A very hectic week building up to a packed opening on Thursday. Many encouraging words from New York seer Douglas Kelley and NY artworld legend Willoughby Sharp. Some people upset. Billy Childish, Peter Kubelka...which is probably a good sign. Ihor Holubizky writes from the snowy wastes of Canada ? where the winter nights are long:
..."I sincerely hope this is meant to be funny -- and if it is ... meant to
be funny ... perhaps British cultural (commentary) has lost its sense
of humour since the death of Ian Dury.
This is "public exhibitionism." Mind you, that's my definition of what
has come to stand for "curator" -- a public exhibitionist.
The artist is not a middle-man -- the artist is a primary producer --
first, of "tokens" (I am using this in the George Kubler sense -- his
1962 book "The Shape of Time" -- and still worth reading and still
valid) -- and then ... "ideas." The problem with ideas is that they
were usurped by the "emergent curatorial class" -- and here I will
refer to (but do not defer to) Hugh Kenner's 1971 essay "Epilogue: The
Dead Letter Office," included in the compilation publication Museums in
Crisis (ed. Brian O'Doherty, George Braziller, New York).
What Kenner describes -- yes, with humour -- is the curator trying to
catch creativity "on the wing," but also the "Jurassic Park" that is
the museum today (then, in 1970 -- but even more so today). Gobbling
up fresh contemporary art that has no other place to go.
I am not being pernicious, but I've been in this game for 30 years, and
worked from many sides -- usually, overlapping -- as an artist's studio
assistant, a commercial dealer (selling [sic] VERY uncommercial work),
a teacher, lecturer, essayist, and historian. And for 25 years, a
curator in the public domain. I began my public career in a bastard
gallery that became legitimized and institutionalized as the Power
Plant (Toronto). It was the model for many other Canadian
"kunsthalles." I left in the late 80s, when it became the same game,
and went into the belly of the beast, working as a "real" curator for a
general art history museum.
It was only then that I understood something of the scrap heap of
history and ideas, as a curator in the true sense of the word -- a
custodian -- but also attempting to reflect the something else of the
changing times. That is -- a curator is a custodian of physical AND
intellectual property. I may have pioneered the subjective approach
in my writing, even the heretical route in my exhibitions, but the
prime objective -- always -- was providing a forum for the voice of the
artist, first and foremost. Dead or alive.
Curators are not that interesting. I've participated in too many think
tank symposiums. A bit like being with a group of dentists who relish
explaining the pain to their patients. Hell, musicians are not that
interesting -- and that was my other life, as a musician (live
performance and recording) and composer. But the music is -- and I
never judged music by a biographical cut. Some musicians are also
assholes -- but rarely as much of an asshole as A & R label types.
Yes, curators do have opinions -- fine -- but shouldn't have biases.
Two different beasts.
(I take out here something about Italian Cooking and Eric Clapton...Pierre)
A mid-career artist friend -- successful and ... unsuccessful -- told
me that the art world was the price he had to pay for wanting to be an
artist. Can't argue with that -- and if there are cultures that have
no specific word for art or artists, there is often an equivalent to
"curator" -- the custodian of oral traditions. They respect the makers
of things ... as "useless things" (art) can change the way we see the
world. But they don't change the world simply by "being." But a
custodian has responsibilities. I organized a fractional survey of a
senior Canadian artist Kazuo Nakamura, in 2001 (7 years in the making).
My last question to him, through an intermediary, was 'why were your
mid-1950s paintings primarily blue?' In essence, to ask -- why were a
few of them -- not blue.) The response -- "I like blue." Here was a
fact -- but not one that I could use. What does it matter if the
artist likes blue -- or brown -- or green. It is a matter of
preference -- not the work. How Nakamura applied blue and gave it
meaning, is for any viewer to determine for themselves. Not using that
information was an ETHICAL decision I had to make. Nakamura died
shortly after the survey opened. The "fact" is not destroyed -- it
sits in a file for others to decide whether or not it is important. An
ethical decision that they must make, as I must make them, almost every
day. Being a curator and historian, requires ethical conduct.
I'll leave my ramblings at that. I did contribute to a Banff Centre
Press book on the subject of "curatorial practice" -- published in
2002, and titled "The Edge of Everything." I dedicated my
contribution, by way of an "apology," to Herman Blount, a.k.a. Sun Ra.
Sincerely,
Ihor Holubizky"
Tonight private view at American Fine Arts and some video screening at Art in General
Pierre
"the curators" is a contemporary art exhibition at the:artist:network, 424 Broadway 6th Floor, New York, NY 10013
Opening party/private view: Thursday 15 January, 6 to 8 pm
Exhibition: 15 to 31 January 2004
Thursdays to Saturdays 2 to 6 pm and by appointment
You are invited to the opening reception of: the curators, Thursday 15 January, 6 to 8 pm.
In this exhibition, it is the curators of the exhibition who are on display. Cutting out the middlemen/artists allows the viewing public to directly interact with them.
As curators we felt compelled to eliminate the artist from the equation so as to explore other criteria, e.g. exhibitions as a product of the curator’s bias and opinions with accompanying illustrative flourishes. Literally and figuratively we hoped for a show that will speak for itself and be self evident.
This show/work is an opportunity to bring together a few of the predominating themes of this experimental London-based art gallery:
1 The idea that the exhibition produces the work.
2 The nature of a show, as one of flux and change
3 The performative aspect of art/life understood as a profound self conscious focus into the nature of human intercourse.
4 The notion of the gallery as an interface or nodal point where paths cross, ideas collide and texts, human as well as literal, may undergo synthesis.
Come and meet the curators in person Thursdays to Saturdays, 2 to 6pm or by appointment (email pierre@thecentreofattention.org to make an appointment or to talk to the curators online).
All information is available on:
http://www.thecentreofattention.org/exhibitions/ny.html
the
centre of attention