I'm sort of with you a bit about our angst getting boring and self reflective. I'm sort of almost a bit embarrassed about the blog now because even though I think it's interesting I wonder if we are becoming like the uber woober bird which flies around in ever decreasing circles until it vanishes up it's own arse hole from which comparative point of safety it roles up small balls of shit which it chucks at it's enemies. That's one of my dads cautionary stories he told me as a small child- I was never sure why he told us it but I think it was for times like now - my dad is a man of action not words.
We are at heart anti theorists because we have seen some of the best artist minds of our generation sacrificed on the alter of theory. But as Socrates said "the life unexamined is the life not worth living." and perhaps we are in a place where the arts council are paying us to Navel gaze for a while to make us better at what we do rather than just rushing at doing it.
The problems arise when we sail our ship to close to the storm. When we are just getting on and not asking some of the difficult questions the work has it's own internal logic and isn't problematised. Tim might say that in many ways we are creating the problems by asking the questions. They are problems of art not of farming. It's clear what would happen if you and your dad stopped farming for a single day, it's not as clear what would happen if me and you stopped making art - the sad truth is that probably we would be the only people to notice. perhaps the difference between art and everything else is that in many ways the lack of purpose/use/funtion is it's key value.
I really like your last post but it does make me feel a bit sad as it makes me feel that perhaps we are not really getting anywhere. All the ideas about propositions and art and life are interesting but when I read through the last few post I just think we are trying not to appear to be like other artists, or make work which is not like other artists and I wonder why this is a problem and that all the other artists are trying to do exactly the same thing. It's no good to say that we will use our position as artists to draw down funding and do good stuff and connect people and then to say that we don't want to be seen as rarefied and special when it is exactly that rarefied and special position which allows us to do this, and get paid. I am not saying we should train ourselves to be more comfortable with this and just get on but it does feel that we need to accept the fact that this is the position we are in it and need to recognise that.
If I'm really honest I suppose I do see the work at Knutton road and the Ruskin studio as a fine art rareified practice which plays with ideas of materiality, dialogical aesthetics, culture as ordinary, art as activism, relational aesthetics and fits into a massive and ever increasing load of theoretical art bollocks and saying I'm not part of that or it doesn't interest me is just plain stupid. If I was at a talk and an artist said they were doing our project but opting out of the whole context in which the work was situated I'd have them out. In art if it looks like something and references something to a viewer then it sort of at least from that viewers perspective is it. It's like when I work in schools or in the academic sphere if you are in the room you have to decide to engage with the space or not enter the room. The work at Knutton road clearly is in a very specific room however uncomfortable we feel in it.
Does this get us anywhere or have we gone anywhere in our reflecting on what we do? yes it has moved us on -it has been useful - we can probably talk better about it, we always knew it would never be clear just hoped it would get a bit clearer. My analogy for this kind of situation is when you are in a car and you can't see out of the window but you are not sure if it is foggy on the outside or the windows are steamed up. I feel a bit like we have wiped the windscreen with a greasy hand only to reveal a dense fog outside obscuring everything. We can wait for the fog to lift a bit, or drive on without really having much of an idea where we are going - or perhaps spend a few hours drawing the fog and hoping it will lift.
We are at heart anti theorists because we have seen some of the best artist minds of our generation sacrificed on the alter of theory. But as Socrates said "the life unexamined is the life not worth living." and perhaps we are in a place where the arts council are paying us to Navel gaze for a while to make us better at what we do rather than just rushing at doing it.
The problems arise when we sail our ship to close to the storm. When we are just getting on and not asking some of the difficult questions the work has it's own internal logic and isn't problematised. Tim might say that in many ways we are creating the problems by asking the questions. They are problems of art not of farming. It's clear what would happen if you and your dad stopped farming for a single day, it's not as clear what would happen if me and you stopped making art - the sad truth is that probably we would be the only people to notice. perhaps the difference between art and everything else is that in many ways the lack of purpose/use/funtion is it's key value.
I really like your last post but it does make me feel a bit sad as it makes me feel that perhaps we are not really getting anywhere. All the ideas about propositions and art and life are interesting but when I read through the last few post I just think we are trying not to appear to be like other artists, or make work which is not like other artists and I wonder why this is a problem and that all the other artists are trying to do exactly the same thing. It's no good to say that we will use our position as artists to draw down funding and do good stuff and connect people and then to say that we don't want to be seen as rarefied and special when it is exactly that rarefied and special position which allows us to do this, and get paid. I am not saying we should train ourselves to be more comfortable with this and just get on but it does feel that we need to accept the fact that this is the position we are in it and need to recognise that.
If I'm really honest I suppose I do see the work at Knutton road and the Ruskin studio as a fine art rareified practice which plays with ideas of materiality, dialogical aesthetics, culture as ordinary, art as activism, relational aesthetics and fits into a massive and ever increasing load of theoretical art bollocks and saying I'm not part of that or it doesn't interest me is just plain stupid. If I was at a talk and an artist said they were doing our project but opting out of the whole context in which the work was situated I'd have them out. In art if it looks like something and references something to a viewer then it sort of at least from that viewers perspective is it. It's like when I work in schools or in the academic sphere if you are in the room you have to decide to engage with the space or not enter the room. The work at Knutton road clearly is in a very specific room however uncomfortable we feel in it.
Does this get us anywhere or have we gone anywhere in our reflecting on what we do? yes it has moved us on -it has been useful - we can probably talk better about it, we always knew it would never be clear just hoped it would get a bit clearer. My analogy for this kind of situation is when you are in a car and you can't see out of the window but you are not sure if it is foggy on the outside or the windows are steamed up. I feel a bit like we have wiped the windscreen with a greasy hand only to reveal a dense fog outside obscuring everything. We can wait for the fog to lift a bit, or drive on without really having much of an idea where we are going - or perhaps spend a few hours drawing the fog and hoping it will lift.
Like you say - 'if you want to be instrumental you need to become an instrument'.
ReplyDeleteA bit positive currently for my liking currently [being a realist] but i know what you mean.....
We're just now more self aware, 'finer tuned' to carry on with the analogy.
Steven is a contrary bu**er who has fallen in love with those wooded valleys in Dorset and can't bear the great flat lands of his home so he rails at windmills and blows down houses on a whim. But he's right. Of course. I mean a wooded valley after all.
ReplyDeleteSeeing more clearly is good. But. There has to be a but or I'm not of this work or conversation for I am not an artist just as Kate is a farmer. So. But.
Artists. Art. Go on. What is it? You both are it. You both do it. You have tax status as it and, drum roll, you might sense failure or shame as it. So what is it?
And can you say anything that is more than sociological apart the scatological?
"the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others" - Britannica Online
ReplyDeletemaybe you should go a bit easy on yourselves, see(k) a different perspective? there is no certainty only opportunity. and thank you both 1nce again for the opportunity to inhabit the studio and do stuff, however it may be defined, conceptualised and produced. create to your hearts desire.
ReplyDelete