Providence Interdisciplinary Critique Group

Sunday, September 28, 2008

#8

...now really folks, is it that difficult to have a little dialogie happening here.
It's so boring being the only person to blog.
nevertheless and the unofficail secretary of the group here's a little breakdown of last weeks session.

we spoke of:
Online opportunities,
I think some of these were posted by Millee before but to reiterate…
Myartspace
Whitecolumns
Artists space
…

artists of influence:
egon scheile
odillon redon, more
howard hodgekin. more
chaim soutine, more
francis bacon
(interview w. Sylvester)

don’t be afraid to lose yourself

process: immediacy vs. duration

Monday, August 11, 2008

Thoughts from interdisciplinary crit group #7

8/4/08
The evening began with an impromptu discussion about body image. It was interesting because while some people felt like perhaps it was off topic and not focused on the art in my studio (body parts; distorted/altered/cyborg.) I’d like to think that the environment was at least condusive to that if not subliminally “coercing” it.

The picture here is my studio a few months ago, before completing many of the pieces presented at the crit. I put it here to give an inkling of what we were talking about. The image presents elements/body parts but not the associated limbs (guns, furniture, teapots.)

I decided not to flesh out (no pun intended) the ideas that were tossed about last monday. It’s in abstract notated form. I hope it is intelligible to you. I submit it hoping you can let your own mind respond in dialogue to what was shared that evening…

discourse:
Construct of gender, ambiguity of object as camouflage, violence, aggression, the transformation thereof, metamorphosis

Aspects of amputation, elements of furniture as associated with the body. Empowerment, reconstruction, decorative, clothing, female.

Subversion of approaches, of materials, of symbols

Class, singularity, time, handicraft, sewing
Thread of the work, care, what others see, time/gestation

Paper dolls
Topography of an experience, longing and loss, embodiment of place

Transparency. Translucency, layering
Tension, fogginess

Cultural identity of the body, mannequin,
Distortion as fetish vs. distance from the fetish/object/body

Weights and balances, gravity and weightlessness

Gesture
Human scale

Map cannot exist, conceptual scale
Edge of map-void

Totemic- what do we idolize

Social constructs
Masculine/lawn/house/obligation/brute/seeking balance& gentle

Frankenstein, hybridized object

Power struggle

Some movies that came up:
28 days later, machine girl, planet terror, Robert Rodriguez

artists:
Seth Price
Barbara de Genevieve
Louise Bourgeois (show at NYC Guggenheim)
Kiki smith
Zoe Leonard
Anish kapoor (show at Boston ICA)
Others?

lines of Nazca

art and business:

What’s in your 2nd house? (astrologically speaking)

Soul and passion vs. meaining and making

Gallery as love affair

Art haus- support

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Gallery Closings

Hey. As a result of cutting state funding for the arts, the URI art galleries are scheduled to be closed:

Http://www.uri.edu/artgalleries/save_the_galleries.html

Http://www.scindependent.com/articles/2008/06/10/local/doc48495bba8f75d210694408.text

I think angry letters need to be written!!

Here are the addresses to the Provost and President of URI:

President Robert L. Carothers

University of Rhode Island

Office of the President

Green Hall

35 Campus Ave.

Kingston, RI 02881-1303

muskrat@uri.edu

Donald H. DeHayes, Provost

Provost and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Green Hall

35 Campus Ave.

Kingston, RI 02881-1303

ddeyahes@uri.edu

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The line goes

Chris here. I've posted documentation of the piece I showed last weekend on my website:

http://www.matadata.com/projects.php?id=15

It is tentatively titled Taking a Query="line" for a Walk. If you have any additional comments I would love to hear them. And thanks for the critique!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

This reminded me of you, Millee, and the topics of your critique. It was assigned for my indian art history course... a little specific, maybe, dealing only with iconic images and representation of India...specifically colonial vs. post colonial India (channeling Jesal here) but i think you'd like it.

the book is called Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of Representation, 1850-1900 edited by M.A. Pelizzari. i'll send you a pdf of one of the essays.

it discusses Indians photographing themselves in front of Indian architecture... what that means. here's an excerpt:

..."My point in touching on this elaborately detailed cosmology is to suggest that the pilgrims who purchase images of the architectural edifice called the Mahakaleshvar temple are not seeking traces of the conjunction of their unique bodies with this unique place. Rather, the aspirations that these images fulfill are best understood in the broader current of a fluid concentricity in which what matters is not to get close to a particular place as an end in itself. On the contrary, the visitors to Mahakaleshvar and the purchasers of its images engage it as part of a movement toward a powerful center precisely because it offers the prospect of an escape from time and place."

um. and it also talks about an Indian couple posing in front of a backdrop of the Taj Mahal.

i'll try to send it to you soon.

also- it's not just 1850-1900. there are a lot of recent images in the book.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Congrats to Millee for not only calling us "art stars", but being one herself. She came, she saw, she conquered Pawtucket.

On an completely different note than both our works and the previous graph, here are two really great articles you should read if you have some free time:

This is old, but if you haven't read it is totally worth the look. Puts "context" in a whole new... um... context.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

This is just otaku. Or maybe not. It is really one of the most amazing magazine pieces I've seen in a while, and it goes to show you that what you consider your field is someone's life-changing bane:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/04/21/080421fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all

Enjoy.