The first text is pretty refreshing, it's written from an almost "outsider" perspective, "non academic" in tone and word usage, but still conveys all the points she wants to put across in an eloquent pace. "Write for an intelligent layperson" is her advice. I am sure Ken Neill would be shitting in his hat if he heard this, but we get into the realms of "what's it all for, this MFA malarkey?"...Are we training to be pontificating prim donnas, conceptual clap-trappers or people who make art, in a masterful way, which engages on many levels? Academic to lay (Surely that is a mastery of art, in this day and age? "You can't please all of the people all the time"...but who said trying was wrong? Again, all these arguments and discussions come back to one thing...audience. Who is my audience? Do I care about my audience? Why is an audience important? I should perhaps deal with these questions for my 1500 word essay? So many things to talk about, so many ideas...it's always the same problem...not enough ours in the day!
The one thing I liked about Judith's writing is it reminded me slightly of my own, or what my writing COULD be, if I tried harder. (Practice makes perfect, as she'd said). The more I write, the more I feel confident about it...I still lack form in my essay, this blog is fine, it's a blast of thought, the structure isn't that important...Judith's writing is peppered with parenthesis, single quotes and interjections of further thought (like I often do...see!). It's confirmation that writing as a conversation, as a diary entry is engaging, it's more intimate, you feel like the writing is speaking to you, or at least you can hear the writers voice through the style.
This seminar is about using written language to further your presentation of ideas, of art. It can be conversational, it can be academic, it can be anything you want it to be, so long as it communicates to people your intentions, your understanding, your point of view. Information is essential, but the communication of the information is also essential, if people are to understand, and ultimately progress in our existence on this planet.
Guest at Gray's was on today, but Susie and I had promised to help Mary on the start of her white space work...a performance of marking, territory, spring and ritual. I film the work, and Susie is photographing it. As performance art goes it's of the norm...that is it's not normal. People snigger and look on, bemused to Mary dressed in her "costume" and spray's with water bottles (or is it urine?...) objects and points around the interior of Gray's. We head down the stairs, along the printmaking corridor, down to sculpture, out the doors into the quad (it's lunchtime, many an "artist" having their dinner), back into the building where the refectory is, along past the shop, spray a girl round the corner, on past the giggling janitors, out the front entrance, off to the right (Clockwise, very important that), round the side, spraying air, railings, bins, trucks, corners anything that Mary sees fit to "claim". We head along the back of the building, up the left side, past some metal storage containers, almost industrial compared to the place not 5 feet round the corner...we're heading back along the front of Gray's now, following the yellow line some helpful car park company has put there for our safety, must stay behind this border, we'll be run over otherwise...into the front doors again, up the stairs and back into the room. Mary is shattered, no wonder, I think it was very brave to become anonymous is such a grand fashion!The people Mary encountered on the way were incredulous, interested, stupefied, entertained, giggling, quizzical and down right too cool to look. The art school is full of artists...or is it? It's an interesting place to perform work. Surely everyone in the place would react with an artistic head on? I am not talking of liking the work (what is there to "like" of a woman in yellow cape, face covered in grey tights, spraying water on things?) I am talking of spending time (a second? 5 mins?) THINKING about why someone should be doing this. Why someone wants to place themselves in a realm of ridiculousness, mockery and rubbernecking? Surely, the question everyone should be asking is "what's this all about?" not "check-out the daft twat in the cape". A wolf whistle is heard in the Quad...This (to me) is a mark of someone’s embarrassment at his own ignorance. "What should I do...err...I know, twit twoooooo..(Yeah, that'll do it)." Susie thinks the opposite. "It's good that someone reacted to the work"...sure, he'd noticed...but in an art context, I'd expect more from people, but, (and here's my ageist hat), these are only people in their early twenties, what experience have they to draw on? We'd met a 4th year painter, who didn't even know that a painter had won the turner prize...and I thought I was lacking in the "contextual analysis" department!
Mary's installation in the whitespace is loaded with meaning...again, we've told her to think about editing, but she insists that it is edited. Iain said "You need more room" (and I agreed), the work is wonderful, but there are so many elements, that I think it is a "show" not just one work in a whitespace. It's the hard choice of experimentation, you have to try to know (create to critique), and she has, but has she learned that too much is too much? (or is it?...it's her art, it's who she is.)
The show comprises of a lead roll leading out of the space. An electric fence round the walls of the Whitespace a visible barrier (or protection, depending on your perspective). Lime sprinkled on the floor with bottles of Mary's urine in jars, with "wings" of willow, almost as if they were a flock of birds on migration. A small Ash "finger" (burnt, from a previous work) in which She draws on the wall another "barrier". We also have the hum of a fridge, recorded when the urine was stored in the fridge for the duration of the preparation. She also starts placing recycled paper printouts of the yellow painted lines from outside Gray's, with sticks of willow under them (outside the room, and into the corridor)...plenty to see, plenty to talk about...or too much? (Again!)The concepts behind the work, as I have said are protection, place, territory, past and present, body, self-portrait, history, journey…the list is endless. We're presented with facts about urine, lead, willow etc, we even chip in, Jonathan with his cheese covered in pee, as in the first world war, they stopped making the alcohol they used to roll the cheese in...all good stuff, but I feel it's almost detracting from the nub of the work. The strongest concept for me is the idea of marking territory. Urine is such a powerful marker, reactive agent for many things, and in this day and age of sterility (with bleach, not urine), the reaction to several benign jars of Mary's piddle causes quite a stir. (But we are in a building that houses several juvenile "artists" who can't cope with things that "are different / challenging" (as we've already seen today).
Mary's given context is Art Povera. Her use of everyday, basic objects in this context, sits wonderfully well with the ideals of Arte Povera, creating art from everyday objects, simple and obvious (?), but when mixed with concept and context, these objects take on new meanings, they can convey powerfully new meanings because of their newly acquired status of importance, because of their presence within a whitespace. "This must be art" (this must be looked at). Simplicity is often powerful. I applaud that concept.
listening to : helmet - meantime : !!! - !!!ep : alec emprire - tribute to Moog
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