[-empyre-] the art of forgetting

[Julian Oliver]

..on Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 04:58:41PM +0000, Simon Biggs wrote:
> Certainly, in an art world where marketing is so much part of practice then
> your suggestion that artists should seek to ensure we don't forget them is
> the mantra. I'd rather not work that way...

Great. It's a rare attitude.

> I am not from an underprivileged background nor live in an especially
> oppressive environment (although that is debateable) but nevertheless I do
> think people (including artusts) are obliged to try and make a difference.

This is a risky imposition I think. 

Artists are, almost by contemporary definition, assigned with a social
/irresponsibility/; by escaping obligations, social utility, behavioural and
cultural norms, even laws, they supposedly widen our cultural and intellectual
scope, demanding new definitions whilst undoing others, affording greater
movement for the group as a whole. 

That's the idea, a romance still prevalent today. How many actually do - and how
transformative their efforts are - is another thing. The reality is that most
art is now made in the interests of excelling within the group rather than
excelling the group as a whole.

An obligation to "make a difference" is perhaps more clearly delineated and
easily asserted where public arts funding is concerned - a common polemic
between tax payers and state commissioned public artworks, for instance.. I
don't see how else "making a difference" as a priori for the arts can otherwise
be imposed (or whether it should). The change here should better happen with
audiences, of which and why work is valued.

I'm personally increasingly drawn to making less 'solipsistic' work, work that
reaches into the world with change in mind. At the same time I fear that art
audiences comprise a poor context for effecting change; the art world is
naturally more interested in the transformation of its own narrative than the
world around it. And so, like numerous others, I'm interested in strategies like
direct distribution and public intervention.

I do think we use the word 'art' far too often, especially to describe projects
that are not explicitly works of entertainment, politics or science and have no
overt utility, hence committing them to a frame (and culture) of reflexive
discussion and abstract value generation, limiting their reach.

The art world will tell us we're making art anyway. We don't always need to do
it ourselves!

> But that can come in many shapes and sizes. I agree a simplistic approach is
> not desirable. One reason I'm not with Badiou. Deleuze is far more
> interesting. Somebody mentioned Nietzsche, which is interesting territory in
> this respect. So is Marcuse, who seems out of fashion at the moment but
> offers a model of action that allows for a dystopian view.

Marcuse (esp Study on Authority) is great to read with this topic in mind
indeed, but far from dystopian in my opinion!

Cheers,

-- 
Julian Oliver
home: New Zealand
based: Berlin, Germany 
currently: Berlin, Germany 
about: http://julianoliver.com
follow: http://twitter.com/julian0liver

> 
> 
> On 13/03/2011 14:01, "Julian Oliver" <julian at julianoliver.com> wrote:
> 
> > ..on Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 02:10:27PM +1300, simon wrote:
> >> Simon Biggs wrote:
> >> 
> >> "It's part of the role of artists to ensure we don't forget."
> > 
> > Hmm, I don't think this is true really. Donning a role of social
> > responsibility,
> > whether that be for a moral project or cultural heritage, hasn't been widely
> > practiced by artists since the Englightenment. Unless you're from an
> > underprivileged background or oppressive political circumstance, it seems
> > assuming such a role in one's art is increasingly frowned upon, lacking
> > rigour,
> > within the broader machine of self-disillusionment that is contemporary art.
> > 
> > Rather:
> > 
> > "It's part of the role of artists to ensure we don't forget about them."
> > 
> > Cheers,
> 
> 
> Simon Biggs
> simon at littlepig.org.uk
> http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
> 
> s.biggs at eca.ac.uk
> http://www.elmcip.net/
> http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
> 
> 
> 
> Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
> 
> 
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