Congratulations, Jered on what sounds like (and looks) like a solid showing in Chicago. I would love to hear you discuss the background for these works and any relations to Ordinary Aura that can be drawn out of these.
Adam and I did have a bit of a gripe session...
the other day when he left the Stray show. I feel like I have passed my stage of being interested in unicorn (Im actually not sure I ever had one) art and really feel like the glut of faux-naif work we are seeing is a reaction to the spotlight given to so many outsider artists as well as an accomodation ofyouth-oriented culture in art and, for that matter, a resurgence in "nostalgia" as subject matter. Lots of '80s stuff here in G'Boro.
It seems the results have been a lot of "trapper keeper" art as Adam described it... some of it, like Banks Violette touches on Gothic/Heavy Metal which is certainly linked to this adolescent dark side and which we are tapping into in this show with the intro of horror imagery. Our challenge will be to elevate and not use it simply as is which it seems so many artists are doing. My feeling about the violent images is that they are counterpoint to images that are NOT violent. In the portraits I am doing (and will post as soon as I get them over here to the computer lab) images from Evil Dead, Dracula, zombie flicks all reside alongside portraits of historic figures and friends... the idea being that a woman and her child next to a strangled victim speaks to our living in a FALLEN WORLD. They happen in parallel. Additionally, the horrific imagery comes always from pop culture/films which certain people will recognize overtly or through "collective memory" like the famous Christopher Lee Dracula. This bring up the fact that all of us have seen these things, filled our heads with this violence, Satanism, etc. and what does this mean? What choices do we make? We do agree that this exists, so now what?
Technically, as you will see, these portraits are being done 30" x 22", B+W with a sprayed gold oval border. Once you see them, please contribute ideas for me... or better yet, do some portraits yourselves. I think the more the better. Remember, they will be our "cloud of witnesses". Amidst the portraits will be drawings of birds... all kinds to tie in to the possibility of bird sounds filling the gallery. The birds are also witnesses.
The oval format will be repeated in "The City of Heaven" (What are we calling this installation at The Heartland?) in the form of peepholes in a wall. This sculpture will be a cardboard (outsider!) city that fills Adam's gallery and which will be viewed by remote access at the UICA. The layout of Adam's gallery allows for a walkway into the building to allow visitors to actually see the city in the flesh. However, they will do this only by peepholes in a wall that separates them from the sculpture. So again, the idea of parts vs. wholes and living at a remove comes in and makes us aware of our active looking. So far, Adam and I have talked about the prospect of his sculpture class and Calvin volunteers to orchestrate this construction. Any other ideas?
That's it for now.
Posted by chris at May 11, 2004 07:58 PMThis has nothing literally to do with Chris' post, but I just saw this story this morning about a makeup artist whose job is to create realistic-looking injuries for emergency personnel training. I think it's interesting to think about in this context, but then, I have a cold.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,63409,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4
Posted by: seth at May 13, 2004 11:06 AMChris was right to bring up the link to outsider art as impetus for the trend toward faux-naif paintings/drawings...sculpture too? I feel as though I have not seen it as much in sculpture, but perhaps this is because there is not the same glut of work being made.
I think the interest in making trapper-keeper drawings/paintings stems from impulses that are actually pretty interesting--and relevant to our subject matter ultimately. ( The problem resides though in the fact that mostly this stuff doesn't get pushed many interesting places. ) The attraction to outsider art cmes from the fact that people think this stuff is somehow more "authentic,", more real, not influenced by or made to feed into the art market (of course being that outsider art is so popular in the art world now, this last point is debateable)
not put into the big MFA fast-cooker....it suggests to us that art could have a jumping off point that is other, that seems somehow more vital than knowing all the work of all those in the Whitney Biennial.
But of course, the vast legions of us who have MFA's, don't want to give that world up, so people try to have both....faux-naif sincerity and art world savvy.