Dialectics of the image – “the structure of commentary” – process as montage
2011-08-08 10:37:50
The third visitor at Kunsthuis SYB as part of the program 'A Soapbox and a Microphone' was art writer Rebecca Harris (UK).
Rebecca's current interests are a consideration of how writing and a use of language can imagine the visual and non-visual elements of an artwork, through notions of reading and negotiations of a common use of language in the encounter of art as part of a legacy within the art historical cannon and beyond to wider cultural and social ideas of indentity in and outside of the field of art. By testing the ability of the ocular and its relevance in the moment of perception her research aims to explore the potential for experiencing the work of art as seperate from the discourse and narrative that surrounds it.
By exploring the potential of what can be seen and what we imagine to see, through assumed modes of textual engagement, Rebecca sorts to realize the possibilities and limitation of language, to consider the aural and oral moments in the perception of the visual.
that make up this presentation surround the paper that guests heard as part of the film presented on 6th August 2011. The text aims to address themes, concepts and ideas that arose during Rebecca’s visit to Friesland as she attempted to imagine a response to Ruth’s final exhibition and the resulting artwork from her six week residency-‘Speaking into the Sky’. This comes as a response to her encountering some of Ruth’s previous work and as a way of thinking how one might bring their own research interests to the residency.
“I would say that my work is a writing that responds to both art practice and art theory, that allows for convergence and confusion with sources that are not necessarily accredited as being part of the discourse of art history or art theory.
I would say that art research is determined by our individual working process, as well as the environment we find ourselves placed to conduct this. It is determined by how we come to this creative space, whether conceptual or physical - be it through a residency or, as I find is often the case, on a train with a book, or in a gallery encountering the artwork. These spaces of creative production are determined by factors that form or support this, which might be social, political or monetary depending on your perspective.
As consequence of thinking and discussing this, I was planning to present two papers. Perhaps one that would be printed for you to take away and one presented as performance. The first paper might have been my interpretation or reading of Ruth’s project. The second would be a text about my own research, functioning as a separate element. How this could remain separate and at what point the separation was made became problematic and I realised, fairly early on that one would obviously be a result of, or result in, the other.
This paper is therefore related to the visual and aural montage that I have created for this exhibition, which represents my thought process, research and experience while staying in Friesland for two weeks. The films that could be watched on my computer on the desk are part of my research, as is the source material that might relate to conversations I have had since being here, extracts of my own research and writing, of readings I have perhaps begun and never finished, films of artworks that I have recorded or sourced from websites, and non-artworks that represent the personal and professional engagement during the past two weeks. The montage is not an artwork, but rather a visual representation of my thought process that aims to form an insight into how I have come to placing words and sentences together in the visual essay that was presented.”
From the thickness of the air
2011-07-26 20:56:16
As part of the project 'A Soapbox and a Microphone', Isabel Cordeiro (PT) has been working at Kunsthuis SYB over the past 2 weeks. Images of Cordeiro's work can be seen here.
www.isabelcordeiro.com/syb_p1.htm
Cordeiro's work at Kunsthuis SYB has revolved around the the notion of model in relation to painting and to her own interpretation of the architecture model. Her presentation engages in the dialogue between art and architecture discourse, and how as each borrows from the other an interesting form of (mis)communication can develop.
She conceives the act of painting as the production of a model of painting as such. Every painting is a model of Painting. The self-reflective capacity of painting, which constantly addresses it materiality and its codes, makes it a meta-language. This spiraling in itself and out of itself in painting can be compared to that of the function of the model within Cordeiro's work. Although her paintings and installations are based on the notion of architecture model they are best described as simulacra in the sense that they are models without a preexisting reality or a reality to be to refer to. They exist as a form of speculation. In her work she represents space and builds space simply to question space itself and our understanding of it, an understanding that is conditioned by the architecture discourse. In this sense they are meta-models.
She works mainly with painting and installations. Se addresses painting as a form of construction, she uses the power of painterly representations to challenge architecture by mobilizing its potential to construct anddeconstruct space hoping to find other sides of space, to break through space.
A Proposal for an exhibition in the 'Trading Room' at The Art Institute of Chicago with works from the collection (the long list)
2011-07-03 13:36:44
Alexis Blake (US) has spent the last four days at Kunsthuis SYB developing her project,
A Proposal for an exhibition in the 'Trading Room' at The Art Institute of Chicago with works from the collection (the long list)
Blake’s work, which will continue to develop beyond her visit to Kunsthuis SYB, takes as its starting point Louis Sullivan’s Trading Room, built within the Chicago Stock Exchange Building in 1894 and moved to The Art Institute of Chicago in 1977, following the demolition of the original building. At 5,704 square feet the space, with its exquisite and ornate interior, is thought to epitomize Sullivan’s vast and diverse decorative vocabulary. Consider by many to be the father of Modernist architecture, Sullivan left few interior space behind, thus the Trading Room, is thought to be an important record of American’s architectural history.
Blake writes, One of the main reasons I am draw to this material is because I find the reconstruction of the Chicago Stock Exchange’s Trading Room within the confinements of an art institute to be poetically ironic and apropos. The intended function of this space no longer exists and what has taken its place is an empty room, which is visited by the occasional art viewer who takes a gander when visiting the Art Institute of Chicago. So, what is the value of this space now that it is in an art context and no longer a financial trading zone?
During her time at Kunsthuis SYB Blake has developed these questions by considering the changing nature of value. While the stock exchange epitomizing monetary value, Blake asks about the value of space. The importance that is placed on the space as artifact over any functionality and in turn the distinct lack of space, which the institute has to display it's extensive art collection. It is with this in mind that Blake proposes to create an exhibition in the Trading Room, using works form The Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent collection, which currently exists in storage. She has begun to curator a program of artworks that might reflect the space, focusing on some of the themes outlined here and looking at artists as diverse as Andrea Fraser, Ellsworth Kelly and Carl Andre.
Below are a number of drawings that Blake has developed as part of this project.
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