Re: [-empyre-] nice and not nice...

["Melinda Rackham" <melinda@subtle.net>]

hi all,
 when i was putting this discussion panel  together i drew from people i had
met in academic/conference settings, and people i had come across on the
internet. 4 people i asked did not respond at all , the rest of the guests
were quite keen.  there was no intention of  representation of cultural
groups -European settler, Maori, islander  - the intent was on different
areas of media and internet practice.

perhaps that was an oversight on my part. my apologies for any appearance of
exclusion. if anyone has someone in mind who would like to join in this
discussion, please ask them, as we are always keen to extend the platform of
empyre to new artists, writers, curators, researchers, academics, etc.

one consideration here is that unless an artist states upfront  that they
identify with a specific cultural group, ie Polynesian Aotearoan, Irish
catholic Aotearoan, etc  or their  work is specifically about indigenous
issues, i am unlikely to know their cultural/racial background from browsing
their online presence.

for example when photographer Natalie Robertson says: "To me my images..
talk about  what i see as the interface between my two cultures. There is no
neat seam where Pakeha and Maori meet. As each comes up against the other
there is a space that opens up between them. Im not sure where this space is
exactly, only that it exists" (from "pokai whenua : travel the land" 1998)

it is clear she has situated herself  and that work on racial /cultural
issues, however from looking at her name online in list of artists i
wouldn't know that.

But, then it can also be argued that every exchange, even online, is
influenced by gender and colour. We had a really interesting month
on -empyre- about 18 months ago curated by Michael  Mages on "Net.Blackness"
, with artists who were doing online work on specific racial issues
discussing their work..  the archives are at
https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2003-July/date.html


re real artists vs. teachers.. ..  im looking for an academic job these
days! being very pragmatic, the years of making a living only as an artist
are exciting, textured, full of interesting surprises, and fairly numbered
for most in new media in today's economy i think.

 melinda

> There are (at least) two groups that seems very very under-represented
here on
> this discussion.
>
> One group is the indigenous Aoteraoan, however that might be defined.
> This is only an issue because we are supposedly discussing the new
> media from the perspective of the Aotearoan, indigenous and otherwise
> if it is possible (or rather: sensible) to make that distinction.
>
> The other group that seems to me to be under-represented is the
> practising artist (full stop).  The practising artist (full stop)
> being a person (or other sentient entity) who doesn't have a job at
> what is known in NZ as a tertiary institution.  The distinction that I
> am making is not that teaching is evil, but rather that the artist,
> who doesn't have a job 'teaching' students (most of whom have
> absolutely no talent and in any other non-middle-class reality would
> have to get a job), this artist, I suggest, has a rather different
> perspective and is operating in a rather different realm.
>
> For myself I can say that I have had a number of grants and have
> taught in a few workshops but for many years now I have not had a
> comfortable middle-class existence and looking at the results of
> middle-class art: a huge explosion of galleries and of middle-class
> buyers and a extraordinary implosion of completely puke-worthy 'art'
> leads in the same direction
> as the rest of the bloated society is heading, to wit, down the
> non-composting toilet.
>
> The practising artist's role, be he Aotearoan or not, be she online or
> offline, is to push the limits, to go where no sentient being has gone
> before.  OR, perhaps, is the practising artist's role to work the
> room, shoot the breeze with the people who will further their careers
> and generally be, at least on the surface, fawning and disgustingly
> appreciative of the favours that might be dripped upon them?
>
> In 1982 I had an exhibition of my paintings.  One of them was a
> colourful matrix, a labyrinth of uncertain meaning to the uninitiated.
> The gallery dealer took me too firmly by the arm with his alcoholic
> hand, whispered hoarsely at me that the people he was about to
> introduce me to were going to buy the painting and that they would
> like to meet the artist before they did.
>
> These people who reminded me very much of my Uncle Brian and Aunty Jean
> (who at that very moment were watching The Sound of Music for the 29th
> time with their three plump children) wanted to ask me a question.
> Fire away, I said, with a euphoric sinking feeling.
>
> They liked the colours the size of it and it would go very nicely on a
> certain wall in some room or the other, but what was the painting
> about?
>
> I explained that it interested me that young people liked to dress
> up...and go out and get covered in blood...and be mutilated...and die
> horrible deaths...the red they admired was blood.
>
> It is not the job of the artist to be provocative, mildly or
> otherwise.  But it is the job of the artist to question everything, to
> stand outside everything, and how can someone who is questioning
> everything survive in a
> middle-class environment?
>
> I suppose the answer might be: by being wonderfully brilliant.
>
> Voyeuristically yours,
>
> The Paul Annears
> -- 
> The Paul Annears
> www.xxos.net
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