Glenn Adamson: Thinking through craft, Oxford: Berg, 2007, pp 69-101.
This article gives a very long rendition of the attributes of craft and skill. I think that craft and skill can not be separated into apposing degrees of worth; For without the knowledge of craft the skill involved in production can not be judged.
A very simplified look at a traditional crafts i.e. weaving of mats in Samoa can be argued that even though a craft becomes art when embellishments are added. They don’t necessarily need to be beautified but are because the artist behind it wishes it. Something that has a very basic nessacary function made into a work of art.
Move to the contemporary art practice of Mike Parekowhai’s newest large sculptural works for the Venice Biennale. They may not have his physical touch but they still need his knowledge of material and how to craft that material for it to become successful work. “The object has to look just as good from every angel for it to be taken seriously,” this is of course when we are laying under one of the exhibitions brass grand pianos, looking up into the beautifully crafted joints and corners.
Do any modern painters make their own canvases from scratch, stretches or paints?
If I look at conceptual artist Dane Mitchell’s famous rubbish work that landed him a fifteen thousand dollar prise for the Waikato National Contemporary Art Award. To say that there was no craft involved could also be argued as the objects within the happening/ slash rubbish pile on the ground still had to be made by someone somewhere with some degree of skill. Even a pile of rubbish needs someone else’s hand to become a “work of art.”Did Dane make the installation, paper or the plastic himself?
When people say that “my kids could have done that,” absolutely that may be true but the fact of the matter is your kids didn’t, an artist did. With thanks to the many unseen hands and modes of production that where involved to make that pile of rubbish on the floor an award winning assemblage.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Theory and Practice
What does it mean to work with theoretical material as a creative practitioner?
Chris Kraus "Bad Nostalgia", "Cast Away", Video Green: Los Angeles Art and Triumph of Nothingness, New York: Semiotext (e), 2004, pp.111-114 &145-150
Chris Kraus's articles examine the Los Angeles art scene through some of the many problematic terms and scenarios to critically explore and give value to art. Both articles confront the issue of conforming to standards, terms and labels in a modern art context centred around LA in 2004.They address the power that our art schools and critical theories have in promoting a pressure on not just the artist but also the audience to conform to a standard of ideal. Theories are problematic and complex issues to address when discussing a movement within the art field; "Not to be sentimental but to be nostalgic". "To have anything permissible in the art world so long as it's pedigree, substantiated, referentialized".1
Do the numerous art schools and the constant critical analysis of art actually make a better artist, or just a better bullshitter and can too many hip terms be harmful to a VISUAL ART career?
These issues are highlighted in Kraus's first article in the exploration of the terms, sentiment vs. nostalgia. The later is seen as undesirable when explaining the attributes of already practicing Russian painter Zhenya Greshman. There is a danger of certain labels becoming more desirable during higher learning and projected onto an artists practise that may cause the artist to conform to that term, thus confining the practise from a relevant progression that may have occurred. Critical analysis of art practises although necessary and relevant in this day and age can ultimately lead to clever theoretical conversations while the artefact could remain confusing and difficult to comprehend without accompanying text. This point is again humorously reiterated in the Kraus's reading Castaway when the photographs of the Fed Ex store in Flores are described as none other then genius. "My heart beats fast when I see these photos. They are what art should be; a document of amazing journeys".2 Of course, later the art critic is made privy to the fact that these were not contemporary conceptual pictorial documentations but simply receipts of successful deliveries for his local customers.
The art field overflows with terms and ideas of what makes a successful piece of art and that seemingly the right conversation can affectively led you "to have anything permissible in the art world so long as it's pedigree, substantiated, referentialized".
If Ignorance is bliss, then education is...?
I am convinced,' wrote The Austrian satirist Karl Krauss, that happenings no longer happen; instead, the cliché's operates spontaneously.' Things have become too much for the people, the means too much for the ends, the tools to much for the producers."
3Chris Kraus "Bad Nostalgia", "Cast Away", Video Green : Los Angeles Art and Triumph of Nothingness, New York: Semiotext(e), 2004, 112 & 147
2 Ibid pg 149
3 Ernst Fisher, The Necessity of Art, Chapter 5 page 221
Chris Kraus "Bad Nostalgia", "Cast Away", Video Green: Los Angeles Art and Triumph of Nothingness, New York: Semiotext (e), 2004, pp.111-114 &145-150
Chris Kraus's articles examine the Los Angeles art scene through some of the many problematic terms and scenarios to critically explore and give value to art. Both articles confront the issue of conforming to standards, terms and labels in a modern art context centred around LA in 2004.They address the power that our art schools and critical theories have in promoting a pressure on not just the artist but also the audience to conform to a standard of ideal. Theories are problematic and complex issues to address when discussing a movement within the art field; "Not to be sentimental but to be nostalgic". "To have anything permissible in the art world so long as it's pedigree, substantiated, referentialized".1
Do the numerous art schools and the constant critical analysis of art actually make a better artist, or just a better bullshitter and can too many hip terms be harmful to a VISUAL ART career?
These issues are highlighted in Kraus's first article in the exploration of the terms, sentiment vs. nostalgia. The later is seen as undesirable when explaining the attributes of already practicing Russian painter Zhenya Greshman. There is a danger of certain labels becoming more desirable during higher learning and projected onto an artists practise that may cause the artist to conform to that term, thus confining the practise from a relevant progression that may have occurred. Critical analysis of art practises although necessary and relevant in this day and age can ultimately lead to clever theoretical conversations while the artefact could remain confusing and difficult to comprehend without accompanying text. This point is again humorously reiterated in the Kraus's reading Castaway when the photographs of the Fed Ex store in Flores are described as none other then genius. "My heart beats fast when I see these photos. They are what art should be; a document of amazing journeys".2 Of course, later the art critic is made privy to the fact that these were not contemporary conceptual pictorial documentations but simply receipts of successful deliveries for his local customers.
The art field overflows with terms and ideas of what makes a successful piece of art and that seemingly the right conversation can affectively led you "to have anything permissible in the art world so long as it's pedigree, substantiated, referentialized".
If Ignorance is bliss, then education is...?
I am convinced,' wrote The Austrian satirist Karl Krauss, that happenings no longer happen; instead, the cliché's operates spontaneously.' Things have become too much for the people, the means too much for the ends, the tools to much for the producers."
3Chris Kraus "Bad Nostalgia", "Cast Away", Video Green : Los Angeles Art and Triumph of Nothingness, New York: Semiotext(e), 2004, 112 & 147
2 Ibid pg 149
3 Ernst Fisher, The Necessity of Art, Chapter 5 page 221
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)