Gastro-Vision: Feeding Suburbia
Bill Owens, "We're really happy. Our kids are healthy, we eat good food and we have a...", 1971 (printed 1977). Gelatin silver print, 6 5/16 in. x 8 1/16 in. Collection SFMOMA, Gift of John Berggruen. © Bill Owens.
In the early 1970s, Bill Owens began to document the suburban boom in the California Bay Area. Every Saturday for a year, he photographed middle-class Americans in and around their homes, posed in modern kitchens, barbequing in the backyard, seated around the dinner table, and hosting Tupperware parties. Food figures prominently into the artist’s portraits of suburban life. In Untitled (Joy of Cooking) (1971), currently on view in the Getty Center exhibition In Focus: Tasteful Pictures, Owens has captured a kitchen pantry stocked with canned and packaged foodstuffs. Such an abundance of imitation foods was, at that time, a sign of prosperity. The tables have certainly turned. That same pantry today would suggest poverty, obesity, and poor health.
The hidden costs of living the American Dream — embodied in part by the “convenience” foods pictured in Untitled (Joy of Cooking) — has led to a rethinking of the suburbs and the current push to return to food ways of earlier generations. Enter the work of Los Angeles-based artist Fritz Haeg.
Fritz Haeg, "Edible Estates Regional Prototype Garden #6 (installation view)," 2008. Commissioned by Contemporary Museum Baltimore. Courtesy the artist and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Photo: Leslie Furlong.
Fritz Haeg, "Edible Estates Regional Prototype Garden #6 (installation view)," 2008. Commissioned by Contemporary Museum Baltimore. Courtesy the artist and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Photo: Leslie Furlong.
Haeg’s ongoing project, Edible Estates, transforms front lawns — an icon of suburban America — into spaces for natural food production, or “edible landscapes.” In the second edition of his book, Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, released earlier this year, Haeg sites Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello with its lush green forefront as the “de facto” model for the American home. He asks us to consider how American neighborhoods might look today if Jefferson had planted his legendary crops in front of his house instead of hiding them from plain view? “Edible Estates,” Haeg said to me in a recent interview, “are all about resistance in a way — resisting contemporary situations and preconceptions of contemporary home.”
Five years ago this month, Haeg planted his first regional prototype in Salina, Kansas, at the residence of Stan and Priti Cox. Their small field of okra, green chiles, Swiss chard, eggplant, curry leaf tree, tomatoes, and other herbs and vegetables was planted on Independence Day. The date and location (Salina is almost exactly the physical center of the United States) were symbolic of the project’s impetus. Edible Estates was inspired by the 2004 election and Bush administration. Haeg explains:
The project was a response to the political situation in [the United States] and a real desire to do a project that got out of an insular art world dialogue. [I was] really wanting to do a project for and about the entire country—what we all believed in, what our values were, where we were headed. At the time you could argue that a more expansive dialogue with the general public was more urgent than ever.
The Edible Estates project responds to uniformity and division, represented by both the sprawling green lawn and the election, with biodiversity and community engagement. Local agriculture not only impacts how a place looks, but also how its people interact. Each Edible Estate is unique to its location, using plants native to the area and growing climate. Though the gardens are usually commissioned by a museum or not-for-profit space, the design is done in accordance with the inhabitant’s wishes. Haeg works directly with homeowners and volunteers to bring these foodscapes to fruition. He has created nine Edible Estates to date. The most recent was planted on the grounds of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Continue reading »
Who’s Keeping SKOR?
Announcement for SKOR's symposium "Actors, Agents, and Attendants. Speculations on the cultural organization of civility," 2010.
Living in Chicago, there’s little chance of avoiding public art. From murals to monuments, legs to eyeballs, the city is inundated. Though I will admit to enjoying cell phone photos in front of everyone’s favorite Bean, I still approach the debates about “Public Art” with trepidation. As cities clamor for the cultural cachet (read: cash) that comes with having an Eliasson or a Christo, dissenting voices from both local residents and art world impresarios inevitably chime in, and the issues surrounding who and what Public Art is for grow progressively murky.
To find out how the Dutch negotiate this territory, I met with Theo Tegelaers, a curator for SKOR, the Dutch Foundation for Art and Public Space. Essential to SKOR’s mission is their engagement with this debate, an interrogation of the relationship between the “social, political, and cultural” implications of bringing art into the public sphere.
Here I must make a confession: As I prepared for the interview, I naturally looked to SKOR’s website for background information. Blinded by business-centric words like “client” and “success,” I somehow convinced myself that SKOR was a group of “curators-for-hire” doing vanity projects for fiscally inclined corporations.
This was, however, a gross misjudgment.
Tegelaers explained the lengthy and intense process of considering a project. Seeking clients who are open to artwork that is innovative, provocative, and unexpected, SKOR’s small team takes on only a selection of the proposals that they receive. These “clients” are a mixture of civic organizations (often needing to fill percent-for-art obligations) and private companies. Now, in theory, working with a private company might afford more artistic freedom in the projects, as private companies are under no obligation to entertain the varied and often conflicting desires of the public. But herein lies a potential problem. One of the main questions raised about Public Art is just who the public is. Can a work where the commissioning body doesn’t consider its public even be considered Public Art?
Kimsooja: Art & Everyday Life
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Episode #114: With her video Sewing into Walking as a backdrop, Kimsooja tells a story about mending traditional Korean bed covers and realizing that art can be drawn out of everyday activities.
Kimsooja’s videos and installations blur the boundaries between aesthetics and transcendent experience through their use of repetitive actions, meditative practices, and serial forms. In many pieces, everyday actions—such as sewing or doing laundry—become two- and three-dimensional or performative activities. In videos that feature her in various personas (Needle Woman, Beggar Woman, Homeless Woman), she leads us to reflect on the human condition, offering open-ended perspectives through which she presents and questions reality.
Kimsooja is featured in the Season 5 (2009) episode Systems of the Art in the Twenty-First Century television series on PBS. Download-to-own the full episode from iTunes.
VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Richard Numeroff. Sound: Merce Williams. Editor: Lizzie Donahue & Paulo Padilha. Artwork Courtesy: Kimsooja.
Lives and Works in Berlin: The End of Temporary
On August 31, 2010, the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin (TKB) will close its doors as according to the original concept. With 8 major exhibitions, 3 facades, and other projects involving over 800 artists (though, 566 can be attributed to one exhibition, it seems) throughout the 2 years of its temporary existence, the TKB’s final show is FischGrätenMelkStand, which opened on July 2, 2010, curated and designed by artist John Bock.
"FischGrätenMelkStand," installation view at Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin 2010. Photo: Jan Windszus, © Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, John Bock. Courtesy: Klosterfelde, Berlin; Anton Kern, New York.
The Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin’s mission statement was simple: to showcase Berlin-based artists in their own city; to create a program that:
Based on the success and ideas of 36 x 27 x 10, a large group exhibition conceived by Coco Kühn and Constanze Kleiner, executed in the decommissioned and slated-to-be demolished Palast der Republik in December 2005, the TKB indeed created yet another venue for artists to convene, converse and celebrate. But it’s not been without strife. In June 2009, the Artistic Advisory Board, a group responsible for appointing curators for the exhibitions, resigned rather suddenly and for a brief moment, the fate of the TKB seemed a slightly uncertain, despite having a contingency plan almost immediately. The shift that followed (large group shows, either curated or “presented” by artists — or, in the case of the Karin Sander‘s Zeigen, at least involving a multitude of artists — as opposed to solo “positions” by mid-career artists from Berlin) allowed a much more varied discussion of Berlin’s art scene by opening its doors to a wider swath of artists. Additionally the admission fees were waived for the final year, thanks to Dieter Rosenkranz and the Stiftung Zukunft Berlin, making the privately-funded museum truly free and open to anyone at any time.
Dear Oliver
Oliver Herring, "Chris After Hours of Spitting Food Dye Outdoors", 2004 Courtesy Max Protetch Gallery
You know what I like about Oliver Herring? Pretty much everything.
Oliver was generous enough to join us for the 2nd year in a row to jump-start the Art21 Educators summer institute and set in motion (again) his signature TASK project last week. All of the institute participants, along with members of the Art21 staff, came together for TASK at the Chashama Gallery on 44th Street in Manhattan. After over two hours, we not only had a layered and stimulating installation of art works, but also a sensational setting for the start of our summer institute.
But besides Oliver’s work with Art21 and TASK, I truly believe, especially in light of recent student experience with his work, that there is more to talk about than simply celebrate TASK. Oliver is a photographer, sculptor and mixed-media artist who appeals to a variety of students and artists. His approach is one that investigates possibilities through media that best serve his ideas. Students who engage with his collaborative and commemorative work can learn about installation, performance, and work that highlights process as part of what the work is about.
The very first question posed on Oliver Herring’s page in the season 3 educator guide asks, “In art, is the process or the product more important?” Teaching and learning through his art allows us to think long and hard about that very question, because in some works, like TASK, the process is clearly more important. But in other works such as “Chris After Hours of Spitting Food Dye Outdoors” (2004), one could certainly make a case for both. The photo is stunning. The end product seems to be a crowning achievement after longs hours of photographing and working with this stranger as he literally spit into the wind.
As we complete the second half of the Art21 Educators summer institute this week I just want to publicly thank Oliver for his expertise and assistance with this important initiative that now involves thirty teachers in ten cities across the United States. Many thanks also go to Lois Hetland (Project Zero), Olivia Gude (Spiral Workshop), Susan Rotile (Walker Art Center), Lisa Mazzola (MoMA), Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Allan McCollum for their help in the first few days…
More next week!
Experience in Art Education
"Figure 1. Curiosity as a function of information," graph from "Naive Set Theory," by Anthony Humberman, 2007.
“An art school, it would appear, does not teach art, but sets up the conditions necessary for creative production, and by extension the conditions for collaboration and social engagement.” — Anton Vidokle
Recently a young artist told me he believes Photoshop to be the most elegant synopsis of the process of artmaking and how we learn to use artistic talents. His theory is simple: proficiency breeds reserve. Photoshop is no different – once you become a master, the drop shadow tool becomes less exciting and more vapid. An ideal arts education would foster a student’s proficiency to be reserved. His claim is supported by a hypothetical solution posed by Dexter Sinister to use the Photoshop toolbox as a method for investigating and understanding the historical references and skills behind each tool. Though it is subversive in its re-appropriation of economized technology as the symbol for deeper understandings of art, this method is pedagogically recursive and intellectually emancipating. The opportunity presented to members of the arts community, and arts educators specifically, by incorporating highly conceptual forms and anti-conceptual work into their curriculum to support and motivate students is unprecedented.
Pieces of art theory that traditionally require a history of point and counterpoint can become incredible aphorisms in the modern age to inform the entire spectrum of education. It’s useful to instill in young learners the simple notion that the fixity of meaning can be questioned, or more importantly, that the creation of meaning does not have to take a predetermined form. This suspension of information becomes a part of the new toolbox for a new generation, irrational in everyday representation, but nonetheless informing and influencing the entire schema of thought within each individual.
In order to overcome conceptual alchemy and become a tangible object, art must be surreptitious in its tactics. A derived arts education will not hold up to the Internet and the radically cheapening status of the image. New methods are needed that are flexible and strategic – methods that provide multi-disciplinary, hands on, and truly empowering experiences. By providing a deeply considered program of exhibitions, happenings, experiences, and general chaos that parallels the real life of art, arts educators can help students to better understand the ways in which art can change and manipulate their lives and the world around them.
School’s Out for Summer – But the Work Goes On
Andréa Stanislav, "Divine Creatures," 2006
This past Fourth of July seemed to mark the beginning of a lingering heat wave across much of the country. While I waited for the sun to set and some of the days heat to subside, I called artist Andréa Stanislav, who was en route to Chicago to take down her recent show, To the Western Lands, at the Packer Schopf Gallery. While Andrea was literally heading west, we talked about everything from her current show, her process as an artist, academia, and the current state of our society and nation.
Andréa Stanislav, "To the Western Lands" Big Kitty MCFP, 2010
I first met Andrea last summer at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, Queens, during the installation of her piece Ghost Siege, a series of fifty full-scale, flagpoles with uniform silver flags. This large-scale piece was part of the 2009 Emerging Artist Fellowship Exhibition, which was open until this past March. This piece, as with most of Stanislav’s work, comments on society’s hidden state of turmoil.
Andréa Stanislav, "Ghost Siege," 2009
Since last summer, Stanislav has held a number of solo exhibitions and completed public art commissions and projects in various locations around the country and world. While Stanislav does a lot of work at each particular project site, she maintains studios in New York City and in Minneapolis. Her main studio and fabrication station is in Minneapolis, where she holds a position as an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota.
Bravo’s Work of Art: Episode 4 Recap (part 2)
In a special series of posts, Wesley Miller watches Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, frame by frame, and attempts to uncover what it all means through the medium of animated GIFs. This is his journey. — Ed.
GIF wall after the jump (images will take time to load). Continue reading »
Bravo’s Work of Art: Episode 4 Recap (part 1)
In a special series of posts, Wesley Miller watches Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, frame by frame, and attempts to uncover what it all means through the medium of animated GIFs. This is his journey. — Ed.
GIF wall after the jump (images will take time to load). Continue reading »
Walking around Chicago-based concept shop Golden Age has become a rather dangerous activity for me. After setting a monthly budget for artists’ books, I often find myself going over that limit rather quickly. On the day of filming this interview, I wound up coming home with a copy of Chicago-based (and previous Art21 artist) Kerry James Marshall’s Mementos, from his 1998 exhibition at the Renaissance Society.
Founded in 2007 by School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduates Martine Syms and Marco Kane Braunschweiler, Golden Age has become a premier location for all things printed matter. Marco and Martine gave me a tour of their new location in the West Loop Gallery district and highlighted their top picks and some future plans.
