well as the more safer options?

243 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth, BH8 8DA (Shop)

2012-01-30T11:05:00.002-08:00

The Three Year Business Plan

The Nature, objectives, and the History of the Business

Personal Details:
Name: Jonathan Shelper

Age: 27

Born: 17/10/1984

Nationality: British

Address: n/a

Status: Single, employed as a shelf stacker at local supermarket for four nights a week

Education: 2004-2005 studied Art and Design at the Arts University Collage Bournemouth. 2005-2008 Studied Mixed Media Fine Art at University of Westminster, Harrow. 2010-2011 studied postgraduate (MA) course at Arts University Collage Bournemouth.

Personal Notes: Having a flare for creativity and leading art projects often sees me working outside art institutions and museums. This can be described as ‘underground’ in more ways than one, as having some savings before saw me renting a commercial space on Whitechapel Road in London which was a basement! over the course of about a year and a half and after organising exhibitions which varied in success but however led to no financial gain what’s so ever, learned valuable lessons.

The Structure of the Business:
The Business will be set up as a sole trader.

Description of the Business Activities:
Primarily the business will offer the product manufactured by my own artistic practice, which as a multi media fine artist this varies from painting, sculpture, and photography. Or it could be a live performance within a space. Or as often is the case online using internet formats such as “blogs” or “Youtube”.
As well as my own work the business will offer for sale the work of other artists by providing a service as an ‘art gallery’ to these artists, which will mean providing a secure space for exhibiting their work and organizing events for the artist to sell his/her own work, or for the selling of his/her work on their behalf.

Commencement Date:
Trading will begin on Fri the 29th of January. The reason for choosing this date is because this is when a 12 month contract for renting a shop space will begin.

Objectives:
Over the course of the three year the business will begin by paying for its costs (rent, materials, research, debts) with its activities in the supermarket chain store ‘J. Sainsburys’ working eight hours a night for four nights a week, as well as a small target of making £400 pounds every twelve weeks either by selling the product manufactured by my own artistic practice or by that as having offered the service of being an art gallery. In the second year of trading enough finance would have been raised to cease working in the supermarket and to concentrate on building up the business on a local level, aiming to make £1000-3000 every twelve weeks and in the third year of trading the aim is to be both working on a local and to be working on an national level earning £3000-£5000 every twelve weeks.

History of the Business:
The business started in 2008, when after living in and around London and managing to raise a substantial amount of finance, the decision was made by myself to rent a commercial space which was the basement of a business centre on the Whitechapel Road, and near to Brick Lane and in an area known to be associated with the kind of business that was my intention of setting up. The initial plan was to build a reputation of being considered ‘Off the wall’, and at the time that involved dressing up and inviting people to come and visit me and the products manufactured by myself as a made up character. Alongside manufacturing and attempting to sell the products of my own artistic practice the business also offered the service of being an art gallery exhibiting at first small groups of artists and then later larger groups of artists, charging a fee that provided the only income for the business. A year and a half was how long the business operated in this way, after a six month break and moving to Bournemouth the business began operating again between June 2010 and Dec 2011 in an ad hoc fashion in various buildings. The Business at this point was finding ways of being self sufficient and not relying on making any sales or charging artists a fee for any provided service.
For the past year the business has not been operating, due to me attending a university course in Bournemouth and more recently researching that has involved taking a weeklong trip to New York in January, and after which the business will begin operating in the Bournemouth area.
Another important aspect of the business has been its web presences, this involved learning how to build a website and creating videos and images that could be shared online. The business at first had had http://www.gallerysoup.co.uk/ as its web address, though six months after the current web address http://www.gallerysoup.com/ became available, so this was purchased, although both address still point to the same web site.

Personal
There will be no other employees of the business apart from myself.

The Products or Service in Relation to the Market

Product or Service Details:
'Performance Space' is similar to a carnival or funfair. 'Performance Space' is made by their first being a client who express an interest in purchasing contemporary art, who is then shown evidence on which the client bases his/her decision. The product is very versatile and can be in situ (at the shop space), in a clients' home above the mantel piece, a storage space of some description, or a wedding. The prices will be varied depending on the cost of materials, time spent, and the previous value given to 'performance space'. The prices will be varied depending on the cost of materials, time spent, and the previous value given to ‘performance space’. A web site has been made for my personal practice and 'Performance Space: 'http://www.shelper.co.uk/'
The service offered by the business will be that of being an art gallery for artists as individuals or groups.
The decision to offer this service will be made by me with an agreement being made with each artist involved. This agreement will outline the terms and conditions that requires on my part to take responsibility of the artists work for an agreed amount of time, and on the part of the artist agreeing to pay a commission for any work sold as a result of the service provided. The amount of commission will be varied between 15-40%, depending on if the product was sold by the artist his/her self or if it was sold by the gallery or a representative of the gallery. The prices will be varied depending on the cost of materials, time spent, and the previous value given to the product manufactured by the artist in question.

Market Details:
The art market varies dramatically and is unaffected by the season that it finds itself in, on a local, national, or on an international level. Artists like me and business like my own are expected to be self funded, or by either public/private organisations or institutions. In Bournemouth there are near by:
i) ‘Dorset Visual Arts’
ii) ‘Wave Arts Development Agency’
iii) ‘Southbourne Hub’
iv) ‘Artworks’
v) ‘Lighthouse Poole’

Having visited the Venice Biennale last June, seeing the Super yachts moored there and the product that the stupendously rice are encouraged to purchase for hundreds of thousands of pounds, likewise FRIEZE Art Fair in London’s Regent Park each year in October is alluring, though these and similar minded branches of the art market are very removed from the reality of most artists, who indeed make work, for nothing.
On a local level there is potentiality audience connected to the organisation and institutions mentioned which will lead to sales of product or service.

Competition:
Competition is only a positive for the business. With more similar businesses in the area it will draw more attention to each other’s product, the institutions and organisations mentioned earlier are active competition, it would be good however, if some more of the empty shop units on Holdenhurst Road could begin to operate as art galleries.

Proposed Marketing Methods:
Marketing method of choice is the internet website: http://www.gallerysoup.com/
Connected to social website Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=73271890617
Alongside invitations and press releases sent using the email account gallerysoup@gmail.com
Printed invitations will also be distributed to prospective audiences.
PR will involve advertising the Business in these places:
i) Artist Newsletter
ii) Axis Web
iii) Arts Jobs (Arts Council)
iv) Arts Index (Poole)
v) Carol Mound (Bournemouth Council)

The Premises

Property Type:
The business will begin to rent a shop unit commencing from the beginning of February based on a six month contract. The business has a small caravan that will be parked behind the shop and used for storage. The opportunity to continuing trading at the end of for a duration exceeding the six month contract will involve creating a new contract. A copy of the contract is supplied as a part of this document. A Business rates relief can be obtained from the council due to the nature of the business so that this won’t be included in the additional costs that come with renting the shop unit. Additional costs incurred by renting the shop unit are:
i) Electricity
ii) Water Rates and Sewage
iii) 1/5 contribution to insurance once a year

Specifications:
With exception of the toilet and Kitchenette all the space will be utilised as studio/exhibition space.

Manufacturing Equipment:
i) The business has a Maketa 12v cordless drill
ii) Professional Photography Studio Lights
iii) 21” Flat Screen TV
iv) Slide Projector
v) 8mm Film Projector
vi) 8mm (Super 8) film camera
vii) DVD Player
viii) Panasonic Video Camera (not HD)
ix) External 20GB Hard Drive (for MAC)
x) Blank DVDs and CDs
xi) Various office Stationery
xii) Extension leads
xiii) Speakers and bass unit (for use with PC or MP3)

Equipment Required:
i) Digital Projector
ii) Various Tools for painting the space, hanging/installing, Framing, and maintaining the shop unit

Sales Forecast
To be done

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T06:56:00.001-08:00

Photo and Film by Tomek Radej

Your Barking Up the Wrong Tree Mate!

2011-11-23T02:58:00.000-08:00

Images from http://ramblerscontemporaryartsociety.blogspot.com/

My reason for choosing to make art outside of an art context (which isn't as easy as it sounds as it is considered what an artist should be doing) was a reaction against what was taught to me and the mould expected of me to fill, perhaps fuled by an awareness of being part of a 'global society' whilst questioning the expected commercial outcomes, and calling this being 'Anti-White Cube.' This could be a case of barking up the wrong tree. Instead it could be more friutfull calling it being 'Nomadic' as opposed to 'Site Specific.' Thus not throwing out the baby with the bath water. For the past three years my art pracice has involved going on long walks, the first being done to raise money for an orphanage in Mozambique, and one done more recently whilst studying at an educational institution which involved me having to steal away and do it outside the knowledge of my tutor!

Briefly, Artist Emily Paige Short went on a cycling trip around an Icelandic island, done to raise money for charity and whilst doing so making photographic documents and writting for a blog.

What connects Emily's and my practice are long journeys done without making a claim 'in the name of art' on the land passed through, finding and sharing with the forms of creativity that already exsit.

Asking Emily some questions has confirmed this for me and for the focus (commercial) on the artist for making work instead of finding/putting the focus of attention on the objects/documents, and/or words/text:

Emily's website: http://www.emilypaigeshort.eu

Q1: Did you end up with work that could be sold as a result of your Icelandic bike ride, (was that the point)?

A1: No, going to Iceland on a bicycle for 7 weeks was not a way for me to create new work to sell. I collected photographs, audio, and video, to use on my blog and as a resource for future projects. While I was away, the world of art and the gallery was not playing a role in the journey. Though my perception as an artist was invigorated by the experience. I was also there to raise money for a small orphanage in Haiti, so in my mind I had them, surely not ideas for selling art work.

Q2: How happy are you to work outside the capacity of an 'artist' (was there an element of this in your bike ride)?

A2: I prefer to work outside such labels that society puts on people. Artists, travelers, scientists, etc . I discovered parts of myself on this journey that through art I would never have discovered.

Q3: Do you feel there is too much attention given to the text and art 'object' (document or object) and not enough commercial emphasis on making , how do you feel about that (if it exists)?

A3: As a non commercial artist, I really can't say much on that. I have always been taken advantage of in the art world, where small budgets for creating temporary large scale works were hardly ever sufficient to cover expenses. Though there is a high demand for artists like me, by non profit organizations. If anything, there is not enough commercial emphasis to art making. The world of Frieze and similar minded branches of the so called 'art world' are very removed from the reality of most artists, who indeed make work, for nothing. Art schools in the UK will soon be governed by the rich. Education as a whole would need to reform, to change this. So yes, it is important for me to drive away from such trends, in order to define myself as the person and artist, I wish to be.

It could prove useful to look at these 'blogs' and other similar outcomes, made as a result of managing to work outside an art context. What connects them to art practices in the past? What are there characteristics? and What words and phrases can be used to describe them?

Low Culture, High Culture (Mike Kelly)

2011-11-14T04:45:00.001-08:00

to be done

Test Eight, Example 2 -3

2011-11-11T06:08:00.000-08:00

'Beware He is Weird''Exhibition in The Canteen'

British Council (Grayson Pery)

2011-11-09T04:02:00.000-08:00

On Radio Four's 'Analysis' there was a programme about the role the institutions BBC World Service and The British Council have in promoting our culture around the world. Much of the discussion was around how these institutions are seen by certain governments where they might have the biggest impact, such as in Iran and Afghanistan. Stoner Saunders asked Turner Prize award winning artist Grayson Perry a good question at the end in which G.P's reply

"The Cold War has given way to a new ideological and political contest, couched as a struggle between good and evil, freedom and repression, democracy and religious extremism. And in the culture wars that have coalesced around the this new conflict, the stakes are very high."

What surprised me when listening to the program was just how useful art is on meeting the aims of our governments, with its (what is described as) 'soft power', as opposed to 'hard power' being an invasion or deployment of armed forces. The role artists have to play is made evident when Grayson Perry describes his practice:

Perry: As an artist all my work in some way or another is about sex, religion or politics in some way or another....

STONER SAUNDERS: Maybe Grayson Perry's no hold barred approach is more useful than he realises.

Perry: It could leave me pretty hollow if there was tracts of this stuff I couldn't touch. (Laughs)

STONER SAUNDERS: But there'll be other places where that in itself delivers the perfect message for the British government because what it says is in a liberal, democratic society all of those things go. So they're not looking for kind of nice, squeaky clean stuff, are they?

Perry: No, no. They're looking for look what we put up with in our country: a cross-dressing potter who's talking about the evils of advertising or something like this.

The presenter continues to look at the fact that these institutions in question are largely state funded and what difference it would make if they were public funded and what the difference this might make.

This part was the last few lines of the programme:

STONER SAUNDERS: Isn't it time we stopped asking culture to be diplomatic?

PERRY: The art world, you operate, it has a sort of system where you challenge it and it goes ooh nice rebellion, welcome in. That's how it works.

So I see almost you know it's almost quite rebellious to become a member of establishment and to say, yeah, I'm working with the government at the moment. You know I'm kind of bringing peace to the Middle East, you know. What about that for a rebellion? (laughs)

Is It New? (Nicholas Bourriaud)

2011-11-02T03:21:00.000-07:00

add Nick Mason (Pink Floyd's drummer) Quote about archetiects and gardeners

The closets examples of artists working outside an art context creating forms of creativity viewed as art, for me is found in N.B's 'Relational Aesthetics' (research in an ealier post), and then later in his rather different approach to the same artistic scene, in 'Postproduction'.
In the preface when describing the relationship between Postproduction and Relational Aesthetics Nicholas Bourriaud reiterates how he noticed what he describes as a Thematic Framework in the work of the artists he worked with as a curator. These artists made work that dealt with the inhuman sphere, by in large with a slightly different approach/point of view of what it meant to be a creator, and when seen in the other direction art work for the 'other' audience.

Postproduction describes further this thematic framework again from a different angle.
N.B states the art to be "absolutely new" against criticism saying "this is nothing new", which N.B argues against citing that examples of Pop Art can be found from as far back as the thirties, and that the difference between those works and the works that have come to define it resides in articulation.
N.B describes different 'Types' within the thematic framework. In the type USING SOCIETY AS A CATALOG OF FORMS we hear about artist Matthieu Laurette who for example creates an offshore bank (using economic forms like lines and colors in a painting). Danial Pflumm appropriates company logos to give them their own atheistic life, "Hergar and Dejamor take every job they can in order to acquire 'objects of desire' and rent their work force to BMW for an entire year." These are good examples of artists working outside the capacity of an artist. In the type INVESTING IN FASHION AND MEDIA, N.B gives the example of Vanessa Beecroft who references the form of performance art whilst operating more as a fashion photographer or John Millar who produced a series of paintings and installations based on aesthetics of television game show.

Yet all the work done can be appreciated as art because its ideas based, because it has to make sense for it to be appreciated as art, so its anchored to ideas (the renting of one year of the artists work force for acquiring objects of desire) or for Aesthetics. N.B doesn't create a type within his framework to account for an artist working in another capacity for the sake of working in that capacity, and for the forms of creativity that result from that to be appreciated as his/her art.

When speaking about Tiravanija (an artist who N.B frequently works with) N.B says this...
"His goal is not to question the limits of art: he uses forms that served to interrogate these limits in the sixties, in order to produce completely different results. Tiravanija often cites Wittgenstien's phrase "Don't look for meaning look for use."

Although there is no type within N.B's thematic framework suitable for a work made outside an art context, it perhaps it sets the tone, in that the artists aren't acting like 'rebels' that the Ideology of the White Cube relies upon. It seems that the Devil is in the detail, it comes down to the definition of art, and Ontologies play a large part on these definitions. What if an artists ontology includes the possibility of appreciating his/her work outside of an art context as his/her art (an artist whom Creates Performance Spaces rather than White Cubes) is there a framework that exsits for their work?

Test 8, Example 1

2011-10-31T08:14:00.001-07:00

Five Year Service Badge and Letter
It already exists on the walls of the canteen, there is people skydiving (for charity), drinking beer together (the highest form of art) for the bosses leaving party, there a photos of collegues who have replaced thier uniforms for variouse fancy dress, or men getting thier legs waxed, taking it in turns to ride an exercise bike. Creativity in the workplace in the name of an occasion or for charity fund raising, can produce better forms of creativity than art!

Planned TESTS 7-8

2011-10-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

Having recently moved into a caravan in a field near to Swanage, Dorset, made me think about making some art. It has been useful to plan 'tests' in the past as a way to start.

That's my caravan next to the Ferris wheel!

TEST SEVEN: Recently having moved to Swanage, Doreset, my intention is to make art about the town and its character. The progress of the project and the work will be documented on a separate blog: http://carryonswanage.blogspot.com/

TEST EIGHT: Create forms of creativity whilst working in Sainsburys.

Potential

2011-10-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

Performance Space Similarities yet Crucial Differences

2011-10-25T04:15:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between a Performance Space and Artist in Resident?

These two are similar however, firstly, with just a small change of wording it makes a MASSIVE difference. In a Performance Space the artist does not have to work in that capacity.
Secondly, it would encourage making/selling 'Live Art' (as with the words that are used) so more people can start owning, making, and selling Performance Spaces then can be seen as making a feasible option for encouraging work to be appreciated and bought/sold.
However, the fact that a Performance Space can include the potential for an artist to work outside of the capacity of an 'artist' then that could also mean outside of ideas based practices altogether! It can create more opportunities and more doors being open to the artist which have up to now been closed (if the artist wants his or her work to be appreciated as his or her art which isn't ideas based.) So an artist can be payed in a performance space to work for the purposes of advertising or raising awareness.

Take for example the Mayor of Rosendale Project. Write about this project.

Performance Space Doubts

2011-10-12T04:47:00.000-07:00

After observing that people gain knowledge (about me) when they look at my work, is 'Performance Space' about keeping control? what makes me want to intervene and change the contents of the exhibition space, take the objects and documents home with me. Is it in an attempt to keep control over the meaning of the work?

Why not just have the work of art bought without the artist there making changes to it/interpreting it/performing alongside it? After meanings of all art works change over time.

Ivan Illich (Deschooling Society)

2011-10-10T04:07:00.001-07:00

Ivan Illich describes the characteristics of the educational institutions in the Western World and presents alternatives. For me Deschooling Society (1971) presents negative characteristics of 'institutions'. What also struck me was how relevant what he his saying is to what is in the news today.
For example: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15101253
This is a recent news story about the Bolivian government wanting to build a highway through the jungle and this is what is written in Illich's book;

"In order to "improve" transportation, all countries-even the poorest- now plan highway systems designed for the passenger cars and high-speed trailers which fit the velocity-conscious minority of producers and consumers in the elite classes."

Illich then goes on to describe pretty much what was in the news about Bolivia and give an alternative that goes in a completely different to direction, to the one that governments tend to go towards.

"People have been been schooled down to size to let unmeasured experiments slip out of their hands. To them, what cannot be measured becomes secondary, threatening." - p40

School: the new world religion?

"School is both the largest and the most anonymous employer of all. Indeed, the school is the best example of a new kind of enterprise, succeeding the guild, the factory, and the corporation."
"I believe that a desirable future depends on our deliberately choosing a life of action over a life of consumption, on our engineering a life style which will enable us to be spontaneous, independent, yet relate to each other, rather than maintaining a life style which only allows us to make and unmake, produce and consume, a style of life which is mearly a way station on the road to the depletion and pollution of the environment. The future depends more upon our choice of institutions which support a life of action than on our developing new ideologies and technologies. We need a set of criteria which will permit us to recognise those institutions which support personal growth rather than aditicton, as well as the will to invest our technological resources preferentially in such institutions of growth" - p53

Performance Space Questions?

2011-09-19T02:47:00.000-07:00

Q1: What are the equivalents of a Performance Space work from 100s or 1000s of years ago?
For example a lot of the Pop Art from the 50s and 60s exhibited in the White Cube can be seen as an equivalent to icons that where exhibited in the cathedrals and churches in ages past.

Q2: What is the difference between a Performance Space and Artist in Resident? Isn't a space given to an artist for an agreed amount of time with the intention of some work being made at some point that may or may not be an object, document, or memories of an event already exist, as Artist in Resident!?

Q3: What is the difference between a Performance Space and a Studio Space? isn't a space where an artist makes work already exist, a studio space!

Q4: What are the character differences between a Performance Space compared to White Cube Space?

Q5: What is a Performance Space, in a sentence?

Q6: It sounds a lot like what was done in the fifties. What make Performance Space any different from 'Happenings'?

Anti-White Cube?

2011-09-19T02:12:00.000-07:00

To see what is meant by 'White Cube' see notes on the ideology of the White Cube, earlier on in this blog.
After reading about performative atheistic in David Davies' book 'Art as Performance' in particular, my feeling is that it attempts to replace the context given to art work to better understand it, other than that given by the Ideology of The White Cube. It has to do with that it had to make sense by having a focus of attention, other than the performance of the artist. The White Cube might argue that "we allow work that doesn't make sense also, just take a look at Tino Sehgal's work." As researched earlier in this blog Tino Sehgal's work has a different relationship to theater in that it asks the audience to suspend their disbelief, the work can only exist as memories, which is fair enough. But what about artists who don't want to make 'ideas' based work but that want to work within the parameters of other skilled professions, such as the Piccadilly Community center, (remember the Hauser and Wirth gallery had to close down during the work), and so by creating a performance space where working within the parameters of other skilled professions is even encouraged makes it anti-White Cube. Right
This example comes to mind: insert example of the Irish imergrant who teravaled around America hired to take photos as a job ages ago, whose photos now sell for big buck. However to do so the White Cube had to create a myth (a focus of attention) about the photographer being a visionary fine artist.
This is an example of although the White Cube is a really good place to encourage art work to be appreciated and bought/sold, even many different examples of experimental Live Art works, there are boundaries that can't be crossed and taboos that exist that perhaps these limits should be tested. Does Davies book 'Art as Performance' and a Performative Ontolgy that is discussed allow this?

SHIFT

2011-08-30T08:34:00.001-07:00

Reflection: After exhibiting my work (above), it was exhibited inside the gallery space as opposed to a wooden create belonging to a self storage company as was originally planned. Still the piece functioned in much the same way. As visitors to the exhibition walked into the space they were invited by my self to view and participate in creating some "fun", alongside my attempts to interpreter the work to audience, and it was then that the work was when it was appreciated much more. Ollie Adams who had exhibited his work in the same space observed the proceedings told me "Jonny, you are integral to your work."

Example 15

2011-08-26T02:04:00.000-07:00

'Who Wantz to Riot' (see also context) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029471/UK-riots-2011-Facebook-inciter-Johnny-Melfah-16-loses-right-anonymity.html

More of the Same Please

2011-08-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

What is the role of the artist, and where is this written down?
'Inside the White Cube' by Brain O'Doherty is an account of how we have come to have the gallery with its white walls and gray concrete floors and what that entails, i.e: the moments when the inevitable outcomes first realized and by whom (Duchamp), and all the roles that are filled by people with a description of their characteristics.

The weapon of revenge is selection. Rejection, according to the classical scenario, feeds the artist's masochism, sense of injustice, and rage. Enough energy is generated to allow both artists and audience to presume they are fulfilling their social roles. Each remains remarkably faithful to the other's conception of his role - the relationship's most powerful tie. Positive and negative projections volley back and forth in a social charade that wavers between tragedy and farce. One negative exchange is basic: the artist tries to sell the collector on his obtuseness and crassness - easily projected on anyone material enough to want something - and the collector encourages the artist to exhibit his irresponsibility. Once the artist is assigned the marginal role of the self-destructive child, he can be alienated from the art he produces. His radical notions are interpreted as the bad manners expected from superior tradesman. The militarized zone between artist and collector is busy with guerillas, envoys, double-agents, runners, and both major parties in a variety of disguises as they mediate between principal and money. From 'Inside the White Cube' by Brain O'Doherty

Another book that gives an example of 'what is an artist?' is 'Making Contemporary Art How Today's Artists Think and Work' by Linda Weintraub.

This is a book that says that the artist today has almost unlimited amount of options, because what there is, is nothing exempt from the field of art "so each and every culture is ripe and ready for drastic change by these free radicals called 'artists'. Some go by unnoticed, others produce temporary change, and few cause irreversible mutations in the DNA of an entire culture." This according to the introduction of the book, is because of the decline of a power called the guild, which was what used to judge the production of the people they allowed to make art, and the consumers instead of being the aristocracy, the monarchy, or the church instead was a new bourgeois class. Art for the middle class. So a market was created to deal with it and being able to make money had become apart of art.
So in conclusion art has lost the guild system, so risk sacrifice, and improbability became hand in hand with no regulations apart of art, "so that any part of human's conceptual and emotional response can be released in art."
The book is made up of six parts, one: scoping an audiance, two: soourcing an artistic "self", three: expressing an artistic attitude, four: choosing a mission, and Five: Measuring success.

Art Itself as the Subject (Danial Buren)

2011-08-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

By choosing to exhibit the storage container outside the gallery and make appointments for people to view the contents (with some kind of interpretation of whats inside) my work relates to artist researched earlier in my research that wanted to bypass the gallery 'system' or the art 'world', for political reasons, but also in response to how the avant garde had been marketed as would any other product. Artists who wanted to critique the authoritarian nature of museums and capitalism resulted to being both the symptom and diagnosis, as these artist couldn't avoid manufacturing art objects that could eventually be bought and sold, and in their attempts made more! (a central theme for art of the xxth century?). These groups include the Situationist who likened themselves to being a research laboratory, or a party in which they are the Situationist but nothing that they do is situationist, and other groups working with these anarchic affiliations such as Fluxes, Dutch Provos, the American Yippies, Punks, Mail Art Groups.

"Indeed much of the art of the late '60s and the '70s had this theme: How does the artist find another audiance, or a context in which his or her minority view will not be forced to witness its own co-option? The answers offered- site-specific, temporary, nonpurchasable, outside the museum, directed toward a nonart audiance, retreating from object to body to idea - even to invisibility." - Inside the White Cube, Brain O'Dorthey

Danial Buren who working with three other artists Mosset, Parimentiar, and Torini had arrived at the conclusion as had many other painters at the time to take painting right back to in a monochrome plain painting.

"the literature surrounding the subject was substantial, and the terms applied to it were many and various: ' silent painting', 'essential painting', 'opaque painting', 'fundamental painting'. Common to them all is the notion that by returning to the very basis of paint, the question 'What is painting?' could be clarified." From 'Conceptual Art' by Tony Godfrey

At an annual exhibition in 1967 normally given over to old-fashioned figurative and abstract gestural paintings the three of them held a demonstration where each of them painted in there signature format, Buren painting vertical stripes 8.7cm wide, Torin made marks 'with a no.50 brush pressed on a given carrier at regular given intervals of 30cm', Mossat painted a single circle on a plain backround, and Parmentier painted horizontal stripes. For the demonstration a loud speaker intoned the words "Buren, Mosset, Parmentier, and Toroni advise you to become intellegent." The next day they removed their paintings leaving on the wall a slogan "Buren, Mossat, Parmentier and Toroni do not show'. A pamphlet was circulated describing the demonstration.
Danial Buren's practice developed by him painting posters (in his signature format) and covering the town with them including 100s of metro stations, over the years however, it could be argued that his practice has declined into a signture , into a mere style of radical behavior. Still working today Buren's projects can highly decorative, and always challenge the viewer to think about art's relationship to its institutional setting.

Daniel Buren, Sandwich Men, 1968, Paris

Daniel Buren, Peinture-Sculpture, 1971 was one of Buren's first large scale in situ piece at the Solomon R Guggenhiem Museme.

Mood Board (Self Storage)

2011-08-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

Designed mood board in order to brief my self, depicting trends relating to self storage that are emerging in 2o11.

Self Storage (Performance Space)

2011-08-17T02:45:00.000-07:00

After re-evaluating my own work, my decision is that it would better reflect my research to put my work into a performance space that will act as a particular space for appreciating art.

'cave' by Gavin Turk

Just to put in writing my plan for the MA show. The plan is to take my 'Piles' that have been developed in the studio (see earlier posts) and to resolve my practice and research by placing these inside 'self storage' containers. This will be a finite statement about the fate of art and artists, similar to 'Cave' by Gavin Turk who for his MA show choose to not show any of the work he had made but instead the empty room, except for a blue plaque (typically used to identify places where famous people including artist lived and worked).

By choosing to have one of these containers inside the gallery space and at least one in the car park has to do with maintaining an 'off the wallness' which is defined by, and is the title of my research project. Most of my research has been looking at the emerging trend of performativity in aesthetics and other art practices, as well as researching working in the gap between art and life often
by borrowing concepts from theater such as Brecht's theater of the Epic, has resulted in becoming some kind of ultimate outsider! although have found context such as in David Davies' book 'Art as Performance' in particular p225 (performance-works and improvisation).

The storage containers will allow me to contain a wide ranging body of work made as a result of
researching an eclectic mix of isms, absurdism, Dadaism, surrealism, situationism.The storage containers will allow me and try out a few different ideas to do with what is inside the box, weather the box is open, is it by request/at certain times opened by the person invigilating and then closed again, or is it opened (or not) by my self and the contents interpreted to the audience at planned times/any time. These attempts to allow proper appreciation of the work begs epistemological questions of weather knowledge can be gained from art or if it is fact impeded, or if its possibly both at the same time. The storage container will be taken to the storage depot at the end of the exhibition. The storage container can be taken out once every month or two for the contents to be changed, at which point people will be invited to view it and possibly others may maintain containers, inviting them to be exhibited at the same time? This can also be done in other parts of the country.

Here is a link to the storage company not far from here, it looks like the boxes fit on a trailer, and they are rectangle which will mean it should fit easily into the middle of the room http://www.storagebournemouth.co.uk/

Installation Art in Other Words

2011-08-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

How about if my “piles” aren’t simply installation of art or quite installation art, is there a way of describing this? Reading ‘Art Today’ by Brandon Taylor (Lawrence King Publishing) in the chapter ‘In and Beyond the Museum: 1984-1998’ in the sub heading ‘Installation as Decay’, it says “Advanced European sculpture, to take an overlapping category, tended in the later 1980s toward the broken, the bathetic, and the reduced: sculpture of a certain kind seemed to enjoy wallowing in its own material condition.” This the writer describes as keeping alive culture critique in Europe based on concepts of decay, one being art povera, the second being Fluxes, and the third being “survival of the spirit of European existentialism of the 1940 and 1950s: moods of cynicism and despair, and their conversion into a quest for revolutionary seizures that might just reanimate the spirit of past conflagrations” those of 1789, 1884, 1917, and 1968.” (The previous subheading in this chapter was ‘Art Itself as the Subject’ which looked at Daniel Buren, Art and Language, and Anselm Kiefer). Later on in this subheading are these quotes:

1: In claiming to dissolve the distinction between rubbish and art, Armleder mobilized an aesthetic gambit that has become central for many artists of this tendency: an exploitation of the disused and overlooked as a springboard for philosophical and aesthetic speculation.

2: A group of post Fluxes artists in Germany in the later 1980s exemplified this posture precisely. Variously dubbed “model makers,” “scene-setters,” and “presentation artists,” they were preoccupied with a post-Constructivist assemblage aesthetic, taking everyday objects or fragments and positioning them offhandedly in real space, that is, in the untheatricalized empty space of the museum. Herbert Kiecol and Klaus Jung have taken their cues from architecture. Wolfgang Luy and Reinhard Mucha, in Dusseldorf, have manipulated materials according to the particularities of a chosen site……………..Mucha’s “staging the stage” (to use his own phrase) can be seen as an extension of the founding impulse of modern sculpture from Brancusi onward, tinged with nihilism and radical desire for impermanence.
R.Mucha

3: Valenta-who for their exhibition Spaces in 1979 rearticulated the spaces of a disused Berlin warehouse using nothing other than the building itself and the disused debris and garbage that they found there……………..The show gave expression to a manifesto statement that “the art object alone is no longer important. The object can document an attitude.” The group, which then concertized as Buro Berlin in1980 under the guidance of Kummer, Pitz, and Fritz Rahmann-joined on occasion by Tony Cragg and others-extended this Brechtian attitude to all manner of urban detritus, however marginal or unpromising…………He collected up the debris of twelve other projects and disposed the pieces frankly yet informally like the set of disused fragments they were. Restaging the material remnants of the exhibition site directly as the work its self, Buro Berlin predicted its self through the early and mid eighties on precisely not being the “neue wilder” expressionist grouping of Fetting, Middendorf, ans Salome. Anarchic and sometimes scarcely recognizable as artists, Buro Berlin evaded, and were in turn evaded by, the promotional machinery at work on their more marketable neighbors.

In the chapter ‘Marks of Identity 1985-2000’ subheading ‘Slackers (and Others)’ we are introduced to Laurie Parsons who in 1986 exhibited some broken pieces of wood form derelict buildings, neglected items of physical rubbish relating this to what Japanese mystics call wabi-sabi, find definition from Shiro or Taro for what this is.

Parsons would photograph random collections of the debris described above “as thoughts, forays, whatever,” in 1988 for an exhibition in New York exhibit her work desk not in the main gallery but in a room at the back, and again in New York in 1990 exhibited her bedroom and everything in it. The writer then credits art critic Jack Bankowsky:

“in that it is more or less the world of Richard Linklater’s 1991 film Slacker, the world of the “pre-semester doldrums of a middle American university town,” in which slackers-drifting student types grouped aimlessly around a series of cultist interests “worship at their own jerrybuilt alters and proselytize for a private religion.” For such figures, “anarchy percolates…but never exceeds a slow boil.’”

An example of “Slack” art from France is also given. After a superstar visits Nice and a blockbusting film about firemen has recently been in the cinemas Karen Kilimink creates a installation in response to these ‘Madonna and Backdraft in Nice’ 1991 is an empty stage with the look that a flurry of activity had taken place on it involving fire fighting paraphernalia. “Such installations can on one hand be read autobiographically: ‘i'm such a slob,’ says Kilimink ‘everything seems destined to end up on the floor as though I were to lazy to pick up whatever it is.” Writes Brandon Taylor.

Installation Art

2011-08-08T00:45:00.000-07:00

My two “piles” resemble work that is called an ‘installation’. ‘Installation’ varies but normally is used to describe works that the viewer physically enters, that have a ‘theatrical’, ‘immersive’, or ‘experiential’ quality. There isn’t any clear definition of what it is or isn’t, it can be used to described how an exhibition of work is hung.
The word ‘installation’ used to be used by art magazines to talk about how the work is placed in an exhibition space, and in photography the ‘installation shot’ being the photo that describes this display. The word’s meaning has become blurred over time, the difference between the ‘installation of art’ and ‘installation art.’
What these words have in common though is the relationship between the arrangement of the work and the audience’s bodies that respond to it.

Add notes from Installation book published by the Tate

Five Characters = Five "Piles"

2011-07-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

2 1

4 3

Having identified 'Five Characters' in my schizophrenic practice, which have different qualities and of course similarities, a way to resolve my practice is to take various objects related to each character and make five "piles". This will mean making some more objects and transporting objects made previously with one of the five characteristics to bolster the exhibits, and exhibit them in a large studio space in two weeks time!

Memetic Entity

2011-07-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

The word memetic has its roots in Evolutionist theories, Dawinism, and more recently Richard Dawkins. It talks about a Meme being a unit of culture that can reproduce and spread its self, from mind to mind, as it were. However this way of thinking is known to sidestep concerns of truth and belief.

In terms of characters and stories it is when a character that you create in a story realizes it has a purpose/can do skills that the majority can not, then beings to not only make a difference to the story in the fictional world within which it was created but can also then change the stories in the real one. Then the character realizes how much control it has to change other stories that involve other similar characters, eventually get better and better at its skills/purpose become famous, and live on forever. Eternity being achieved by people talking about that and relive Memetic Entity.

"This is the Memetic Entity, essentially a character that has transcended into a living idea, that thrives through our imagination and stories." http://elementscommunity.com/forum/index.php?topic=24459.0

This quote (above) comes from a forum for a website where characters are created by people on the computer, known as avatars that can then take part in computer games/stories. Below are some of the charachters on the website:

Example 14

2011-07-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

New Boots!

These boots will go well in a pile for the Prophet charachter because most of the objects that are going to be in that pile are made of rusty metal, wood and screws, and other earthy materials. These are made of concrete and are normally found in peoples gardens, as flower pots.

Example 12 and 13

2011-07-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

1: 'Pile One (Alien)' 2: 'Pile Two (Joker)'

Reflection:

A group visting the studio to view these two pieces and meet me told me that Pile Two (Joker) had a funfare feeling to it, like somekind of travaling carnival, and without me telling them the title that Pile One (Alian) looked like something to do with an alian. Being asked "What materials do you tend to use?" my reply was fluresent coulers, objects with batterys that move or light up, and objects that can be worn and hid behind like masks.

The two piles have a different feelling to them one being the left overs from a party with crisps and empty beer bottles on the floor and the other being a pile of objects from my studio (work and play?) How the two piles were constructed also made a difference, because with the objects from my studio, where they were piled there was already lines of holes in the wall that could be used to pin pictures and objects to the wall, this gave me a structure to work within like writting on lined paper, wereas the pile of party objects were more space out and speradic.

Intimacy Issue

2011-07-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

The problem with my work at the moment is that after leaving the room with individual pieces of work on the walls and floor, intimate enough about me and my life (without me being there to interpret the work)?

"understatement being a characteristic of its low profile. It tends to deal with what immediately present to the senses of the mind, and so presents it self as intimate and personal. Thus it appears narcissistic, unless this is understood as as a mode of locating the boundary where a person "ends" and something else begins. It is not in search for certainties, for it tolerates ambiguity as well. It's intermacies have a somewhat anonymous cast since they turn privacy inside out to make it a matter of public discourse" -'Inside the White Cube', Brain O'Doherty

For example when visiting the Edward Munch Museum in Norway Tracy Emin who has sited Munch's work as a mayor influence on her work said that after looking at the paintings it was artist's 'room' that Emin was able to connect with Munch more intimately, then by looking at his paintings.

After packing away the work and piling it up in the studio along with some other tools and boxes, and observing 'The Pile', my work had improved vastly!

Art Party

2011-07-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Although no photos were taken at the actual event, the picture above describes the kind of activity that took place at the 'Art Party'.
There were 10-20 people who were instructed, which of the exhibits were kinetic, and how they (the audience) could participate in the event. One other late idea that was implemented were fluorescent stars that were stuck to various parts of the bodies that visited the exhibition by myself, reinforcing 'the body' as a theme for the work.
During the exhibition a member of the audience asked me "if the work is autobiographical and about me whats the point of it if I am there present in the room?" To which my reply was "Whilst being there the objects on the walls and floor are 'props' that can be used to describe myself and my life to the audience. Upon leaving the room the 'props' turn into 'sculptures' that people can find out about me through studying.

Below are some photos of the exhibits as they looked in the room before the event:

Art Party Plan

2011-07-11T05:24:00.000-07:00

Image	Title	Description
	‘Welcome Mat Jumper’	Welcome mat attached to jumper previously worn during performance displayed on floor.
	Lead for invisible Dog'	A found object
	'Physicality and Beauty'	A2 Print with (white border)
	‘Religious Body’	Large canvas with print combined with card.
	‘Door Stop Boots’	Work boots combined with wooden door stops to be displayed on the floor.
	‘Red Carpet + Strobes’	This will be in the entrance hallway. Made using a mock red carpet and two battery powered strobe lights to create the effect of walking along a red carpet at a film premier with lots of photographers taking photos.
	‘Doughnut Glasses’	Sculpture made from found objects.
	‘Dancing Robot and other ephemera in glass display cabinet’	Various materials, found objects, and imagery from making live art displayed on glass shelves, in shelving unit with glass sliding doors (from doctors surgery).
	‘Big Word Crash’	Nonsense Banner displayed on wall
	‘Small Word Crash’	Nonsense Banner displayed on wall
	‘Broken Stool with TV’	video on monitor displayed on a stool with a leg saw off.
	‘Artist as Prophet Poster’	Various signs/posters made with the slogan ‘we are fascinated but not by you anymore’ made using colorful paper and scissors. Size = A3. To be handed out, or stuck to the wall.
	‘Goal’	Large A2 print to be displayed on the wall using silver pushpins.
	'Bird Man Costume’	A polystyrene head will be used to display this costume theatrically on the wall with the cardboard box ‘wings’ spread out and with the black knitted ‘shoal’ dangling below.
	‘Pot Head’	A polystering head with a plant pot on top with a plant inside. To be displayed on shelf.
	‘Plank in the Eye’	A polystyrene head on a shelf with a ‘head piece’ made using the inside of a hard hat, with some fishing line attached to a piece of wood.
	Golf Constable?	This is made by attaching a mechanical golf ‘toy’ that swings a miniature golf club and hits a miniature golf ball into a small hole to a large print of John Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’.
	‘Dancing Salami’	‘Dancing Salami’ is a plastic salami that was once used as a shop display stuck on to a mechanical device that makes music and moves in a dancing motion when a button on the base is pressed.
	‘Duck Hunt’	framed print combined with shooting toy
	‘Dear Hunt’	framed print combined with shooting toy
	‘Disco Police Man Helmet and Trunsion’	Five decommissioned police man helmets with disco lights attached on top. To be exhibited hanging above plastic salami trunsions.
	‘Clown Robot’	3 minute long film with sound
	‘Proposal for ESA’	3 minute long film with sound
	‘In Orbit’	3 minute long film with sound
	‘Flat Tyre’	‘Flat Tyre’ is a swimming aid typically sold on or near the beach to be displayed on the wall or floor.
	'Snow Joke'	An artificial snow machine.
	‘Say Something Stupid’	A piece of hard board with the words ‘say something stupid’ written using a marker pen, displayed on a music stand.
	‘Floating Letters’	Various ‘nonsense’ signs/posters made using paper letters on a paper. Made using colorful paper and scissors. Size = A3.
	‘Clown Triptych’	A triptych made by stretching a bathroom towel with a clown motif over three stretchers. Each measuring 14x14”. To be displayed on the wall.
	‘Man Tossing Knife in Air Stabs Self in Head’	Sculpture made form found objects.
	'Mixed Ephemera + Talking Parrot’	Various materials, found objects, and imagery from making live art displayed in supermarket batteries stand. On top is a print (bought on eBay) of a parrot which has had a electronic voice of a parrot made by taking the mechanism from a toy connected to a movement sensor hidden behind it which ‘activates’ when people walk past it.
	'Untitled'	Stills and Sound from collaboration with Tomasz, displayed on flat screen TV.

Art Party Invitation

2011-07-11T04:27:00.000-07:00

Finely have moved into studios, this calls for a party me thinks! 4-6pm Tuesday, light refreshments and hopefully some art on the walls. cheers!

TEST 6

2011-07-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

By Tomasz Radej
Reflection:
After performing the poem 'Untitled' in a pub Tomasz asked if it could be redone for a photography project that he was working on that combined still images with sound. The poem has to do with the fragility of words and spoken language, which has continually shocked me into making work in the past, and have found context in the writing of linguistic philosophy such as Ludwig Wittgenstein's. This 'mistrust' of words has extended to its self to the visual language of art it self. There is a Latin word that may well sum up these sorts of inquiries, which is Epistemological?

Example 11

2011-07-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Physicality and Beauty (photography)

The relationship between physicality and beauty is explored in my practice using photography.

Art as Performance

2011-07-06T06:48:00.001-07:00

In an earlier chapter Davies’ defined a ‘focus of appreciation’ part of his performance ontology, that “this product incorporates not only an artistic statement articulated through such a generative act, but also the manner in which that statement was articulated by drawing on shared understandings (an ‘artistic medium’) as to what is done through acting upon, or manipulating, some material (the ‘vehicular medium’).” So Davies’ wants the historical context that the work was made to be apart of the appreciation of the work but finds to often that this is exhausted by the “focus of appreciation” that he specifies in earlier chapters. Davies then goes on to elaborate on what this was and explains arguments which support his view that work would be better appreciated, not with a specific focus, but with a performance whereby a particular focus is specified, that is, preliminary support for his performance theory.

An example of ‘the bearing of provenance on Work and Focus’ is what Clarke(1960) said about the use of colour to depict light in Turner’s Snowstorm and claims that substitution of colour for tone as a means of observing enlightened space could not of been achieved by mere observation but that would of entailed years of “experiments”. Or how the camera obscura was used to produce an image in representational painting.

A question brought up later in the chapter was, are the influential properties genuine properties of the work? Which reminded me of what Brain O’Doherty said in ‘Inside the White Cube’, concerning how an artists’ epiphany can be purchased “as epiphanies can be, by suppression of content. If the white wall cannot be summarily dismissed, it can be understood.” Which made me question weather what Davies’ book (a defining feature) does, is attempt to replace the context given to work by the ideology of the white cube, with another context. Thus throwing the ideology of the white cube in the bin, and in doing so allowing the un-understandable to be understood!

Does that mean that Davies’ performance ontology is apart of my artistic intention (off the wall), and therefore is the ‘focus of appreciation’ of my work?

No, is the short answer.

The Social Animal

2011-06-23T05:16:00.001-07:00

This is a book written by David Brooks, David Cameron and Barrak Obama are both fans of his writting. There hasnt been since Fraud any mayjor material that has been picked up by culture on the subject of the sub-concious, althouth since then there has been development since then. David Brooks conveys countless new findings by telling the story of the lifes of a couple, how much of role sub-conciouse effects, how important social interactivity shape who we are, and how goverments can fail to understand this by making decisions that dont encourage this.
note; make notes on the book and put in here.

example no:10

2011-06-21T04:43:00.001-07:00

'Say Something Stupid'
This piece was made by writing using a marker pen on a piece of hardboard that is traditionally used as paneling to support work put in frames, on a music stand. Tracy Emin is a good example of a practice that is autobiographical and that explores language in a dyslexic kind of way, using words, phrases, and sayings along side making work using more visual languages.

'Mother Brother' By Tracy Emin 2010

Example 8 -9

2011-06-17T09:55:00.001-07:00

8: 'We Are Fascinated But Not By You Anymore' (Artist as Prophet Poster) 9: 'Hob' (Artist as Prophet Costume)

8.
9.
There has always been an underlining feeling of 'what next?', 'what art should an artist be making today?' a feeling felt by myself and also my peers at art school. This feeling has manifested its self in various ways. After living in the East End of London being an artist and talking to gallery owners, it turns out that the galleries in the East End also do not know. What next? Weather this has existed since the 60s/70s when the ideas that have fueled the creativity in art for the past 50 years were fully realized or if this is a relatively new phenomenon, there is without doubt a Postmodern Crisis, What next?.
Dave told me a great illustration, "In the 60s/70s when the idea of postmodernism were first realized it was like streams that gradually became rivers that lead to a massive lake that is today, and its full of S**t with sharks swimming about in it!". Perhaps in other countries, even ones thought to be liberal, like in Turkey recently when a mob attacked the galleries and artist in a certain area of Estambul, places where there might still be hostility toward artists and galleries making work that can be described as postmodern art perhaps this is not the case, because there is a obvious reaction. As a result of this underlining feeling a character has developed within my practice that takes on the role of an Artist as Prophet.

This is a quote in Mousse (an art magazine) from an interview with artist Marc Camille Chaimowisz;

MCC It's fascinating too in that there's a kind of transfer of the most traditional if not conservative form of art education. For example when I went to Camberwell Collage of Arts to do my first degree in painting, we were sent to the National Gallery and told to copy Cezannes, and in so doing hopefully to gain a better understanding of what Cezanne was about. Of course that was brainless, whereas in your case it's conscious. You're directing yourself to a thing that interests you.

MB Do you feel that that art art school copying exercise assisted you?

MCC Only in that it strengthened my sense of rebellion! I became more and more contemptuous of tradition in art education.In retrospect I don't regret having chosen to go to a conservative school because at least it gave one values to react against. That seems much more difficult now. Most students are taught that anything goes, and the values are much more complex. When I was studying, there was implicitly a consensus, and now there isn't. Bad is good, good is bad, where do you sit yourself? It's complicated. However we're not just here just to talk about art education.

The artist as a prophet can be seen in various practices. At the Serbian Pavilion at this years Bienaale was an exhibition entitled 'Light and Darkness of Symbols', the artist had made use of the swastika symbol in various ways in what is described as a works-installation that challenges the interpretation of symbols and the conditioning of these changes by historical circumstance. The artist said this in an interview;

No longer does the artist hold that biblical privileged position in time where he is the intermediate between G-d and man, rather, he must place himself on a horizontal level with all other society's protagonists. He has to act the same way as does an entrepreneur, he has to be both a politician and a manager, a craftsman, a philosopher... he needs to examine his own concept, and bring it, substantially, into question.

Slade MA/MFA Show

2011-06-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Note: put Guy Deboard quote here

Having just been to visited the Piccadilly Community center my hopes were to see more work that was not "art" at the Slade MA Show. After buying a pimms from the bar on the lawn and going inside in search, found the work of Liza Cucco which to my delight was just that. 'Reverse Curse' has a receptionist outside who politely told me that there where time slots available if I would like to book an appointment to discuss any problems that I might have or just would like a 'talk'. Inside there were comfortable chairs to park your bum before taking the seat at the desk who opposite sat a smartly dressed woman with what looked like sound recording and other paraphernalia that you might expect to see in a 'counseling room.' Below is an image from the project and a link to the website.

http://reversecurse.org/aboutus.html

After trolling through what you'd expect to see at an MA show, such as a small pile of material 'A' on one side of the room that turned into a big pile of material 'A' on the other side of the room, and other such cliches, there was more work to be found that was definitely worth noting. Jung Ju Seo had placed empty drinks bottles alongside carefully made glass containers and put them on a window seal, that inevitably as visitors passed by with there empty drinks and cups unknowingly (to most) added to a kind of Brechtian piece of theater whose performers were the detritus that one expects at an art exhibition's private view. Brilliant.

Piccadilly Community Center

2011-06-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

image from guardian Online

After seeing the for sale signs outside the building Hauser and Wirth Gallery used to be in and upon entering an unattended money transfer shop made me wonder if the information on the map was wrong. Dose the gallery no longer exists here? There was one more door with hand written instruction inviting visitors to go through, now in the corridor with a room for internet on the left and games room/refectory on the right, left me with no other choice but to go in a make a cup of tea and try to find out if in fact the gallery had been turned into a community center. It had. The community center workers polity told me that belly dancing classes were currently going on upstairs in the hall, Writing on the white board confirmed this "Wednesday 15th June", "5:00 -6:00 belly dancing classes" it was the last of a day of events.

What does it mean? Well its people with ideas not making work with/for other people with ideas only
making work by working with people with 'know how', be it belly dancing, hula hooping, making
large scale engineering projects (huge elephants that people can drive), setting up community centers,
or money converting/transferring. It felt liberating to see artists instead of working within the tired
genre of post-modernism/ideas centered practice working within parameters that other skilled
professionals work in.<

Venice Idea

2011-06-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

Two Worlds (Venice Bianalle)

2011-06-07T02:53:00.000-07:00

find Brain Eno QWuote and put here.

At the Venice Biennale some of the work that was most successful and up to date (in my opinion) were those that came from the Middle East artist with different values and minds to the Western ones, OR artists that aimed to build worlds that people could join and be apart of. Such worlds varied in size, such as this Italian artist from the Academia Pavilion;

The artist built a 2-3m wide and 4-5m tall box , decorated the outside with fresco style prints and then cut holes that allowed people to enter in where the artist had constructed a space to have parties. However there where two worlds that managed this on a much larger scale.

Frog King
Frog King had an outside area for parties with odd bits of constructed and garden furniture bought from what looks like a second hand shop, an installation that required the viewer to walk along a plank resting on the patio and a stone in the Venice Canal that rocked as you walked along it, and a large room filed with mixed media art that showed evidence of many events and collaborative work with other artists, including the opportunity to wear a pair of Frog King glasses, and take your own picture to take away with you and share.

Navinland

Navinlnd was a country the artist intended to build. In the Thai Pavilion situated in the Giaddini (park) the artist made a booth where other artists could contribute their ideas on the back of a post card which they then could post to the artist, like wise inside were paintings that looked as if they had been made in collaboration, in particular one had been made by what looked like 100s of people sending a profile picture of them selves to the artist who then painted the selected ones on with him self in the middle, and a restaurant had been set up for people to enjoy. Branding was one of the tools that the artist Navin Rawanchaikul used with Thai hospitality, silk blazers, with a title 'Paradiso Di Navinland', a National Flag, and a mission statement "a mission to establish Navinland". Marketing was another tool used with 'Navinland needs YOU' postcards, paper flags, and rubber stamps. The artist was fascinated by how many people share his name 'Navin' and as a result has made work that speaks about citizenship and nationhood.

Venice Biennale (Thought and Reflection)

2011-06-07T02:09:00.000-07:00

Thought:
We (Talking bout my generation) want our action to be recorded in work, not for art but for reputation i.e: Facebook. We are not fascinated anymore by technology, the 'art world', the art market/money, instead its about collaboration, and celebration of ideas and life.
Reflection on Venice Biennale:
The Venice Biennale this past four days confirmed this thought (above) for me. It does not surprise me that the winner of the award for best show had won the Golden Lion Award, that is because Christoph Schlingensief had made work to celebrates the work of Fluxes artists whose ideas where born in the 50 and 60s, who thought that working in groups making work to be shared with each other in an artist centered creative practice, disparaging the conventional art market driven art world, valuing simplicity over complexities, with a do-it-yourself aesthetic, and with anti-art sentimentality. The first Fluxes shows were organised at the AG Gallery in New York exactly 50 years prior to today, are we living in 60s again? Their were other reasons of course for the German Pavilion having been so successful as a piece of contemporary art but those are for another discussion.

TEST TWO

2011-05-17T06:27:00.000-07:00

'Clown/Robot' By Jonathan Shelper

Examples no: 5 - 6

2011-05-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

5: 'Various Sculptures' 6: 'It Snow Joke (Touch Two Together)'

5. 6.

Images tell a thousand words. What can be said of the art made in the last hundred years is that it answers questions like 'he/she did what!?' It seems that art is a verb, that performance has been central to the creation of contemporary art. It can tell people what you got up to on the weekend and a good reputation is worth more than silver or gold. The power of the artist is that he/she can change their reputation!
Instantaneous and eccentric my work leads me to make objects that suggest they can be worn/have been worn, or can be used in a physical action/have been used in a physical action. This physicality often leads me to make Live Art, which is appealing because its encourages situations. There will always be some kind of object making element, likewise this physicality means that the body is often a theme of my work.

The Mystic

2011-05-03T03:40:00.000-07:00

Dictionary:

mys·tic

Noun /mistik/

Mystics, plural

A person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect

online dictionary

Live Art Quotes

2011-05-03T02:04:00.001-07:00

"I'm very spontaniouse, which means quite often people see the art work that i make being made in front of them and quite often invloves the audiance in the making. That dosnt mean im a performance artist though. does it? is it live art?"- Me

"He would prefer to embrace experiance rather than analsize it." - Radio Four (Talking about Patrick Liegh Fermor)

Express My Feelings Not Illustrate Them - Jackson Pollock

Performance art. Its all about context. - David Blandy

TEST FOUR

2011-05-03T01:32:00.001-07:00

'Clown Robot' By Jonathan Shelper

Reflection: Me and my little robot that dances went to a high street during a bank holiday weekend, intending to be street performers. Dressed in a costume that resembles a clown/robot, the audience (passersby s) press the button on the little robot next to a bag (that people could throw money onto), starting the performance, by me waking up jumping on my seat, and begin dancing until the robot stopped. Many adults stopped to look and children were encouraged to put money in the hat and press the button by their parents.
The costume could be developed by wearing a black undergarment and fitting more tin foil
plates that would rattle when moved, however there was a ad hoc nature that kept me looking like a person (on the street) which made the situation more 'ephemeral', and it is this which appeals to me and perhaps why people choose to become performance artists.

Link to more Boscombe Tea Party photos: link

TEST FIVE

2011-04-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

'In Orbit' By Jonathan Shelper

Reflection: After presenting this film (above) the general feeling was that the work was good because it was a way of doing what you are suppose to i.e. jump through hoops, however there was large amount of playfulness and rebelliuosness within that, though after discussing the work for a while issues began emerging, had there been enough of a challenge? it could of been filmed in public with passersby's.

By adding more rules it would become a box (metaphorically speaking) that I put myself in, but by doing so I could find more freedom. Do I challenge myself enough?

2011-04-11T07:20:00.000-07:00

Saw this advert in a magazine. Need to book tick to Worchester Railway station to visit within a week though. It seems an unlikely venue, "Platform 2, Foregate St. Railway Station, Worchester!"

Planned TESTS 5 - 6

2011-04-11T06:16:00.000-07:00

Because of circumstance that has arisen and questions about weather work made was a result of the earlier test plans or weather some work done else where was 'latched on', here are some more plans for tests.

TEST FIVE: Using the help of an accomplice, make a film using a HD camera using my body, or make the film by being the camera man who directs my accomplice, and perhaps working with objects/props.

TEST SIX: Working alongside photographer Tomasz Radej to produce photography as contemporary art.

Spontaneity - A Dirty Word?

2011-04-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

At the event (in London) after seeing some good Live Art on a monitor that was a monologue read out load by the performer wearing a funny hat using dark humor, me and the other audience who came for a planned discussion were first lead to a room that was made to look like a underwater sea scape. Made using old blankets, wood, and various other bits found in the basement of the JVA building, what made it 'Live' were the creatures that were lurking under cardboard shelters and piles of blankets, in fact one was walking amongst us whilst another played with sticks intermittently reading out load tales of the deep from a book. They were of course performers dressed in lobster costumes.

After listening to the talk that covered the complected issues to do with the documentation of and how to sell performance art, question where invited by the panel. Asking the panel at today's discussion on Contemporary Performance Art "weather performance artists must be good at letting something spontaneous be controlled?" expecting to hear an answer like....

...Yes Live Art often is spontaneous because that's why it is 'live' and not yet a document or an object. Because its just been made.

But instead the response was one of horror and in an instant one person on the panel said "Spontaneity is a complete illusion", which was followed up by someone else on the panel stating that the debate of spontaneity or authenticity isn't going on anymore. Where as for me spontaneity seems like the best word to describe my work!

Can one be too spontaneous?

Can one end up not making any art work because of spontaneity?

Is the notion of spontaneity not a help full one?

It certainly seemed to upset the panel, but not everyone. Someone who was in the audience who was very knowledgeable about art got upset at the panels response to my question. Exclaiming something to the effect that it has been forced out of the discussion by the establishment to suit its own needs, which really %^&*(s her off.

Earlier on in the talk a curator who was on the panel suggested approaching all the work in the Tate (Modern) as if it were performance art and how to some extent this is what the work could be about. What if in situations (found or created ones) work is made by encouraging spontaneity that is not Performance or Live Art at all, but the making of an art object?

Talk

2011-04-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

Receiving an email over the weekend inviting me to a general talk with artists and curators that have already been apart of my research so far (earlier in this blog), about contemporary performance art that will accompany an exhibition at the Jerwood Visual Arts, my reply asked if it would be O.K. to attend.

Monday 4 April 6pm

To conicide with the SHOW exhibition we are holding a panel discussion that looks at the wider context of performance: documentation, objects and the collection of live works with Bedwyr Williams (Artist), Catherine Wood (Tate Curator of Performance/Contemporary Art), Laura Eldret (Artist, Curator and part of Collecting Live Art), chaired by Sally O’Reilly (Writer, Critic and Editor).

By attending this talk it will give me a chance to do some research, and also to make industry links.

Here is a link to the website: http://www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/page/3093/SHOW:+Event/182

Example Four

2011-03-28T15:39:00.001-07:00

Recent work involved me attempting to send a zimerframe into space, the end result was a video of the event and the object its self as sculpture.

'Proposal For ESA' By Jonathan Shelper (see also context)http://www.flickr.com/photos/ancientcities/4517817121/

Reflection:

"Gestures are a form of invention. They can only be done once, unless everyone agrees to forget them. The best way of forgetting something is to assume it; our assumptions drop out of sight. As an invention, however, the gesture's patent is its most distinguishing feature-far more than its formal content, if any. I suppose the formal content of a gesture lies in its aptness, economy, and grace. It dispatches the bull of history wiht a singal thrust. Yet it needs that bull, for it shifts perspectives suddenly on a body of assumtions and ideas. Its is that degree didatic, as Barbara Rose says, though the word may overplay the intent to teach. If it teaches, it is by irony and epigram, by cunning and shock. A gesture wises you up. It depends for its effect on the context of ideas it changes and joins." 'Inside the White Cube', Brain O'Doherty

TEST THREE

2011-03-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

'Sand Forms' By Jonathan Shelper (see also context)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQSoaiubuA0 ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg The word 'gesture' recently came up whilst viewing the work at the Saatchi gallery. 'Its Hard To Make A Stand' by Steve Bishop, was a horse that he had made on a stand that ressembles statues that you see in town squares or in parks, the work was completed by the artist using other materials in ways that made it look more ambiguous. One way was to drape a fur coat over its head, this ended up making it look like a dogs head! The artist notes;

"It is like a defaced memorial, like when you see a statue of a soilder on a horse and someone has put a traffic cone on its head - what does that gesture stand for?"

This is how the dictonary defines the word gesture:

n. 1. A motion of the limbs or body made to express or help express thought or to emphasize speech

2. The act of moving the limbs or body as an expression of thought or emphasis.

3. An act or a remark made as a formality or as a sign of intention or attitude: sent flowers as a gesture of sympathy.

v. ges·tured, ges·tur·ing, ges·tures

v.intr. To make gestures.

v.tr. To show, express, or direct by gestures.

Thin Line between Performance and Ritual or The Grey Area between Theatre and Ritual

2011-03-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

After some further research into performance artists, their is often a discussion about 'ritual', in some case more so then others.

Marcus Coates for example is an artist who could be said to have embraced 'ritual'. After hearing about how the residence of a tower block in .... were told that they would have to be evicted as the building was being knocked down. Marcus Coates who looks like any well respected English man, then dressed in a costume made from a skinned dear and went to the people who live in the tower block to perform a very ritualistic act. After telling the people who he was and what he was about to do, he then went into a trance and 'connected with the underworld with the spirt of the animals'. He wants to find understanding by reforming a connection (perhaps lost) with nature, although it is contemporary art, but it is not Satire.

Two words used a lot when discussing Marcus Coates' work are Shamanism and Anthropomorphism.

image from FRIEZE web site

Coates has recently done a weekend work shop that taught how to chant and use drums to get into touch with the underworld, and examples of shamanism dealing with modern day issues such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, or how to in force illegal bicycle parking.

TESTS 1 - 4

2011-03-05T12:55:00.000-08:00

Up to this point the general feeling of my work described in this blog has been one of experimentation, on different stages, making different artifice, to different kinds of audience, and without much explanation of the reasons why or more importantly why not. 'Improvisational' is a word that could explain this way of working that allows me to perform in this kind of way.

However, this is an attempt to design some tests. People tell me that it would be good if they could know what it is going to made next before hand. When? Where? How? Why? and perhaps most importantly, Why not? There could be benefits to working in this way. hh

TEST ONE: Test One will occur at the end of March, with my self performing in a film that will be filmed in a nature reserve near Swanage in Dorset. Through working with film maker Simon Poole Anderson (link to Simon's website: 'A Hybrid Vision') on various small projects and having agreed to perform in a film that he is making, will mean following directions given to me using my body, along side another actor/performer, and perhaps working with objects/props.

TEST TWO: Test Two will be about taking the clowning character 'Off The Wall Friend' to the extreme by dressing with the assistance of someone who knows how to dress in full Commedia Dell'arte theatre style clown costume. With the assistance of a photographer the plan is to make a piece called 'Cave Clown' which is about a clown who lives in a cave. This work will probably be made in early April on the Jurassic Coast, near Swanage, Dorset. kk

TEST THREE: Test Three will mean placing various objects in an art gallery and having an exhibition with an opening private view evening/event. The work will be made or has been made recently including photography, video's that include myself performing, and sculptures. My intention is to find out if these videos, photography, and objects can be presented to an audience in an art gallery as multi media art, made by working with other people. In terms of what my contribution will be, based on recent work and the research, the multimedia art will be made using body as a theme but without me physically being there (the documents). The event is called "SPAIN" it will be on Tuesday, March 22, it will take place in art studio 5 at the AUCB. The work is based on a fictional trip to Spain, here is a link to the facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=152972768095638

TEST FOUR: Test Four will explore the intervention aspect to my practice. This will mean standing on people's desk tops (after taking off my shoes) with a robot that dances when you push a button, and when people press the button dance along side it in a similar fashion.

Intervention is a method. It is a method utilized by my self in earlier experiments with works of art that where made to go undetectted in instituional buildings by being hidden or being almost identical to what someone expects to see in instituional buildings. Such as, a wall plug.. ..or, a pen tied to some string..Alongside making these works a blog was kept to research the definition of 'Intervention Art': Link to Blog

There is an event called 'The Boscombe Tea Party' that will take place in across the whole town on the first of May. I will perform this Live Art at this event in different places during the day the audience that will be going will be public who are visiting the beach to relax perhaps not expecting to see street performers. It wont be intervention in the truest sense as permission from the the organizers of the event has been obtained. I will organize someone to take photos in order to document the performance. Here is a link to the web site for the event: link

David Blandy

2011-03-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

The question of identity is an important issue that many artists explore and David Blandy who recently gave a presentation of his work definitely falls within this category.

Describe Blandy's practice here.

Ongoing has been a questioning of the different ways that artists with Live Art based practices that also encompasses artifact creation describe these objects and what are the different issues are when it comes to documentation and presentation. Having described the objects that he presented alongside his Live Art Work as being ‘ephemera’, David Blandy then expressed disbelief that people have actually bought these objects in the past (crazy people)!

Identity

2011-02-23T04:44:00.000-08:00

Another aspect of my practice is to construct characters, for example the clown character Off The Wall Friend. This is not the first time this has happened, before whilst making contemporary church art, 'The Cool Vicar' created videos that would illustrate bible verses, and invite people to an art gallery for tea with him. Identity can be explored by making art, it has to do with exploring personal history, language, how to speak, what words or phrases to use, how to move/use the body, and as a result art can be made that deals with making sense of the 'language' and the 'baggage' of culture.

Alan Brooks

2011-02-21T06:07:00.000-08:00

The work of Alan Brooks is currently on show at the Sattchi Gallery. This artist takes seminal images known to be related to famous performances by artists and iconic images of artists through out history. Take for example this one of Chris Burden who is known for having asked a friend to shoot him in the arm for an exhibition, in this case he asked someone to kick him down a staircase at the 1974 Basel Art Fair. The photo that documents this activity was taken at a time when color film could of captured the event but instead it is a grainy black and white photo, which gives it the feeling of a crime photo evidence. Alan Brooks is interested in making work that deals with the mechanics of how artists mythologies are created. Below is Alan Brooks' painted reproduction of Bruce Nauman's work titled 'Nauman', by making the paintings of often grainy black and white photos it deals with the artists in a more personal way and puts them on par with one another when in actual fact fashions change and some are at times considered hot, and at others not.

images from Sattchi Gallery Online

Which Documentation?

2011-02-17T03:14:00.000-08:00

Images courtesy of Rebecca Strain

From Tuesday evening to Saturday evening there will be a chance to make live art in an exhibition in the 'Art Works' studio's gallery in Poole. There were alternative motives for the artists making work, for instance two artists wanted to do Live Art performances that are almost identical to famous live art performances previously done by other artists, another artist wanted to purposfully make work with what is to hand (art povera). For me the reason for taking part is to think about art galleries as a stage, what makes art galleries that have white walls and grey concrete floors (or wood floors in this case) alluring as a context for presenting art work in?
During the experiment the artists taking part began finding different ways to document live art, and work was made were documents of how we document. What goes on behind the scenes when making art/live art performances?

One of the ideas was to make a security camera record the 4 day event by taking a small still image every 10 seconds:

The event is called 'Live Art', here is a link to the facebook event page created to promote and which was also used to document the event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143308675729187

Clown's Church

2011-02-08T05:58:00.000-08:00

My first port of call was to visit a small exhibition in London, which is where The Clowns International Gallery/Museum used to be, that later moved to Wookey Hole in Wells, Somerset. Having seen the many exhibits and overheard a talk on the museum during my visit it seemed to focus on a man called Joseph Grimaldi, who is described in the galleries leaflet as "the Georgian theater pantomime artiste widely accepted as the 'Father' of modern European Clowning". There is a book titled 'The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi, Laughter, Madness and the story of Britain's Greatest Comedian.'

The exhibition (open every first Friday of the month after noon) is in the back of Holy Trinity (the Clown's Church) in Dalston, East London. This reinforces the connection to the 'Sacred' which is a particular interest of mine. In the museum there were prayers written on the walls for clowns that were written on the wall that described the connection between clowns/fools and the sacred.
On the first Sunday of February is 'C.I's Grimaldi Memorial Service' where clowns fly in from across the globe to attend this remembrance service. However I was unable to stay until
Sunday to attend this. Fortunately some colleagues were able to go to the Grimaldi Service, and took photos and video of the event. Only clowns who where members of the International Clown Society could be in the church during the service, but next door the proceedings where projected in a room that also had many clowns (the priest himself was a clown).

photos & video courtesy of Yves Findling and Baran Sarigul

Clown Question.

2011-02-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

For the next phase I want to look at 'clowns', what are their roles/do they have a role in society, what do they look like, where else/what have they been like in previous times/societies? So for this I have looked at some anthropology and sociology writing. There seems to be a clown that has the right to make fun of the king (the royal bard), or to make fun of the serious, but there also seems to be kind of sacred clown. For example 'Heyoka' the sacred clown from Native Indian society that tended to do things back-to-front, or upside down, contrary to nature. He would ride his horse backward or when there is lack of food sit down and complain that he is too full, and was treated by socoety as something special even sacred!

Happy Birthday Rocco!

2011-01-27T02:52:00.001-08:00

Off The Wall Friend Likes Booze that Tastes of Fruit and Sugar

2011-01-26T00:47:00.000-08:00

Taro Morimoto's photos

After a Presentation

2011-01-20T07:06:00.000-08:00

After giving a presentation of my work today without the use of any words or writing and (accidentally) scarring some people as well, my conclusion was that this is the result of having been reading a lot about performance and participation art, which tends to mean asking the audience to participate, take part. Being a presentation in a 'seminar room' meant however that people just wanted to sit there. So in the end after squirted some silly string, making a mess with straws and ropes, and standing on chairs which were on tables throwing things that were suppose to float, my concern was that it wasn't involving people, until when people helped me to clean up and by talking about it to them selfs or to me.

I was told that there is a book written about the film 'Sex, Lies, and Video Tapes' that is interesting in terms of 'therapy' that I might find useful to read. Also Elle, who teaches communication through action using the body and the language of objects suggested I look at a Cuban poet who uses objects instead of words. find out and research

Conclusion

2011-01-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have become my research project!

Describe how Off The Wall Friend has become a character. What is he like? Sherlock Holmes? Doctor Who? a Shaman/Mystic perhaps?

Introduce the concept of 'autobiographical work' TALK ABOUT ARTIST WHO BECOME THIER ART/CHARACTERS THAT THEY HAVE CREATED (GILBERT AND GEORGE).

Make notes on the introduction essays in this book and on the different artists and themes of autobiographical work.

Guy Debord

2011-01-18T11:49:00.000-08:00

Situationalists

The situationalists and to be more specific the writings of Guy Debord are vital to my research. That is because as much as reading about the language, themes, ideas and structure of thought around 'participation' defines for me what is the essence and what connects the work that interests me and the rest of the world (from over the last 100 years), and what defines what I do. The Situationalists language is about making it into a revelation, ceasing the moment for creating individual situations, forcing the most out of life.

Debord's writing for me gets underneath the surface of the massive effect 20th century ideas and culture has had on the audience who encounter this work, how it effects them, and how it has effected the whole society that we live in. He talks about this product that is created by all of us that he calls 'the spectacle', its charachterists, likening it to the work of a revolution, and how we are all a part of it as consumers have become co-creators. For example;

NOTE: EXPLAIN IN MORE DETAIL THAT LIKE ROSE-LEE GOLDBERG'S CONCLUSION CONCERNING LIVE ART (THAT PERFORMANCE HAS BEEN THE ESSENCE OF WORK MADE FOR THE PST 100 YEARS EVEN IF IT IS NOT CLEAR BY LOOKING AT THESE WORKS IN MULTIPLE DISCIPLINES THAT THESE SIMILARITIES EXSIST PERHAPS IN THE CREATIVE PROCESSES), AND HOW FOR ME IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO USE THE WORD 'PERFORMANCE' BECAUSE 'PARTICIPATION' DOES WHAT IS THIS ESSENCE MORE JUSTICE I THINK. THEN INTRODUCE WHO ARE THE KEY WRITTERS ON THIS SUBJECT, THAT I HAVE ALREADY INTRODUCE ONE OF THEM EALIER WHEN TALKING ABOUT KAPROW, HOW THERE ARE MANY MORE INCLUDED IN THE BOOK PUBLISHED BY WHITECHAPEL GALLERY TITLED 'PARTICIPATION', THAT ONE OF THOOSE IS GUY DEBORD/SITUATIONALISTS, AND WHY FOR ME HIS WRITINGS BETTER THEN KAPROW OR ANY OTHER DEFINE WHAT I MEAN BY 'OFF THE WALL' BECAUSE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STYLE THAT IT IS WRITTEN. FINILY IN THIS INTRODUCTION INTRODUCE WHAT THE WRITINGS 'SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE' MANAGE TO DO, WHICH IS DESCRIBE THE SOCIETY THAT ARTISTS ARE WORKING IN AND SIMILAR ITS BEHAVIOUR IS TO WHAT IS GOING ON 'ON STAGE' SO TO SPEAK. USE EXAMPLE FROM 'CELEBRITY COME DINE WITH ME', WHEN THE CAST FROM CORINATION STREET HOST THE DINNER PARTIES, AND HOW THEY (ONE ACTOR IN PARTICULAR) WEARNT ACTING LIKE THEY NORMALLY DO WHEN FILMING FOR CORINATION STREET BUT THEN AGAIN WERNT BEING THEM SELFS. WHAT DEBORDS WRITTINGS MANAGE TO DO FOR ME IS DESCRIBE WHAT II IS THAT WENT ON DURING THOOSE DINNER PARTIES.

Performance Art or Theatre? Dont be Pretensious.

2011-01-16T12:51:00.000-08:00

What Next For The Body

After visiting Bristol's Arnolfini to see an art exhibition that has to do with Live Art, or to be more specific artist that use their body as a site for making art. This is a tradition, involving the body with themes such as 'endurance' and 'ritual' by such artists as Marina Abramavic to name just one.

There was in one space what appeared to be a set from a stage of a theatre production, with a sofa, two armchairs, coffee tables with lamps on them, and a dinning table with chairs. On the table were books about the body and how it has been used as a way for making art, this felt as if you wernt sure if you were being made a part of the exhibition or not, like Tino Sehgal's work.

Being to late to attend a workshop meant being able to spend a whole day with the exhibits in the rest of the museum. Little did I know that one hour tops and it would of been sufficient enough time to see it all! The work lacked the playfulness and rebellion that and instead came across as a bit proud. Teresa Margolles, who filled a room that you enter through industrial flaps with cool air provided by two air conditioning units, and whom after you have enjoyed this cooling sensation and leave the room noticing the title and description of the work finding out that the cool air was made using water that was once used to clean corpses from a morgue was an exception. It was this horrific twist that made it delightful.

Later having the opportunity to speak to another spectator who had attend the workshop on Body Art but who after two hours of a PowerPoint decided wouldn't stick around, whom after a life of working in the theater had known as friends, practitioners that are now thought of as pioneers in Live Art. When he explained that he enjoyed this and many other kinds of theater my question of whether there was a difference between theater and performance art, was quickly replied to by him saying that it would be pretentious to think that way and that he didn't.

Death of the author (Ronald Barthes)

2011-01-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

note: introduce the work, read and make notes, post a link to these notes, and present some findings.

The Art of Participation 1950 to Now

2011-01-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

This is a book which accompenyed sn exhibition at SFMOMA in 2002, the book includes plates which offer a large selection of examples of work by artists from the 50s/60s and lots of examples of artists working today. At the beginning of the book (after the introduction), are three essays. Some interesting thigs are said about participation in art, its origins, the varitey, and what one of the essayes taks about is the problem that he/she feels has arisen from all the diffent ideas and possibilitys.

Below is a link to the notes that I have written on these essays;

Participation Art Book

NOTE: I WOULD LIKE TO DESCRIBE THE FINDINGS FROM THE NOTES ON THE ESSAYS THAT MADE POINT OF HOW THERE WAS A GREEK TERM THAT HELPS DESCRIBE SOMETHING THAT WAS PRESENT IN THE WORK BEING MADE IN THE 50S AND 60S, THAT IS DESCRIBED USING THE WORD SPONTANEITY. THEN DESCRIBE HOW THERE WAS ANOTHER GREEK TERM THAT HAD TO DO WITH FASCINATION WITH TECHNOLOGY, AND THAT SOME ARTISTS FOR THE SAKE OF THE SECOND GREEK TERM HAVE MADE WORK THAT ISN'T AS GOOD AS WHAT WAS BEING MADE IN THE 50S/60S WHICH HAS TO DO WITH THE FIRST GREEK TERM. I CANT REMEMBER EXACTLY). THEN MENTION THE JOHN MAGBE QUOTE, WHAT HAS HAPPENED WITH COMPUTERS AS THE FASCINATION WITH TECHNOLOGY HAS WHINED AWAY, IS LIKE WISE TO THE ART BEING MADE TODAY, HOW WHEN THE FASCINATION OF LIVE ART,PERFORMANCE, SCULPTURE,ECT.. HAS GONE THE IMPORTANT THING SEEMS TO BE THE SAME (GOOD IDEAS THAT INCLUDE MEETING TOGETHER AND BEING/LIVING LIFE).

Relational Aesthectics

2011-01-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

Relational Aesthectics is an essay written by Nicholas Boruiaude first published in 1992. Its about a different approach to artists making work today, an alternative to understanding contemporary art other than the modernist ideas of the Dada s. Its about artists who create space/time for people to meet, and normally soup served.

To view the notes that I have made on the book click on the link below;

bourriaude

I am also in the possion of another book written by Bourriaude titled 'POSTPRODCTION' (2002). Another approach to how to think about work being made by artists today.

NOTE: FINNISH THIS BIT BY STATING IN GENERAL THAT I LIKE FINDING WORK AND DEFINITIONS OF ART OUTSIDE THE TIERED MODERNIST/AVANT GARDE WRITINGS (WHICH HAS ALSO BEEN A THEME I THINK FOR MY RESEARCH I THINK), BUT THAT THE ESSAY HAS TO BE TAKEN WITH A PINCH OF SALT.

THEN EXTRACT SOME POINTS THAT ARE GOOD, IE; LIKE WHEN HE WRITES ABOUT HOW MAKING ART USED TO BE A SOLITARY THING WERE AS NOW IT HAS BECOME MORE OF A COLLABORATIVE THING. USE THE FLASH MOBS AS AN EXAMPLE OF THIS AND ALSO USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO POINT OUT HOW CORPORATIONS SUCH AS T-MOBILE HAVE TAKEN THESE IDEAS TO SELL MORE PHONES.

Participation introduction

2011-01-14T03:34:00.000-08:00

Participation Introduction

There, has been a constant throughout the whole of my research, one that I could ignore any longer wthout addressing, and that is Participation Art.

edit this introduction

'The World as a Stage' (Tino Segal)

2011-01-12T06:33:00.000-08:00

Tino Sehgal's contribution to the exhibition 'The World as a Stage' was to have the gallery assistant at the front of the exhibition primed to stamp people's tickets and to then read out loud a news headline from a paper of his/her choose. If the visitor responds to this intervention then the assistant repeats the headline adding, 'this is new, Tino Sehgal, 2003'. 'This is new' is an example of how Sehgal consciously plays with theatricality by building a frame and creating a context within which unexpected encounters could take place." No pictures or videos are an outcome.

I had the oppertunity to view his work at the ICA 'This Success (2007) or This Failure (2007)' where inside a white walled gallery space you wait, and then a large group of small children suddenly entered the space and run around and make noise and move constantly around the adult visitors to the gallery. The production of Sehgal's work can be said to be very subtle and preplexing from the visitors point of view, so subtle in fact that art work like this (that appropriates from the theatre) can mean that you can visit a gallery and feel like you haven't seen any art work at all! perhaps that is why in Sehgal's piece at the ICA there were two titles, one for those how saw the work and one for those didn't.

No Image of Available

NOTE: I WOULD LIKE TO LOOK AT MORE ARTISTS FROM THE EXHIBITION ‘THE WORLD AS A STAGE’ make notes on those pieces and the concepts from theatre that they borrow from.

Brain Catling

2011-01-06T09:50:00.000-08:00

Luna Prayer, 1989

Having the opportunity to talk with and listen to Poet, Sculpture, and Performance Artist Brian Catling today, Brain said when speaking about 'Vanishing Act', which is a film he made with Screen Writer Toni Grisoni about a house that was haunted, that constructing narrative and working with professional actors wasn't something that he had done before or was taught or encouraged to think about doing at Art School.

Rose Lee Goldberg in her book 'Performance Live Art from the 60s' describes Brian's work;

"Catling's performances, poetry, and written vignettes are intensely sculpted works made of words and actions. His writing precisely navigates a space- 'in a square room with no windows a glass tube runs along the walls' -while his performances fill the spaces in between with his large body, silent gestures, and vivid poses. Luna Prayer was performed at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford."

I also had the opportunity to question how Brain talked about the actual objects in his practice:

Q:It seems to me that at times that your work lies somewhere between performance and sculpture. Would you use the word 'prop' to describe the objects?
A: Yes I would at times. When it doesn't need me and I can leave it alone then its a sculpture, but when it needs me to make it work I call it a prop.
Q: Have objects ever transformed from being a prop into a sculpture or the other way round?
A: Yes they do sometimes and it is nice when something that I thought of as a prop turns into a sculpture, but its not nice when its the other way round.

Later after I had a chance to present this project that I am currently working on Brian suggested I look at Norman Wisdom, and how certain people can change there frame of mind into something like an alian who is visiting this planet for the first time, when everything becomes new for them, This psychological approach to discussing live art is something that would be good to learn more about in the future of this research. Brian also told me instead of reading about Live Art I should try to get out their and experience it because it then becomes completely differnt.

FRIEZE Art Fair 2010

2011-01-06T04:57:00.000-08:00

At the FREIZE Art Fair last year (2010) two artist that were commisioned to do work during the fair both choose to make a narritives/concepts witch involved hired professional actors to as apart of the work. In this way both works were more similar to theatre than to performance art;

1: Anika Storm's 'Ten Embarressed Men' 2: Simon Fujiwara's 'Frozen City'

'The World as a Stage' Introduction

2011-01-04T14:02:00.000-08:00

This is a book that accompanies an exhibition that was organized and exhibited at the Tate Modern and then in other galleries around the world. The title sounds like what is usually thought of to do with a Shakespeare play, when used jokingly to make fun of play writes because at the time of its writing it was a bit of a cliche, and was used to make the character in 'As You Like It' sound at least a little pretentious.

Jaques: All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.

Continue to introduce the theatrical concepts of the stage and the fourth wall and the inclusion of the audience and other theatrical concepts that were especially utilized by the artist in the exhibition that this book accopmenys.

Here are my notes on the forward, Introduction, and essay that are in the book: World as a Stage Doc

Synecdoche, New York

2011-01-03T16:45:00.000-08:00

This is Charlie Kaufman's film (2008) staring Seymor Hoffman (the bad guy out of Mission Impossible Two). A theatre director geting the oppurtunity to make a piece of theatre as big as he wants comes to the conclusion that he wants everything that happens in his life to happen in the play (the brutal truth). At first this meant building rooms, then buildings and then citys, then outside that city another city, and then outside that city another city. Actors would act him and the people in his life unless one of them dies, in which case if it is the actor then he/she is replased, but if it is the actual person then the actor is told he/she no longer needs to play that part. Towards the end of the film the actor playing him begins actually being the theatre director and he (Seymor Hoffman) takes on the role of a cleaner who is told what to do via an ear piece by the now theare director. This is a quote from the film that the theatre director says when at a funeral of the actor who was playing him (who follows through with a suicide attempt that he didn't go through with); "There are nearly 13 million people in this world, can you emagine that many people? None of thoose people are an extra, they are all leads in thier own stories, they have to be given their due."

Other films that can be described as being 'very Breactian' are 'The Truman Show' and 'Being John Malchvic'.

Bertold Brecht (Epic Theatre)

2011-01-03T00:19:00.000-08:00

Bertold Breact (1898-1956) a poet, play write, and theatre director was an influencial theatre practioner in the late 20th century who also made significant contributions to dramaturgy. Working in the post war era with a touring compeny, Breact and thoose he collaborated with would make internationaly acclaimed productions. A life long Marxist from his late 20s Breact with combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', worked on developing the experiments that others had begun before him to explore the theatre as a forum of political ideas and the creation of critical athestics of dialectical materialism. The modernist Brecht with his concerns for drama-as-a-medium had led him to develop this 'epic form' of drama, this avant gardeness he shared with others in the arts at the time such as Picasso in the visual arts or James Joyce in litriture, although unlike his counterparts he didnt share the concern to destroy art as an instituion but rather hoped to work to 're-function' the theatre to new social use. He always made work collabratoly, so the creator 'Breact' is thought of as a 'collective subject', this certain distinctive style is thought of now as 'Brechtian'. This was in contrast to the creator in the bourgoise or individualist sense. 'Epic Theatre' was made using a combinaion of ideas that were unified, the style developed, and populerized. Using a kind of acting that utillises what Breact calls Gestus, the 'epic form' describes both a type of writen drama and the methological approach to the production of plays. For Epic Theatre it is essential that the audiance are always aware that they are watching a play, "it is most important that one of the main features of ordinary theatre should be excluded from [epic theatre]: the engendering illusion"-Bertolt, Brecht "Brecht on Theatre", page 122. "Epic theatre was a reaction against other popular forms of theatre, particularly the naturalistic approach pioneered by Constantin Staislavski. Like Stanislavski, Brecht disliked the shallow spectacle, manipulative plots, and heightened emotion of melodrama; but where Stanislavski attempted to engender real human behavior in acting through the techniques of Stanislavski's system and to absorb the audience completely in the fictional world of the play, Brecht saw Stanislavski's methodology as producing escapism. Brecht's own social and political focus departed also from surrealism and the Theatre of Cruelty, as developed in the writings and dramaturgy of Antonin Artaud, who sought to affect audiences viscerally, psychologically, physically, and irrationally." -From Wikipedia website; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_theatre Techniques: The technique that Breacht used was to make a play up using many idividual parts, like montage techniques of fragmentaion, of contridiction/contrast, and of interruptions. Breact used comedy to distance his viewers from dipicted events. Epic theatre required the actors to believably act so as to NOT make themself or the auidenced believe that they have become the charachter, and this was done by them regualery breaking charachter and talking to the audience as themselfs (breaking the fourth wall) and play multiple roles. Note: Make this post shorter and insert a link to a more depth notes.

What is the difference between Peformance and making a piece of Theatre? (Marina Abramovic)

2011-01-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

ADD THE FIRST BIT FROM CATHERINE WOOD'S ESSAY FOR 'THE WORLD AS A STAGE' BOOK ABOUT MODERNIST THORY THAT TO AIMS MAKE THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THEATRE AND ART.

What I would like to look at next is what is the difference between theatre and performance? The reason that I ask this question is because artists that are thought of as performance artist tend to want to make the distinction clear, such this Marina Abramovic quote in the artical 'I Have No Answer For This Insane Behavior' from the Observer Magazine (03.10.10):
"Ealier this year just before she begun her 700-hour-long performance at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Marina Abramovic was asked by an art critic to define the difference between performance art and theatre. 'to be a performance artist you have to hate theatre' she replied. 'Theatre is fake... The knife is not real, the blood is not real, and the emotions are not real. Performance is just the opposite: the knife is real, the blood is real, and the emotions are real." Performance Art and Theartre

John Bock

2011-01-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

A artist that must be mentioned in a disscussion about art that can be described as being 'off the wall' is artist John Bock. I know from previous research about his parctice that he has come to make art from a scentific backround, and his work is resolved in performance/lectures that include constructed spaces (installation art) and objects that are exhibited after the actuall event takes place. Here is a quote from the artist;

"I dont trust the words. I mix the words and try to do an irritation of the words, then I use also objects, then I combine the objects with the words, and then I hope for the audience the doors will open and they will go in a different/special space. So the words are new suddenly and they have to listen to it, and combine it with the objects. Its an irritation but when they follow, they follow me in one curve, yes, and then we slip in the curve in a different and special space. This is the goal/what I want to do" - John Bock from youtube; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wtkj7N5Wig&NR=1
There are also many other youtube videos concerning John Bock and his practice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intgp3z1GIk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRgvpqk3WFI

Absurd or absurd

2010-12-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

I have been told (by a acamedian) that there is a difference between 'the absurd' and 'the Absurd.' I don't know what the difference is.

I found this from an online dictonery;

ab·surd

[ab-surd, -zurd]jjjjjj

–adjective
1.
or obviously senseless, illogical, or untrue; contraryto all or sense; laughably foolish or an explanation.

–noun
2.
the quality or of existing in a meaningless and irrational world.

But what is the difference between the Absurd and absurd? Well I found this quote on wikipedia;

Esslin makes a distinction between the dictionary definition of absurd ("out of harmony" in the musical sense) and drama's understanding of the Absurd: "Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose.... Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless". - Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd, 3rd ed. (New York: Vintage [Knopf], 2004

Tadeusz Kantor (Theater of The Absurd)

2010-12-21T03:43:00.001-08:00

All of the writers and artists have been anglo-american so far in this blog. I could talk about the 'Happenings' that were going on all over Europe at the same time as those where the term originated from, such as the Fluxes group, Beuys, and other groups working on the continent through the 60s and early 70s, or I could talk about how the origins of this kind of art can be traced back to artists working in Zurich 30-40 years prior to when people began to talk about 'performance art'. But I would instead like to pick up on something else which was 'The Theater of The Absurd' and Poland's well-known artist Tadeusz Kantor, and to be more precise the artifacts connected to this artists practice.

dgdgHis work was shaped by what he witnessed in Krakow and the turmoil in Europe during the WWs. He is know as a reformer of theater someone who aimed to bridge the distance between stage and 'real life'. Kantor had a touring company who made well known pieces (about death and repression), with included happenings, paintings, drawings, collages, sculptural props, sculptural installations and costumes. These have been describe as 'autonomous art objects', meaning they make sense because they are about the plays/productions that they were apart of. He used certain materials like thick oil paint, old and used material like rags, decoratied books, rubbish, mannequins, and worm eaten wood. Kantor would preserve these objects and things putting them on display but they have been written about described not as 'props'. They were dealt with more as sculptural-peformative objects.

Kantor influenced the artists making work in a similar vain in Poland through out the following generations and his objects and things that have survived are exhibited in art galleries today.

This book (above) introduces Kantor and describes the concepts behind Kantor's work by introducing some of Poland's contemporary artists that have drawn inspiration from Kantor in various but seemingly similar ways.

make nots on this book and insert link to those here

Experience

2010-12-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

NOTE: I HAVENT EVEN STARTED THIS YET, I WANT TO LOOK AT DEMATERIALISATION OF THE ART OBJECT, AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF PERFORMANCE ART BEING SEEN NOW AS WORKS BY THOOSE PHOTOGRAPHER WHO TOOK THE PHOTOS AND THE DIFFICULTY THE ARTISTS HAVE IN DOCUMENTING THIER PERFORMANCE ART. THIS BOOK (ABOVE) IS ABOUT THAT, AND I ALSO SAW THE EXHIBITION THAT ACCOMPYNED THE BOOK.

Off The Wall in the Context of Media

2010-12-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

Reality Television Program

On Channel Four there is a television program called 'Come Dine With Me'. The idea is that five strangers are brought together and for each day of a week one of them has to host a dinner party for all the rest to enjoy, the contestants score that person out of ten, and the overall winner takes home a cash prize.

On 11th September 2010 the television program introduces the contestants who all live in Manchester one by one, this is done using a narrator, and when it came time to introduce Dan Cumberland who is a performance artist (and vegiterian) the narrator used these words;

"off the wall performance artist and vegitarian Dan Cumberland"

Later on in the programe when other contestants ask what an apparatus thought to be connected to his performance art work found in his home is used for, Dan Cumberland describes that "the pipe is part of my latest performance. I use it to communicate with giant balloons filled with water"

News Papers

Research

2010-12-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

I typed 'Off The Wall' into google and got these definitions;

click here to link to list of google definitions for 'off the wall'

...I like this definition from a dictionary;

Adjective

S: (adj) bizare, eccentric, freakish, freaky, flaky, flackey, gonzo, off-the-wall, outlandish, outre (conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual) "restaurants of bizarre design--one like a hat, another like a rabbit"; "famed for his eccentric spelling"; "a freakish combination of styles"; "his off-the-wall antics"; "the outlandish clothes of teenagers"; "outre and affected stage antics"

adj. Informal

Very unconventional or unusual: manic, off-the-wall creativity; off-the-wall humor.
Exhibiting bizarre behavior; crazy: their off-the-wall friends.

...what also caught my attention on the list was the television show made by Vin Bi Bona Productions. So I did some further research and found this on the Vin Bi Bona Productions web site ;

Off the Wall
Disney Channel
1998

Originally produced for the Disney Channel by Cara Di Bona and designed especially for kids, Off the Wall challenged contestants with wacky, unusual, and sometimes messy stunts. What set this game show apart from the others was a novel approach that involved "on the street contestants."

When a teenaged-contestant was presented with a challenge - such as, "How many pancakes can you stack on your head?" or "How many clothespins can you attach to yourself?" - the contestant would choose an opponent from the studio audience, or from outside the studio, a "street contestant." The video taped view of the street contestants performing crazy stunts on a public thoroughfare gave an additional dimension to the game show.

Off The Wall was hosted by the outrageous Larry Zeno.

...unfortunately I cant find any images of the show or it's so called 'wild and crazy-haired host' Larry Zino!?

Also I found that by following the this to Wikipedia (from the list) the exact game play is described: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off_the_Wall_(TV_series)

Off The Wall Promotions .com

2010-12-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

Doing some research I came across this companey 'Off The Wall Promotions'. It seems as though they are brought in by compenies for away days or for when the award presentations, and what 'Off The Wall Promotions' do is provide a service that (I think) makes it fun by it being unusual. The photo shows a Roman themed event.These photos show an Alice In Wonderland themed ceromony.
Below is a testomony from the 'Off The Wall Promotions' web site.

Alice in Wonderland Garden Party (Irwin Mitchell)
Just wanted to say a big thankyou for all your work leading upto and on the evening of the 15th May for our Alice in Wonderland Garden Party. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we have received many emails from our guests in the last few days saying that they loved the venue and how it had been transformed." - Michelle
dd

Another event involved what looks like people being split into groups, some with walkie talkies, and others armed with paint and botteled water, with the end result being a painting.

Which was similar to an ealiar event called 'The Missing Picaso' where tabels of people where asked to paint different segments of a Picaso painting to be joined together, and the best tabel won an award;

All images from http://www.offthewallevents.co.uk/

Example no:3

2010-12-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

example no:3

Filmed by Simon Paul Anderson

This film of a presentation including the works of Shiro Aikiri, Shivaji Sen, Rebecca Strain, Kaya Lee, and my self. We were asked to create something making decisions in a group of the all the aspects to bear in mind. We all had ideas to do with fashion (broadly) so we decided to created a 'guerilla' cat walk/surreal fashion show outside the student union at Bournemouth University. At around this time parliment is seeing through contrevesial top up fees for university students, although it couldn't be said we were making a comment on that in particular. My research about early performance art defiantly effected my contribution. Below is an article that was published in the university paper about the event;

Performance: Conclusion

2010-12-08T07:49:00.000-08:00

I would like to make the point that I have pharaphrased RoseLee's book to add to what I have learnt about performance art before, I havn't added the examples because I am familiar with these artists work, but have concentrated on how Performance is talked about (the language used) to better be able to talk about it myself. Why? well it seems to be something very relevent to the creative process especially within the last 100 years or so, more than before (or is this false?), but that it cant eaisly be defined. RoseLee in her book suggests performance, politics, and real life as being recurring reasons for 'perfromance Art'. Found in the different creative fields not just the visual arts which is something that RoseLee wrote in her introduction, that some kind of performed action took place toward making other well know works of art that arn't thought of as 'Performance Art' which I thought was interesting. I feel that it is something you can keep on learning more and more about the more that you look at it.

edit this after more reading.

The Wooster Group

I found in my research 'The Wooster Group', they have been making work in a garage in an industrial part of New York (an area where other artists work), and have been putting on shows there and making theatrical productions to show elsewhere. Inparticuliar I have been told about one piece that the group has done titled (Arthur Miller's The Crucible in L.S.D. (...JUST THE HIGH POINTS...), where the rehersals for performing this play were done under the influence of the drug LSD, and video taped. The best bits were then re-enacted for the audience. On thier web site I noticed the members of the company are described as artists. link: www.thewoostergroup.org

Happenings (Alan Kaprow)

2010-12-07T12:52:00.000-08:00

Alan Kaprow is quoted in the introduction of any book on the subject or 'Performance Art' of 'Participation Art' worth its salt. The reason for this I think is that as well as contributing to the art scene in New York at the time when these questions of art where being asked he also wrote extensively about it. The term 'Happening' came from these writings and was used by the media to describe this kind of art/event, it is now apart of the language used by artists today to describe work that shares similarities with Kaprow's and his contemporaries, and any student studying in a contemporary art practice today who wants to learn about who to write and talk about Postmodernism can find a n adaquit lanuage and a way of talking about what is happening in Kaprow's 'Un-Art Essays'.

By clicking on the link below you can read my notes that I made on his book;

Happenings (Karow)

Perform Book

2010-12-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

INCLUDE NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION OF THIS BOOK AND HOW IT DIFFERS FROM ROSE-LEE'S BOOK ON PERFORMANCE, AND CHANGE THE CONCLUSION OF PERFORMANCE WITH THIS ADDED INFORMATION. PERHAPS MAKE NOTES ON THE REST OF THE BOOK AND POST A LINK TO THESE NOTES?

Re-enactment

Song/speech/protest in gallery context. Acting vs gallery

Genre Collision

Singing a manifesto/dancing to the news/reading law like a poem

Re-Contextualization

Shaman in modern life/car salesman with a dog

Object as Staring Point

Interpret an object/transform an object into a prop or prop into a sculpture (or the other way)

Performance. Live Art from the 50s book

2010-11-22T03:30:00.001-08:00

What is meant by 'Performance Art'? In her book 'Performance Live Art From the 60s' RoseLee Goldberg writes in her introduction;

"I nevertheless ended up with an unexpected conclusion to my book. Not only did live art by artists represent the very spirit of its own times and reveal the ways in which artist from different disciplines interconnected, it also showed me how certain ideas in a painting or a sculpture, which as a traditional art historian I might of looked for in other paintings or sculptures, often originated in some sort of performed action. Indeed , the history of performance throughout the twentith centuary showed performance to be an experimental laboratory for some of the most original and radical art forms; it was a freewheeling, permissive activity for intellectual and formalist excursions of all kinds that could, if studied carefully, reveal layers of meaning about art and artmaking that simply were not clear befor."

Later on in her introduction RoseLee describes the difficulty in defining 'performance art', how it covers such a broad range of disaplines/media, how in different counteries differnt terms might preferably be used such as 'live art' (in Britain) or 'time based art', and how in some countries 'performance' has to do with work that has its origins in the traditions of theater, while 'performance art' refers to performance artists with bona fide art-scholl diplomas.

Also from RoseLee's introduction are these quotes;

"Peformance artists have shown us things that we won't see twice, and sometimes things we wish that we had never seen at all."

"It was a rejection of the narratives of academic art for the itellectual and emotional vibrancy of real experiance..."

Work during the 60s was influenced of course by the "political and social unrest that had begun in the early 60s in response to the explosive issues of Vietnam, Algeria, Civil Rights, the Cold War, the atom bomb, feminism, sexual emancipation. 'by the early seventies', wrote activist Todd Giltin, 'the upheaval was over."

"none of this had anything to do with the traditions of theatre, even avant-garde theater. Nor were these artists interested in the plight of the actor and the phychological coaching that brought character to the surface of written scripts, nor in destroying the fourth wall of the stage to agitate the audience into participation through empathy."

In the 70s in her introduction RoseLee describes how performance art provided a way for artists to accsess thier emotional histories and a tool for attacking social taboos, weather sexual or social.

In the 80s it was as it was for the "Futurists at the begining of the centery, when they tried to incorporate the machine aesthetic in thier work. Futurism celebrated a love of speed-"the dynamic sensation made eternal"

In the 90s has become "one of the few live art forms available to audiences in which they can activly confront artists and thier ideas. In swiftly moving world of new media, performance is an unpredictable and deeply provocative as it ever was."

and that "looking at texts, photographs, film stills, and all the other leftovers of a performance, seems to contridict the very reasons for making live art in the first place- which was, in part, to protest traditonal art's focus on object making and marketing."

Insert the notes on Rose Lee's introduction (above) into the notes of the rest of the book. Condense the above writting in a way the describes an understanding of the subject (Rose Lee's writting) here instead.

Below I make notes on the rest of RoseLee's book that can be viwed by clicking on the link below:

Performance Live Art From 50s Book

Within The Last 100 Years Or So

2010-11-22T03:09:00.000-08:00

After reading up on 'performance art' (and other kinds of art that interest me) I have come across something that I feel is relavent to this discussion which is; the 1967 essay "Art and Objecthood" by the American art historian Michael Fried is now seen as pivitol because it blamed the demise of purly abstract painting and sculpture on Minimalist art that with its stage presence "approches the condition of theater," and demands that the "work of art confront the beholder." in present-day criticism,..
from 'Performance Live Art Since the Sixties', RoseLee Goldberg.
I know from ealiar reading that this is also echoed by writting by the post-structuralist theorist such as Lyotard and Danial Bell (when writing concerning charachteristics of postmodernism ).

This is a Claes Oldenburg quote I heard on a radio four programe titled "Really Happening!!";
"The situation in New York in 59 and 60 allowed artists to get into theatre. I always thought that Theatre was always a very important form of expression, and I had looked for a long time for a way to express my self in theatre. Th epossibility of doing silent performances involving objects or people used as objects. This whole approach to doing theatre was something that I found very close to my thinking, so entered into this quite enthusiasticly and I did a number of pieces which were really the projection of my theatre fantasy. Along with everything else at the time they were called happenings, but mine are actually very individual, very personal things that I might of been preparing inside myself for many many years. They have very strong physcological overtones, and they depended a great deal on lighting, mood and magical situations. I presented alot of them in my store which is a very small congested space, we would ram the audience into this store and then develop the event all around them." - Claes Oldenburg

Introduce the relevance of Frieds essay for the discussion of live art.

example no: 1 & 2

2010-11-22T02:40:00.000-08:00

1: 'Building Stools'

2: 'Dear Hunt'

Photographed by Taro Morimoto

Both of the examples (above) were works of art that invoved the audience in working with the artist to build something or in the case of example two, to shoot something. What was the art? was it the objects that where built/used, the photos of the event, or the experience had by the people taking part?

NOTE: These works were also exhibited in an abbandoned guest house in Bournemouth which I think contributed to the 'off the wallness' of the work. People explained that the experieance had the feeling of walking into an installtion work of art like that of Mike Nielson because they wearnt sure if it was a set that they had entered into after it had been being carefully built or if in fact it did happen to be a old empty hotel (which it was). I will look at this aspect of my practice later.

what i think it is

2010-11-12T05:54:00.000-08:00

What do I think the term 'Off The Wall' means when in an art context?
Previously when making artwork I used to have something in mind when explaining it as 'Making The Usual Unusual'. This was also the title for a series of works I made previously that can be viewed on this web site; http://www.shelper.co.uk/. For example, I would take a saying, something you are used to hearing. and make something that can be described as a visual experience out of it resulting in visual puns.

There seems to be a thread running through my work which is presenting what is normal and perhaps even quite 'drull', but make it in to a practical joke.

But I realised that the work would at times depend on the viewer or thier having to be an audience, and this I felt made the work complete. Since the difference normally involved my self working somewhere inbetween the work and the audience I named it 'off the wall', this made sense because not only was I diverting the viewers gaze away from the object its self by performing, but also it is making the usual even more unusual.

introduction

2010-11-12T05:45:00.000-08:00

This blog is to document my progress as I try to propose that the term 'Off The Wall' when talked about in an art context, rather than being about something that isn't 'on the cards' or relevent to a particuliar disscussion due to its highly unusualness (wierd/freakish), can be about a kind of art work or 'attitude'.
Is it about taking something that is unusual (art) and making it highly unusual? done by it being found in unexpected places? Through an intervention? involving action that involves some kind of 'live art'? audience participation?

Live art has been researced within contemporary art, discusions such as the use of the artist as perfromer/interpreture/actor, the inclusion of the viewer in the works creation, interative art, arts relationship to theater and what theatre calls the breaking down of 'the fourth wall', the discussions about exhibiting in non-art contexts, the blurring distinction between art and life, the use of the ready made, and art as an experiance rather then an object. All these concepts will be useful to look at in order to get a better idea of what I think this phrase could mean and if it can be used in the context of an art discussion, or weather a better word or phrase exists.

Jonatahn Shelper.