Art. Modern Art. Contemporary Art. Conceptual Art. I understand the difference between these ‘phrases’ as I went to an Art college that really focused on such things. But I do believe that it is the jargon that you become familiar with simply by studying it, and then perhaps, going on to working within it. Therefore it’s exclusive. It excludes people on many levels. Such as language (as mentioned), location, history and class. (Or, the non-elite?)
There comes a moment in ones life were you stand back from what you are doing. A freeze frame. You’re wandering along the busy street with your husband and friend. You walk into a gallery space were people are sitting in the sun, reading papers, you have a beer, laugh about your week. You pay, you thank your waiter and then you move into cloak your bag, chat about how amazing buildings are, and then you’re looking at work. Or, more specifically, pictures in frames valued at a lot more than other pictures in frames you have at home. And then it hits you. What am I doing? What am I looking at? What the hell does this mean? Should it mean something? Am I wrong thinking that this is a waste of space? What is this dreadful feeling creeping up on me..Why am I embarrassed that I brought people here….Oh, I’m disappointed.
Before I go on to answer my questions, here’s the context in which this all took place. A gallery space called Kunst Werk (KW). The exhibitions had artists Annette Kelm, Wolfgang Breuer and Sergej Jensen. The first space you go into, if you start from bottom floor up, is Annette Kelm’s. I am passionate about photography, re my last post about it, but this is the type of work that I can understand that people look at and get, well, dispassionate. You may think that that is the purpose of the work, the ‘over-saturation of image’, but I didn’t get a sense of that at all. There was no continuing theme through the work either. And the sizes of the image were neither that big or that small to invoke any sort of interest in presentation. This is when I had my freeze frame moment. There was an image of a horses hoof in the snow, where I pointed at it and said, ‘that’s kinda interesting..the texture of the snow…’but it held no real weight. It didn’t sit with the rest of the images. They were just of interesting European houses, records, trucker hats and strange pianos. I wouldn’t even call these catalogue photos. Or happy snaps. They sat no where and even in that they weren’t interesting.
I’m going to bypass Sergej Jensen, as I feel that all I need to say is minimalist paint strokes and stains on large canvas will give almost everybody a pretty good idea.
But Wolfgang Breuer is the cherry on top for me. A huge room filled with found objects. Found objects; an Artform that really is quite questionable to me. (I have seen some great work made in this manner, but I do think it is a form that is very rarely successful and praised far too much. Perhaps because it’s a form people aren’t used to responding to, feel intimated and therefore just except it as high art.) ANYWAY, to understand this type of art, you generally have to engage with a pretext… In big National galleries it is generally the text on the wall. In this gallery (and others like it) it is a handout you will find sitting somewhere near the entrance, which gives you the lowdown on what the artist was thinking when they ‘assembled’ the found objects. These are usually peppered with wordy-words; words that you don’t really need there, from someone who probably wants to sound like a philosopher, or an aspiring writer. (Neither of which I have an issue with, it’s the fact that this is NEEDED to accompany the body of work, that I find a big issue.) This work is so thought out. It has gone through so many processes. The original concept, the philosophizing, the execution (the grant application and than approval of said grant application), exhibiting, praising, and the whole thing just goes on and on. When really, when it comes to Wolfgang’s piece, it is a few recycling bins assembled in front of a bus shelter (literally). These bins and shelter apparently ‘represent’ the kids he saw throwing bottles into the bus shelter, as though they were somehow ‘feeding’ it. Somehow this is validated. Somehow this is praised. Somehow this means something. Now don’t get me wrong I am sure the action was interesting, and the through of these kids ‘feeding’ this urban structure was interesting too, but don’t you think that just by simply removing the structures that were apart of this, and putting them in a gallery and telling us about that on a piece of paper, is a little absurd to be labelled high Art?
In my opinion, this form of Art has gone too far for too long. Artists are being forced to produce this type of work, and if they are not, they are not considered to be important contemporary artists. I admire the aforementioned artists for managing to fit in and be exhibited to fit into these conditions, however it is a shame that it is this way.
