down by the water front

In With The In Crowd

In With The In Crowd (plus a wider thought on #class)

 

 

Join The Circle

 

 

On hearing of Fat Boy Slim aka Pizzaman; now very much Mr Norman Cook’s collaboration with David Byrne, I thought of previous days gone by when the then Housmartin’s tune Caravan of Love, hit the radar for himself and Paul Heaton (...can’t remember the names of other two).

 

I remember the tune was very much an anthem to a renewed post hippy ideology to “Join the Caravan of Love”, with the encouraging sing–along-lyrics on the lines of everywoman, every man, every child join in -come on.

 

 

Long time gone! but some sentiments will always be around – it is human. Apparently Paul Heaton, who I believe gave input to the lyrics was moved to this by his Marxist, Christian or spiritual beliefs at the time.

Well I’m not dwelling on religion here, nor indeed spirituality, but the sentiment of lets all have a group hug, I’m guessing will always be there.

 

 

One thing I had noticed on thinking a little more on art and the artist’s dilemma, which was raised at the #class this month. With the social, physical, geographical and gender demo-graphs. I think most definitely has an impact on access, and the ability to join established networks of potentially remunerated art work ie; the art market.  This must, at some point cause internalised tensions, outward bickering or envy, along with acceptance issues when you are recognised and/or being paid for your labour.

An article on motherhood recently showed the emphasis on the strung out bickering of who’s doing it right, with all the subsequent jealousies and guilt. In this I saw a paradigm for the loner artist, art groups and art schools. It said that, essentially, mothers although having a choice to be one or not, want recognition for what they do – that they exist – whether working mothers or not. A labour of love if you like, with recognition rather than on going criticism for taking one or the other option (whether from other mothers or the state or whatever).

 

I’ll just make the distinction on criticism here; as being very distant from constructive criticism, which meant as a mover of ideas and can be adopted, or not; an observation. Rather than an aberration of an opinion or (possibly unaddressed) feeling.

 

So, this caravan thing - bare with the analogy for a moment; someone’s at the front yes? meaning someone’s leading  - the people at the back need to be heard so if a change of direction is needed a message has to be sent (ok, this analogy doesn’t include twitter or i-phones yet!) so a series of messages need to be sent to the front. And as in the very old First World War joke on a general at the front line hearing the call to advance,  sent a message back through his troops to ‘send reinforcements – were going to advance’ back at base they gleefully began preparations for a party on hearing ‘send three and four pence – were going to a dance’. Ok so it’s the Chinese whispers or telephone game thing. But groups, in order to communicate and not alienate (as far as possible) need to be just that, a group not totally front lead or trajectory strained.

 

Various philosophies for enabling specific artistic groups have used differing forms of the group aesthetic. The Bauhaus had an idea for an architectural future, they included all aspects of art in order to create a Whole – albeit in the main, aesthetically led by Van der Rohe and Gropius .

The idea was to collectively bring together a new school of thought, and as with a lot of things at that time had grown out a new age sort of thinking that prompted other schools of thought that required subservience to political ideologies about what exactly that direction of art and architecture, and well, everything really, should be. Not a good time to freely embrace or be embraced.

 

I have baffled this one for almost as long as I can remember, and one of the only things that comes close to a group led ethos I can think of is the Steiner Waldorf approach to education (aside, again from the penchant towards spirituality and possible gobbledygook depending on your views) the essence I think lies in the fact they allow freedom within individual schools, for the basic curriculum to be interpreted by individual teachers. Paced, within the overall philosophical framework of a child’s growth pattern and sensory engagement with their surroundings.

Literally run by the college of each schools teachers, and, endless inclusive parental meetings and cake baking’s (for sharing not competitions)the idea being I believe to involve the parents as much as possible with the general day to day running, upkeep and community knowledge. The college of teachers is, I think, as democratic as possible; the finance is also addressed by a board of trustees.

Someone mentioned art apprenticeships in one of the discussions during #class, and I was also reading today the article delivered by Andrea Frazer in a talk for the Harvard Crimson paper and her interpretation of art institutions citing its relevance for actually being there rather than something to run away from or be abhorred. I sort of agree that institutions are neither by themselves wrong nor indeed the art that is made in them, and having relevance because of that. But I keep coming back to a democratic approach.

Many Universities although have a surface organisation structure that looks democratic, a lot have non academic council members, any staff have to be elected and more often than not the head or chairman and vice chairman are invariably an outside dignitary or prestigious alumni appointed by the council.

 

Mary Warnock also mentioned her insider experience of former years as a female lecturer compaired to today’s style; “Life in universities, at any rate, is vastly less enjoyable now than it was then. It is regimented, ill-paid, constantly assessed and it carries with it an obligation to produce a string of publications, often a joyless business, but necessary if your department is to retain its reputation for productivity. And no one can assume that she will not be sacked or her department closed around her”.

 

The method of running these places has so much of the traditional school top down structure in grained, including the recent shift from hierarchical-old-school-in-crowd-snobbery to new-school-in–crowd-image-mongering. The subsequent artistic statements and movements are part of this, which is where I agree that the resistance of artists involved in doing their work in these environments do struggle with that sort of magnetic repulsion as a subsequent part of their art.

 

Whether in established institutions or not I think apprentiships and group boards can also go some way to get over this, by including one of the main points as in Steiner philosophy; being, they have a sense of inclusive community and work.

Now the hippy ethic can veer in, and the group hug can also turn into that other hippy trait of setting yourself apart from society along with hierarchical inward bickering (you only have to think of that doomed hippy ethic film, The Beach).

 

Tilda at her most paranoid in The Beach

But I think group hugs, hippy chic’s and spiritual marxists-caravans put aside there is something to be said for the Steiner basic approach to getting things done. Or an adaptation of that, within art groups and schools, substitute the parents for adult/adolescent artist apprentices or students and engage on that level.

 

 

Oh flibbertigibbet – now the detail!......

 

More detail.....and wider-ey type things..... plus #class....in Sundays post

NB NB! meant to mention got a blog name check in the Huffington Post! ;

Ok this is a shameless big up to self! or maybe not - cos this article is a pretty accurate look (from where I am) at the #class month from someone who was there in person - she lists all the bloggers (me included!) - and no doubt more to be added - who helped contribute to the events of an extra-ordinary time.... http://huff.to/dyWd13

 

Sheep and Wolves plus #class +

Sheep and Wolves

I was looking at the Gaping Void's shiny new site and noticed his drawing of the Wolf, with the text rendering the idea; think carefully before you decide to be a sheep or a wolf – you can never be lonely as a sheep but you can (stick your head above the parapet) and be a very lonely wolf.

 

And as a reflection of this hashtag month was prompted, by it has to be said those real stalwarts of the event, Jen and Bill, this particular cartoon came to mind.

I did email Mr Void (MacCloud) to ask if ok to use the image, but hopefully the direct image link will suffice.

All through the last months to-ings and fro-ings I had noticed the lack of lonely stances. Yes, people agreed to disagree but I believed this was a good thing because it represented, for me, a more rounded debate that was neither sheep led nor had lonely wolves on the peripheries. If anything the debate itself was sticking its head above the parapet inviting disparate sections of the art market and art world to engage.


At first glance as the project’s early discussions streamed from the blog I picked up on the energy that was coming over (and remember thinking woah! better get up to speed!). So with eyelids sometimes drooping (the UK/US clock thing) I determinedly boarded the train that was to become hashtag class.


This evolved into a rich, sometimes strident, sometimes resolute, but more often than not insightful rapport into the investment of the future of art. It was definitely more than the sum of its parts. And with those kinds of maths, exponential may well be a word to describe the (inevitable) growth of what seems to be a fresh approach to thinking and doing the business of art.

I’m up for it.

First off for me; thinking of ways locally and through local art groups, schools and social media to bring people to the table with this (and ongoing?) #class project(s) as a central reference point. To try and expel, or at least discuss the mind set of us and them.


But I also had a reflection of my own from an experience a few years ago when an ongoing discussion group was set up at the Design and Textile Museum (London) to address organic and fair trade cotton products and the fashion industry as a whole. Though not the same as the hashtag class maybe has some sort of relevance.


Apart from the bigwig designers and groups for and against (action for this, and action for that), one of the groups that became most involved were the fashion education people (and surprisingly, Central St Martin’s and London College of Art who, I thought at the time wouldn’t want to rock their high ranking safe-status by projecting ethically sound students onto a reluctant industry).


But they found that area ripe for their students who, on leaving college would find, with the best will in the world, the practicalities of setting up with this kind of ethos in mind almost impossible as the infrastructure; lack of factories producing, and guarantees of the process from beginning to end being totally organic and fair trade was just not there.


The designers who got involved in that project were Katherine Hamnett (who had sold off her existing business, bought and set up a farm and factory in India to guarantee the process from beginning to end) and Roland Mouret, who hadn’t : ) and all credit to him for engaging on that basis alone.


But more than anything it was so good how the fashion colleges really took to the debate.

 

Here’s an extract from the ecologist magazine in 2008

Schools
The future of fashion lies in the hands of the next generation of industry players: fashion and textiles students. Increasingly, undergrad and postgrad courses across the board, from Textiles Design to Retail Buying to Fashion Marketing, are tackling ethical and environmental issues, and more students are incorporating these into their work.

Fashioning an Ethical Industry (FEI), a Labour Behind the Label project, has compiled a database of eco/ethical elements in fashion courses in the UK: visit http://fashioninganethicalindustry.org/ethicalcourses
Courses with ethics and sustainability at their core:

• MA Design for Textile Futures , Central Saint Martins
• BA (Textiles) Design & Technology Management, University of Leeds
• MA Ethical Fashion, University College for the Creative Arts (Epsom)
• The Textile Environment Design (TED) project, Chelsea College of
Art and Design. A collective of eco-principled designers/educators.
• New: MA Fashion and Environment, London College of Fashion
(will be proposed for validation in 2008)
• London College of Fashion is founding the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF), scheduled to launch in April 2008, to promote sustainability across the entire fashion sector supply chain.



A non for profit organisation originally focused in London, this debate has been taken around the UK with European Union backing.

Its fashion; no it’s not the same as art, and it has as a fairly substantially backed but fledgling not for profit organisation had to well and truly stick its head above the parapet in the face of a very defensive fashion industry – equally defensive with the recession.



But the idea, that an idea or change in mind set can be agreed and reached through debates, shows I think, that the old guard evangelical force feeding of ideas and ideologies doesn’t necessarily have to be.



Art needs to make friends;



Show an idea to work while including people (no mean feat!), debate it and the rest will follow.






Wednesday's post.....haste......

 

Wide Open Space (plus more on Hashtag)

Wide Open Space

 

 

Plus Briefly Back to Hashtag Class: Market U

 

 

I will touch on this part of the hashtag event diary as it bears a lot of resemblance to things that were going on during the project and now.

 

 

 

Wide Open Space part 1

 

Market U

 

I started listening to this via an audio recording I made, which I then realised was art-theatre. It came over subsequently as though I was listening to a Radio 4 spoof play. Which I guess is how it would have come across live in the gallery.

 

The idea was that the institution of ‘U’ aka (I think) any art university of reasonably renowned merit with all the stereo type baggage that comes with that kind of power structure: including the patronage of the famous, the rich, the inbred hangers-on and the cogs in the machine that keep it running for the benefit of itself and the good of it’s product: education.

 

Market U sounded like a really satirical look at this and how, even the art produced is manipulated so it can be perceived as it should; for the successful reputation of the institution. All this completed with a very politically correct Student Loan Forgiveness Goddess encouraging those with the biggest debt to play a game of lottery/roulette.

 

Sounds familiar anyone? I left my BA with just such feelings, like I had to get away from the institution in order to breathe. I did learn to weld though, and glass blow, and certainly made very good friends including staff, some of whom clearly saw the system at the time was not ideal, and if I look at uni from a devils advocate stance I did learn about it from that point of view, so my apprenticeship was not in vain. Bitter, no but I am glad I did this at a time in my life when I could fund myself through the circus.

 

 

 

Wide Open Space part 2

 

Which brings me to a couple of things that were also happening while the hashtag project was taking place. William Powhida was an unfamiliar name to me until about 6 weeks ago, a week into getting involved I noticed he had done what I thought was a fairly funny and also satirical drawing of another established power structure, with The New Museum Committed Suicide With Banality featuring prominent figures of the New York art scene. I looked further and found he had done another referencing the Art Basle Fair on Miami beach as a hooverville: showing the flashy established art fair scenario in the style of the doomed shanty town of hooverville originally depicted very satirically during the 30’s depression (only in this one Powhida showed caricatures of real art world ‘dignitaries’ carrying on as though nothing had happened ).

 

 

I recommend you go to William's blog to get a better idea of what he intended

 

Now being a geographical outsider if you like I was, and still am fairly naive about the in and outs, the who’s who and the general politics of it all, but one thing I can see is as power structures go, they can begin to be insular and not open to levelled debate. Some of the empowered tend to get very defensive of their turf. You see it (unfortunately) in Unions, Government bodies, Public service bodies and no doubt the free and speculative Art Market is no exception.

 

As the hashtag events took shape so also did the Powhida drawing furore, to which it (the hooverville drawing) very timely produced another equally self evident affront by those depicted, during the final week of the project.

I believe the people who got riled at this saw it as either a personal attack. Or as an attack on their personal resuscitating efforts of an art machine that had hitherto high returns on the ‘normal’ art sales of previous years. One journalist or contributor to an art magazine took real offence and seemingly offered a violent response through a facebook page. One only hopes he gets his sense of humour back or he was ‘acting’ out a response.

 

Isn’t that just what we need though? It is not about us and them, its dammed healthy to have debate and not to take yourself so seriously (as in the really angry journo’s case). It’s a drawing! and whether it’s the art market or not the sensitivity to something like this smacks of power freaks, at best people with their head in the sand. We can satirise people yes? and no its not comfortable to be on the receiving end, but like comedy we’ve been here before, the drawings I believe are about an established business or market not personal vindication, even if personalities are involved. Bit like the Royal Family and even they have had to let go of the watertight grip on their public persona.

While he (Powhida) is very subtly making art a point, is at the same time drawing out the real fat controllers from their lairs, they really only have themselves to recognise and answer to.

 

Here's a Piece sent out in December when the drawing first emerged a comprehensive article of the furore featured  in the New York Times.

 

William Powhida’s blog also gives an up to date reference from the artists point of view

 

 

 

Which in turn brings me to.....

 

Wide Open Space part 3

 

 

I’ve been humming the Mansun’s 90’s tune, while wandering round Nottingham thinking about the call to arms for help to get exhibition space bought collectively by among others Jen Dalton,  William and Man Bartlett called Escape from New York. They are planning on buying space in a building that is over the river out of the city so they can travel relatively easily (I guess - considering how big NY is) and I assume not alienate themselves by still being in the proximity rather than moving right outside of town: they  are looking at a building in spacious New Jersey. I was trying to get my head around a building that has space for rent in (rich?) New Jersey that a group of artists can afford?. I am though totally with them on that. The fact that with so many artists involved they can exhibit essentially from their own framework and agenda. With the added ongoing potential of the space being used for art, seems a sound way to go.

 

 

Exhibition and studio space is so much part of the problem (and this looks like a good way to solve): the fact that city studio space is pitched to fail as land and property is premium and artists are not usually able to take out a second rent bill as they have enough dealing with home rent.

I mentioned before about the very fetching  5^th floor no-lift-space, I and other artists shared and rented (along with leaky roof and a family of pigeons) 12 years ago. This was bang smack in the middle of the club/music/fashion area of Hockley before it was redeveloped, forcing us to ‘disband’, relocate and basically find somewhere out of town. The beauty of the Hockley space was we were able to drag potential business from a few streets away into the space. We all lived in various places in an around Nottingham then, so we never found that central space again.

 

 

Even now I find things like the artist’s studio space that was allocated as the Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery was built, are now occupied by well established and (mainly) out of town artists.

 

So I’m thinking and musing about this, and how these sorts of approach can be used in different ways.

 

 

More coming up in Sundays post..... in the pipeline

 

 

 

 

U Stream I Stream The (not so?) Final Hashtag Rant

U Stream, I Stream

 

 

The Not So Final Hashtag Night (please!)

That was a very special month and it wouldn’t have happened without Jen Dalton and William Pohwida’s foresight and certainly not least for Ed Winkleman’s. There was a point midway when I saw some on-line-joke to Ed ‘how to run a successful New York gallery into the ground – give it to Jen and William for a month!’.

Well, the project certainly broke many moulds, and now as all has been tidied away and the walls are bare of chalkboards ready to be graced by art after the constant etching of views and sentiments during the previous month, it can’t have done the Winkleman gallery any harm. In fact while the whole project was a virtual freebie from Ed, and his business was effectively on hold the fact that the whole premise of the events were essentially only about art and not product was a breath of fresh air in these days of discussions and media articles based around so and so’s new book launch or film or whatever.

 

 

I explained to a friend that I wouldn’t be able to go to a local award do, and my nights from Wednesday to Sunday suddenly became proper stay at home, because there were so many interesting events keeping me pinned to the computer (note to me; 3G/wireless phone on wish list) with sometimes not just a cup of tea to hand but matchsticks to keep my eyes open (Oh to have been in New York time) well New York actually, but I’m not complaining because a 1 in the morning finish isn’t that bad.

 

But sometimes with 3x2 hour stints in one day I was glad I had some recorded because I just wouldn’t have been able to have taken it all in.

 

 

I guess Jen & co. are really up to speed on that one because they seemed to breeze through very energetically. In fact that is what I felt right through – a vibrant energy – so much so when the final stream was switched off, I felt a sharp umbilical kind of wrench, a definite ’now what’ feeling which was thankfully quickly followed by lots of ideas and what-I-was-going-to-do-next.

The final Rant night was exactly that no slushy goodbyes or luvvie tear jerking moments - just full on rant (I now think I understand the term angry New Yorker) and this was a bunch of artists here! not that there was animosity but it was certainly animated, full on and humorous.

 

So, I will return to many of the discussions soon, but for now I will leave you with a cross section of the vibe of the last four weeks in one-liners:

 

On Labor Class (a talk about workers who help fabricate pieces of sculptural art in a foundry):

 

“Some workers didn’t think about what they were making as art. It was just stuff for rich people”

“That’s very sad – The fabricators were never told when the openings were, for the pieces they made”

 

 

On why The System Doesn’t Work:

 

“Problem: even top artists struggle to make money. In other industries, this is not common”

“Artists do power & maybe it can be leveraged in ways other than increasing their sale prices”

“We in the art world are somewhat responsible for inaccessibility of the art world”

“Problem: all the money is concentrated at the top. Pyramid has a very large base”

“There is a lot of bitching going on. That’s what you get when there are no guidelines to payment requirements”

“Could have called the project sour grapes or life isn’t fair, but we didn’t. Keep coming back to payment for art labour”

“If you haven’t broken by age 30, wait till you’re 60 – what does that mean?, stop showing stop promoting, stop dreaming?”

“Fundamental misperceptions in tonight’s discussion: 1 making art is parallel to putting out fires”

“Artists have MORE fucking power than ANYONE in the system: sites Jasper Johns”

“Artists are living a dream. There is a choice here”

 

On Man Bartlett’s imminent Balloon bursting:

“Balloon cave YES!”

“Starting to realize that the combination of ustream, twitter and Man Bartlett is shifting the possibilities of performance art”

“I want to buy the balloon project, install it in the MMFA but you have to insure that they wont deflate over time”

“Yes! Getting closer and closer! It’s going to be LOUD on the feed”

“Jerry Saltz is helping pop the balloons”

“Watching Man Bartlett and The Happy Gallerina makes me wonder why like events don’t happen anywhere else in the country?”

“Save the balloon scraps. They are a historical record”

“Yey! Awsome!”

“That was a strange and cathartic afternoon”

“Between your pumping (balloons over 24 hours) and Jen’s chair dragging it’s been great!”

 

On Zachary Cohen's talk on Social Media as Flattening Agent:

 

“its more important to me to have 10% of something than 100% of nothing”

“Establish trust in the Art world by “suiting up” and showing up”

“Trust, so long as everyone is who they say they are, social media is good for business and art. Transparency”

 

On Various topics:

“And I quote: Sorry. We couldn’t decide”

“Being authentic means having a point of view, while recognising that your truth is not THE truth, leaving room for others to speak”

“A wise man once said an uneducated man makes a great painter because he tackles art with a fresh mind?”

 

And on the Final Rant:

“My rant is that this (project) will be over way too soon!”

“Make Better Art!”

“Art is not a luxury. You just don’t realize you consume it every day and need it to survive”

“We need to adopt the apprenticeship method again and bypass the university completely!!”

“MFA = Mistress of Fuck All”

“Some people couldn’t paint if their lives depended on it – it’s not in their blood they pretend and its really wallpaper!”

“I have been saying from the beginning...guilds, unions, work as a tribe...and allow disagreement”

( One participant on explaining her frustration as an older woman still not having made any dint/money etc in the art world expressed; “In fact I am SO pissed off I’m going to break into an aria” at which point she broke into a pitch perfect rendition of the final scene in Tosca (I think) saying “And we all know how that ends!”

“You are lucky! You’re artists living in New York and living the dream!”

“Get a part time job!”

“Just bumped into Jerry and Roberta walking arm in arm on tenth avenue. So cute. After the storm (hashtag project) back to normal life”

“Art needs to make friends”

: )

 

 

Back on Wednesday .....

Start of Something Good? #Class last day

 

 

This Could Be The Start of Something Good

 

 

I’m going to be bereft;

It's the last day and events of Hashtag Class this Saturday 20^th March 

 

 

But really though, I’m not sad because this last month has been a real eye opener. The fact that so many events and discussions took place – with the all important aspect of participation via the internet – questions raised could be addressed via twitter, sending to the discussion panels or being worked into the conversation by William Powhida or Jen Dalton. Including a-while-it-was-happening twitter response, with Man Bartlett’s Balloon Burst as a work in progress.

Friday's discussions were (I thought) particularly good covering Ben Davis 9.5 Thesis on Art and Class very much worthy of a really good listen and I will refer back to this in later posts. You can see his thesis  here on the hashtag blog.

 

 

And a very focused look at Conceptualism, at the time I tuned I was thinking ohhh! food for thought – by the time I had finished I had taken on things that hadn’t occurred to me and things which I very much disagreed with. Overall a worthwhile listen, although surprisingly (maybe not for Friday night/evening) there were not many online interactions.

 

 

Thursday night also had a very nailed talk on Social Media as a Flattening Agent, to the point and briskly delivered by Zachary Adam Cohen who (coming across on twitter anyway) seeming a switched on and opinionated kind of guy (in a good way) even if you disagree! with a good look at social media and its true relevance in our economic and social evolution. Again will get back to this if I get chance later, but visit his blog here - you will get the idea – worth a look!.

 

But for now anyway I wait for Saturday's events and the final Rant !

 

And will leave you with this a review of the project in the New York Times today

 

 

 

 

Which, irrespective of whether a review was on the cards because ‘this artist was doing that’ or a couple of influential peeps were popping by. Reads pretty accurately what was going down with a very special event.

 

More on Sunday......

 

 

Great Expectations The Collectors Come to Hashtag Class

Great Expectations

 

 

The Collectors

 

 

Oh what fun I had – this was one of those discussions that on the face of it seemed to be one I would listen to later, but increasingly as this Hashtag Class project has taken shape I find I really wanted to be ‘right here right now’. Still I had it recorded so I did have the dialogue and some twitter feed to follow the event.

The start of the discussion was I think lost to us eavesdroppers as the stream got a strop on and we couldn’t really hear – but 20 or so minutes in things became clearer.

I found it a riveting and at the same time frustrating discussion because it seemed everytime a point was made someone conspired to cough or mumble the all important punch line, the verbal equivalent of ‘and the meaning of the universe and everything is kjsrugkjhfdgax...sqiddlyhegfhvs’ – you get the idea. But I waded through the treacle and came across some gems of information and opinions.

Firstly the description;

Jennifer and Kevin McCoy will lead "Let's Figure Out What They Want," a collector focus group. They aim to ask direct questions not only about what art piques collectors' interests, but also what their expectations are vis a vis the presence of the artist's life behind the work.

The starting point (or mine) was a little trip into the history of collectors, how in the 50’s a dealer used to be happy to be owed money – the collectors life would be chasing or unearthing new or interesting art and there was a different mentality, a relationship, a more intimate world, whereas today it’s all about consignment.

A couple of points were made, which outlined where the talk was going;

The historical aspect about the relationship with collectors and museums was from the aristocracy of the day noting that leisure time for the proles needed to be filled and, as a way of trying to control, public museums were opened up as Jennifer put it "to teach people to respect private property". Nobility controlling and dictating tastes, the format is still there but is now filtered through private collectors, more random.

One of the collectors whose voice added to the treacly resonance of the sound, so much so I had to listen really hard to understand – mentioned that the dichotomy of democracy and private property were difficult arguments to control, but we do democratise it and make it academic.

It was then I started to get the bigger picture of what they were saying, how the system in general has shifted from patronage to a mishmash of private and public art that mimics market forces, some wasting money;  citing museums ready to write a blank cheque for a major successful work, (I’m thinking the ICA here, but maybe if not a blank cheque, certainly stuff that’s already been there seen it and done the rounds) and collectors buying ‘great’ works for massive amounts – basically accumulating with safe bets. With some museums not having any responsibility towards history local or wider, and some being cultural backwaters.

And they all argued that as collectors that was not what they were about. Saying that’s lazy and shows no courage. I do get that it’s my bug bear at the moment how safe bets right across the board of creative arts are creating a beige and stagnant landscape.

A simplification of this was pointed out as being the conundrum of the artist going to the gallerist and striking up a dialogue and then the gallerist thinking will this work get me in at ‘X fair’ with the collectors drawn into the loop. A self fulfilling prophesy that keeps on coming and flourishing.

The word competition came up, which was readily summarised as being a good thing, one example of how the art world, collectors included, fail in that which other industries such as film or architecture don’t, by not taking the world of images more seriously. I think it was Jennifer who mentioned that so many times she sees an artist of high ideas and 20 minutes later they are all over Wall Mart.

This reminded me of an artist acquaintance from my Uni years, Duncan Higgins featured at Raw in London after studying  at Goldsmiths circa 1985 with the Frieze crowd, he never embarked on that roundabout and seemed a bit miffed at the time, shortly after exhibiting at Raw someone noticed his work in an advert for Ikea. Well I didn’t ask him but I see it as similar to writers and actors with their voice over’s – its bread and butter when the cash flow goes awol, only somehow with artists a line is crossed.

The idea that the art world is not switched onto the market was raised with the comment, how people like the makers of Avatar are not going to default on the rent next month. Projects are more focused on getting it done and in on time etc., along with the fact that competition is also an opportunity to create a window which will close at some point, so generating interest.

One trajectory of this line of thought was how Singapore, with a fragile art market, dealt with the dilemma. They decided to sink all their efforts into 3d film "because when that breaks the video is, dead, everyone will want 3d".

Someone make the point that the sorts of film being talked about were not Avatar and that (he) did like the style but the line was drawn that this kind of 3d could be cultural art, at most it was ‘craft’. He (because of the technical issues I didn't get his name and can only refer to him as treacle voice) referred to it on the lines of “this sort of film is a doily; macramé, and that I like macramé but it only means I am a fan of macramé”. I think I got the thread of this right because the stream link was interrupted a little.

But if that is the case, I think an important East Asian cultural aspect is missing from that argument, I say East Asian for the want of splitting hairs here because I am talking about the historical and artistic impact of manga or (manhwa in Korea) – its social and (in the nature of places like Japan) its hierarchical meaning and mass cultural influence of the follow on anime (film) culture, which has been turning to 3d. The cultural and artistic value of this style runs deep and has a habit of evolving with technology, and if the the word pop culture were to be used it would be in a totally different sense.

So, if the money is at the same time a saviour of the art market and collectors but also the cheapening of it. The next point kind of summed up the overall vibe with the defending and berating of spiritualizing ‘the collection’ – “we always talk about the spirituality never the money side”; “but I think there is a connection”. Well Pink Floyd had their moment defending their collection to be kept whole; ‘the concept’ that was Dark Side of The Moon last week, I do remember seeing singles knocking about in the seventies though – not too proud of a sound bite then.

Yes, I can see the fault lines and stresses of these arguments from all sides, no matter how you dress it up whether it’s a luvvie approach to collecting and ‘the special relationship’ followed by the marketing of that and then the transaction.

It is about art but it is also about money, very much so it seems because right at the end of the discussion after being thrown a soft ball question of “what art would you never part with?” aside from the emotional connections (I’m not disputing that) and regretting things that were passed over (in buying) don’t we all have those moments? mine’s usually with shoes, but hey! that’s personal and not for the public good or service.

So, right at the end this seemingly sore point was raised; “we sell a lot to pay taxes which is incredibly painful, but that’s life”. Yes taxes are painful but they go towards the common good?. Ok ...continuing....”It is an incredibly unfair system the IRS has got us by the balls they go against the law; the issue is basically whatever you really sell, you’re buying what you keep”.

Ok so essentially collectors are doing a service but they are not doing it for free and the taxman also takes (never fair to everyone – but that’s the political system) since the enlightenment anyway, that’s been the deal, at least until the free market loosening tweaks, blind eyes, and the slow unpicking of recent years; we still pay our dues, and no its not fair.

And just as for everyone else witnessing the push of the brave new world after the Second World War, and when it finally imploded on itself. Money has been made and lost, but hopefully not love and fairness (although, apparently ‘loves’ the smart-ass answer to things) probably too idealistic.

The Critics Come to Hashtag Class

The Critics

 

 

The Critic's Panel
Please join Martha Schweneder, Jonathan T.D. Neil, Thomas Micchelli, and Christian Viveros-Faune to discuss the role of art criticism in relation to the art market.  We hope our central thesis "Art is luxury commodity for the wealthy that limits access to ownership, understanding, and participation..."  will function more as a question and a departure point for our participating critics.

Oh dear ! on the face of it this sounds very dodgy: an erstwhile blogger (me) who is an artist (me) doing a review of critics; really, really informed and influential (them).

But from the viewpoint of an unknown artist and 'blogger' (what’s in a name), with a relatively informed and critical eye, I can only come to this discussion from that angle.

 

Firstly though, I will mention one small person's informed view of the general proceedings of the hashtag project discussions.... ‘when does the art part start?’. Indeed less words more art! couldn’t have put it better myself. But in the spirit of us grown-up's preoccupation with debate, just a few more words.......

A note on the atmosphere of (all) the hashtag discussions so far, in that, they are by the nature of the Winkleman gallery space, quite cosy, the flow of debate is also relaxed but switched on (in general) and sometimes there is a tendency to ‘forget’ about the webcam in the corner, although not to the incoming tweets and messages from the wider audience.

This particular dialogue lasted for 3 hours, people certainly had things to say, no doubt about it, and quite a cross- range of points too.

 

The first comment was on the lines of, when at a cocktail party I don’t automatically introduce myself as an art critic. Hmmmm can’t help you their mate, I’ve got enough on my plate introducing myself as an artist.

Ustream still of the Critics debate

One that unanimously reverberated though, was similar in kind to that being bandied about by some journalists at the moment; the internet and dodgy content, money for informed work and defending the status quo (publications) or their source of bread and butter.

And although using terms like ‘clouds’ and the like there did seem to be a bit of a slipper and pipe attitude with references to the free for all on the internet (no doubt) and things like why should I be up for all that blogging, social media interwebbing stuff – I’ve got enough going on being a freelancer (excuse me shouldn’t that be more of a reason to?).

But was this more of a denial? that online work is significant in its presence if not in its authenticity (yet).Basically that there is a paradigm shift going on and they didn’t seem to want to recognise the fact.

 

Maybe I misunderstood? because I still can’t believe people - especially in the business of words and critic(al) information (as it seems, only in the arts comes with added power ) haven’t moved with this online information thought, even if it is fairly scary - bit like King Canute trying to hold back the tide.

 

Still, shrugging my disbelief aside I listened to other thoughts on the perceived ‘power’ of the critic their ability to build up and defame or change the way an artist works, in general shape the historical zietgiest as it happens.

Most were very concerned and defensive that as critics they had a responsibility to history and also to their moral code of ensuring impartiality and detachment even when reviewing friends or people they had an affiliation or affection with. I did notice a few tweets recognising ‘laughter at the thought of ethics and art’.

 

One genuinely helpful comment, that tried to set aside the meaning of a critic from (just) someone with an opinion, used the word ‘why’, on the lines of.... "as a critic I am passionate, I write about the work I am convinced about by being positive but you have to have or define your base line to say why you think X is bad and Y is good; why there is difference."

In my book that is the whole point of having an opinion, not a gut feeling per se but the why.

 

Money was never far away, in fact I don’t think there was any one particular point in the whole discussion which didn’t give a nod to some manifestation of that; not being paid enough (obviously), and one that stood out with its deflector stance; as collectors being the gatekeepers of the art world.

Indeed, not critics then.

 

A lot more points were raised in detail and I shall be popping back and forth from this in relevant posts over the next few weeks.

But as the elongated discussion drew to a close. Being very informative, albeit philosophically, rather than in an actual hammering out of possible changes, a voice was raised ...saying something like bloggers crave attention. Ouch!,  I read something similar by a writer the other week.

 

True not everyone is a writer, nor informed, but the general feel of that argument seems a poor attempt at stemming a tide (again) defensive and not very focused.

 

The line of thought then went on to discuss how the demand for popularising art is too broad - that there has to be a place for ‘high art’ or the kind of art that no one knows anything about, meaning some art is so inscrutable there is no translation. Even though some would want or desire it to be layman-ised and made accessible, really, connoisseurship and popularism don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Absolutely, but I was still picking up on, this vague or rather useful way of saying I’m in a (relatively) comfy place here and the need to defend it .

And in a different part of the creative globe this week Andrew Lloyd Weber offered similar defensive utterances on his new musical which has been berated by bloggers. Some of whom although termed bloggers are not necessarily joe public sat in the box room, but quite organised and ‘big’ concerns.

A sense of lack of control, me thinks. The article in the Observer likened the widening critical chatterings (and read somewhere else a reference to churnalism - rehashed news) to the new emerging coffee shops circa Charles the Second  who tried to get them banned. Baron Charles Louis von Pollnitz noted that the patrons of the quickly dubbed ‘penny universities’ “Talk of Business and News, read the papers, and often look at each other” they were in essence a cultural free for all.

The Guardian also rid itself of freelancers last year – one of whom  Paul Carr is now fully web user friendly, and it seems being paid enough by Techcrunch to stay semi permanent in LA hotels and the like. So overall I did get a sense of a fear of power being lost, trenching up into an Us vs Them mode .

 

 

Man Bartlett mentioned (tweeted) the other night that maybe one of the central issues of #class (the show and in the larger sense), should be the breakdown of the us v them mindset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hashtag Class; Balloon Burst with Man Bartlett

Bubble Nation!

 

Magda Sawon

Happy Gallerina

 

Man Bartlett's

Balloon Burst

The third week in and there are so many good and different strands to the #class project – too many to do justice as they actually happen (I mean around the same time here) not literally blogging as they happen – multitasking way a step too far, not that I’m prone to juggling, logic being I’ve only got one pair of hands.

 

Anyway, would be a bit too much of a pit stop, so I will pay more due to some of the discussions in later posts. Suffice to say that Madga Sawon’s truthful  Q&A delivered from a plethora of questions sent by various forms including twitter, was a riveting, insightful and humorous look at her views from the perspective of a gallery/art dealer, more of that gem in detail in a later post.....

 

Happy Gallerina joined, as the balloon fest grew but unhappily for me I couldn’t catch her dialogue over the stream – would have been interesting –she joined in as ‘an employee’ of the gallery with her take on The Gallery Assistant - the lynch-pin in the structure that is the artists bread and butter. I did see a tweet that said she was scary! if I come across a link to her ‘performance’ I will add to be sure.

 

But the event that seemed to take the live biscuit this week so far was Man Bartlett and his balloons.

 

I can’t remember what the actual hashtag blog description was but it became obvious that whatever we had imagined – it was never going to be like the actual thing as it happened.

He ensconced himself in the gallery 24 hours before the big popping or bursting balloon event took place, with a huge pile of the uninflated  type.

 

NB; to self on getting a bit chicken egg with the definition of the word pop and burst, one meaning to burst out of, implying a mass ‘escape’ the other requiring an outside force to enable the ‘burst’.  Nuff! for the moment anyway.

So, from small beginnings he began to pump each one with air, tie it and place on the floor. This then took on the look of a pile of high wobbly things, as more and more were added. While the early evening events happened more were appearing – I say appearing because as the evening wore on and day became night and day again Man Bartlett disappeared behind what was now like an emerging massive balloon sculpture. Check the photos here by An Xiao as it happened.

 

I know I’m not the only one who thought similar, but as I tuned into the live stream in the wee small hours with my head set on I felt like Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) in The Lives of Others, very clandestine and voyeuristic, watching art as it happened, and now, 'informing' on it.

 

 

Later in the day as the Big Loud Bursting Event drew near, people were tweeting to the Man in the gallery as he added the final balloons. The whole event taking on a different kind of live performance art as the artist interacted with the ‘audience’ as the event took place. The tweets snagged here show a snapshot of things unfurling.

 

The time came and went very LOUDLY! (someone mentioned over my shoulder, unaware of the event visually ‘sounds like a drive by’) it took about 5 - 10minutes? I wasn’t counting, too busy watching and then Man held up the first balloon he blew up, to pop as the last one.

the first balloon goes pop!

 

And, as Man Bartlett said, "it was my home for the past 24 hours", the scraps were swept up and gathered so he could take his home, home.

 

 

Good on you Man Bartlett! Was... amazing!!..... it truly was!

 

 

More in a couple of days....

On the horizon for in depth posts later; Magda Sawon, Market U and The Feminists Tea Party

 

Schedule and live stream here