The Shocking Value of Art

Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston by Daniel Edwards 

     Reread the introduction of Art and Outrage written by John Walker reminds me of the anger after attending several gallery exhibitions in Berlin during my visit there. 

I remember i wasn't very interested to go into any sort of gallery opening anymore, not only because they stop giving free booze (I don't think I will have to create any footnote for this) but because of the reason that after seeing so many penis in different gallery shows, I evolved a great confusion of art. 

although, it is nice to know that I am not alone.  John walker pointed out in his book that the combination of avant garde ideology + capitalist market in art = encouraged individualism and extremism. 

We went through the age of harmonious, organic compositions to now the value of beauty was replaced by cults of the primitive and the ugly. The change shows that artists' desire to shock and startle the bourgeois class, and their work refused to provide meaning and context because it meant to be experienced as a shock! by withdraw the meaning will direct the reader's attention to question about life and feel the need to change it. 

      However, what happens now when this kind of works have become the norm.  When avant garde became institutionalized, gallery visitor being 'trained' to prepare that being shock before they entre art galleries, maybe the shock value is no longer as significant as they were before. 


     It is certain to me that most of the human attention being attract to deformity, ugliness, sensational objects, which happens to be what mass media mostly interested in, which attracts the most publicity, however the combination of shocking art production and make profit out of shock lead to a recipe of disaster. Producing art that wishes to disgusted where no man has disgusted before is not artistic, but rather for startling people. 


    From another book 'Art and Fear', Paul Virilio was telling about how the contemporary artists live in the time which impacted by Nazi concentration camp and accepted the side-effect produces pitiless art, and how the technology development makes genetic become a culture thus artists started to abandon ethics. 


I have always interested in the ethics in art, and actually that is my original idea for my master project, which now develop into a form of Frankenstein.  I found it is very hard, such a challenge to present the ethical argument as Shelly did in the novel. 

C U R A F I A

This is a game workshop that I put together for the FAIR.  It will happen on 27th February and will be recorded on video. 

Right now I have been more interesting in the idea that I think we don't actually share any common knowledge in contemporary art world, but only mutual knowledge. And I think this is one of the reason that we can't not fully anticipate how to be successful in contemporary art world by following established path. 

The players of the game each held partial information, and they have to made judgement based on partial information otherwise they will be eliminate from the exhibition planning because they construct threat to the curators. 

When artists put themselves in other people's shoes, they also have to anticipate the fact that all the other people but this set of rules can or cannot being operated in a world where rationality isn't necessarily being required to be the prior elements for their social interaction. 

[Art Dealer research] Jay Jopling.

Rave Reviews

I am currently collecting some of the information and gossips on gallerist and curators.
I wondered how they became successful, and how's their public imagery being established.


Starting from Jay Jopling from White Cube Gallery.
I collected several dialogue that he has, or statement he made regards to art world and artists.


"Jay is very funny and he's the last person standing at a party. It's amazing. He has got incredible energy." He is often frank, to the point of being risque  - Matthew Slotover, the co-director of the Frieze art fair

"He is loquacious and very attentive to his artists, but it takes a particular talent to convince collectors and to go to all those parties and be a generous host. The appearance of generosity is very important."

Jay Jopling-

"To be that successful you have got to be strong in two areas," he says. "You have to choose the right artists and keep them happy, and then you have got to be able to sell to collectors and museums. It is unusual to be good at both."

Jopling has described his work as a "means of establishing a bridge between attitudes"

Frankenstein Game Trial

Curator Jérôme Sans and others /during the opening of This is Fucking Awesome 

F E E D B A C K   A N D   C R I T I C

     This afternoon I gave a trial on my game intervention on the Mafia game, there are several suggestion from the players that I found very useful. 

also it was very fruitful that people who were playing with know each other to a certain degree, and willing to play, and actually put into the role. 

The moderator is a very key factor for whether or not the game would be successful or not, also as a moderator, I have to be careful that what I said and my behavior, body language might affect players judgement.  

• It might be good to walk around the room, so that people wouldn’t be able to guess who I am. 
• Try not to reveal any of the character during the night cycle. 
• Being able to impose strategic thoughts into the players mind. 
• Try to find out a way to manipulate the whole game as the moderator, because the moderator has the ultimate power (MEGA-CURATOR)
• Will the metaphor work?

I found it is very interesting if I keep reminding people that they have to base on their understanding towards each other, also making judgement based on previous events. 

The moderator can play with the memory, and I found it is good to suggest people that they should suspect people’s behavior. 

HOW THE IDEA CAME FROM

Basically the idea came from several texts that I have been given during the seminar discussion, it was involved with a lot of discussion on authorship and the shifted nature of contemporary art scene. It is important that I found the role of the curator requires the ability to not only be a observant also be a predator, Mafia and curator shared several common feature are 

• Dominate Character
• The possibility of collusion (Price fixing with the collectors and auction house) 

It is not to accuse people’s morality, but to think of what is the mean to get what you want. 

It is hard for artists to think they are the civilian, and this is not all true as well. But considering the possibility that after all, it is not everybody who will going to be a predator, so we need to know how to work and how to create the best scenario even if the role that you taken is not the dominate role.  I found the common feature between artists and civilians are 

• Working as a collective
• May or may not have sufficient power.
• The information they know, and the resources they can use, are often limited, and being filtered.
• Emerging artists might often work collectively
• The information of the economic value of their work, the placement of their works aren’t being controlled by the artists during the most cases.  

During the accusation period, is the only time that the artists may have certain power to eliminate the curators, but they have to be careful because the face that curators may affect the situation by accusing another person, or even the critics, and then the artists might ending up eliminate the role who helps them. 




Key to win the game: It is essencial to do during the accusation time (Day circle) for Curators (Mafia), Critic(Detective), Academic scholar(Doctor) to put your feet in other people's shoes, to estimate how they would think and act during the night time. 


It is also very important for artists to question, who is accusing and trying to guide people to support their own goal, rather than consider others benefit? ( Who said this is good art, and how to manipulate the auction price?) 


There will be more allegories for exhibition scenario and the role of academic scholar, Critic later on my blog.  So stay tune. 

Reading on Art as industry and the commodification of art

Collector Artist Network © Borusan Contemporary

     By reading three articles regards to the creative industry and postmodernism society, also the concerns from academia of our current states of economy development may direct us to a doom future. I found there is a annoying nostalgia state of mind that partake in their arguments.  

    The articles of creative money by Goldsmith lecturer Angela McRobbie that express her concern of the creative industry might direct students who are involved or was involved in the creative economy might ends up being put into a situation that requires constantly marketing themselves due to their state as independent designer/ freelance workers and self-employed soho’s will eventually being dependent on contract from big cooperation, which lead to a direction that the income and working hours become unsteady, also in order to get more cases to get involved within the network that pushes these self employers feel the need to go out as much as possible and keep marketing themselves and hope for one day that will be work for big companies.  The cons were that they eventually being took advantages by the big cooperations assign trivial jobs, their works, design, time management, income resources become fragmented.  

    My tutor argued that it is impossible to keep the society working without pre-established institution, company, infrastructure.

    Later I came across the idea of Relational aesthetic by Nicolas Bourriaud, his relational theory was questioned that the existence of hospitality might actually prevent us from making precise judgements for what we are about to acclaimed for.  The notion of constantly networking blurred the boundary between work and play.  Attending openings, social gathering and gallery exhibitions in order to build up a potentially relationship, you are spending the time that you wouldn’t have to before on socializing with people. This immaterial labour being considered as recreation, and it is not being paid in tangible way. 

    Here I would like to discuss about the possibility of working with people that you are friends. In one essay ‘Who’s Driving’ by Beck Shaw, she discussed about that it is nearly impossible to have a total equal relationship between curator and artist. Talking about if the relationship between these two helps with the quality works to be produced, maybe difficult relationship is more artistically fruitful, so stay professional might actually easier for both to work together. 

     The shared feature that I saw within these articles and theories are the build up of relationship in order to distribute, connect with other people. But the building process and outcome is unreliable, there are no a set of rules can guarantee you to a certain path that you chose to walk on.  The reason that I found these arguments nostalgic is because the distrust element within these arguments of the emotion of human being and trying to make us divide the work relationship and private life apart seems very familiar to the early times. 

      I agree that it is essential to be professional about what you do for living but when most of the artists don't necessarily seeing art as a job that they only do it for living, they do it for pleasure and for fun.  It is a road that based on passion rather than compromise.  We still being given choices when we need to go to openings and talking to people that we are interested in.  It is also preferable for me to discuss opinions with friends or people who we had pre-established relationship.  Work relationship could end up become friendship and work environment is also a social space where people who are engaging a specific theme and thus creates a shared memory, so here I argued that under the circumstance that you enjoy the work you do, it is not necessarily to separate work and private life if you are passionate about it.  

     
    Even if there are pros and cons, but I think there is a very important elements that in the time that we lived in, our perception of time has altered in a speed that we don’t even realize it when we are practicing it.  

     Further more, I think relational art doesn’t necessarily only operates in certain social class or engaging with certain class, or among gallery patron, instead it could be generating another way of communicate inside of the white cube - so called neutral space - by erasing the boundary between the space and country, or geographical elements.  Based on the contacts and human connection. It might sounds bonkers in the 60s but now, it is just what we do. 

Final semester and feedback

After the first week of getting my feedbacks from tutor, only one of them I had tutorial with so far, that I have decided that I want to support my novella with a visual content although I still don't know what would that be yet.

So I have just decided to achieve some of my post and focus more on specific research area so that i will be able to operate more specific study.
However, I do grow more interest in the art world dynamic and the whole art market system makes me grow more and more interest.
so I will keep posting about it.