Judy Chicago " Dinner Party"

In Judy's "Dinner Party" she states " I firmly believe that if art speaks clearly about something relevant to people's live, it can change the way they perceive reality.."

How do you feel about this notion and how might this be true?

Performance Art, Body Art, and Living la Vida Loca

Welcome back to school, and I apologize for the later post here, but time is scarce.

This week our readings covered a little too much territory, so we are going to have to spend a bit of our discussion sorting through when's and where's and who's, and did you notice that a bit of the stuff that was happening and being talked about was happening right here?

So what was important to remember from all this stuff? What is valid about it?

Hopefully our class so far has set stages for the development of most of these ideas to work through.

Remember our discussions of phenomenology, ontology...the idea of the viewer as a body in front of a work of art...what if the body itself was the work of art, and another body viewing it makes it a work of art. I know it sounds a little dark arts, and let's not kid ourselves, it probably is.

What I want you to know:

1) feminism (think about this word a whole lot, there isn't a 'feminist' style like there is a minimalist style...feminist art is an embodiment of theories and politics, not a way art is made, the variety is huge and feminist body art/performance can be hard to distinguish from the rather sexist performance work of the Vienna Actionists.)

2) internationalism and the 'global village': internationalism in the sense of the Fluxus artists, relate them to more nationally themed art movements (futurism, ab ex, minimalism) and look back to Marshall McLuhan, who we have talked about, and get to know his idea of the 'global village'.

3) theoretical work: start looking at how art will start incorporating theories and ideas into its 'process', compare this with the ideas of making 'conceptual' art. My best example here would be Freud, compare the way the Vienna Actionists used the thinking and theories of Freud to the way in which Mary Kelly uses Freud in here 'Post-Partum Document'

4) positivism, and the utopian gesture

5) collectives versus movements in art: the minimalists hung out together, but Fluxus and Gutai artists made work together

6) identity politics (think of its relationship to institutional critique as well) the body as object/ subject

Hopefully you are noticing the way these writers want to categorize everything. One, because it helps us talk about it better and two because it validates arguments and helps one 'prove things wrong'.

Ex.: is a work of art the object or the subject?

Take great notice at how the Fluxus artists are 'proven wrong' based on contradictions in their artistic practices or in their lives, in these texts. We have to be careful on this desire to 'prove people wrong'. Take it to heart that there is no right or wrong answer in art: whether it be an action, a task or a ritual.

Yours in magic,
Prof Nathan Shafier
WZMB New Jersey's Radio Zombie

Midnight Spank

Hiiii. I'm posting.

1. Our culture has taught us that the power of women has slowly evolved and progressed. The woman today, or even 1979, supposedly has much more power than those of the past. Our society has recognized the wrongs that have been done unto women, and has, to the best of its ability, reformed that. Think of sufferage, divorce rights, property ownership.HOWEVER, Judy Chicago seemingly is telling us just the opposite. She says that the power of women, our spirit, our knowledge of what trials and tribulations we have and still face is limited. She paints the picture that society, more specifically that male population, is somehow doing us wrong by not giving us enough credit for all of our accomplishments. Is her way of thinking unfair? Overly feminist? Or have we had it backwards all this time? Is she right and it's just pretty hard to admit that we have been fooled into thinking us gals have been getting the pat on the back we deserve these past hundred years?

2. Which brings me to my next question; Is this complication, or, even better, traumatic realization that I stated in the latter paragraph a form of what Adrian Piper is talking about in his "Ideology, Confrontation...."? Am I justifying my belief (that the feminine population has not been taken advantage of and that we have gained more power and respect over the past century) by writing off Chicago as an overly-feminist antagonist?

3. I hope we can discuss Nancy Spero's idea that "the body is a symbol or a hieroglyph...an extension of language..." and how that pertains to the performance artists' reasonings. Furthermore, she says she wants to change the "idea of a woman's body to transcend that which is a male ideal of a woman in a man-controlled world." She's trying to bring woman onto an equal, if not higher, plane than man. She's serious about her subject matter, yet in this discussion she seems to have a more playful approach to it (i.e. the goddess with the dildo). She's not really attacking men so much as celebrating women and our control. Does her technique seem more validating and approachable than Chicago's to anyone else?

Well, that's it. I think I'll go listen to my Bikini Kill CD now.
GOOD NIGHT

Conceptual Art

This weeks readings are around conceptual art and the relationship art has with philosophy. Now the book gave us a very unique look at who the artists involved with conceptual art are. Authoritatively concept art is actually a rather debated subject. It is clear that it emerged from Duchamp and Minimalism, post-war politics and positivist philosophy (as opposed to the existential dread). Several artists claim to be the originators of concept art: Kosuth, Buren, and Anastasi (the last of whom was not mentioned in the text). We talked about how minimalism was the beginnings of postmodernism, but concept art is now squarely in what Lyotard calls 'the postmodern condition'.

Think of Lawrence Wiener for this:
"you can make art, you can have art fabricated, you don't even have to make the work," type thinking. Or of artists who say things like, "I don't want to put more objects into the world, so my work will be documentation in the form of drawings, photographs and essays"....

Terms to think about in more depth:

1) deskilling (which is a slur, and negative connotations in the beginning)
2) institutional critique
3) epistemes (Foucault's term for the way societies organize their facts)
4) aesthetics vs. art (in terms of Kosuth's essay 'Art After Philosophy')
5) the house of muses (the museum)
6) and this statement by Clement Greenberg that, from my point of view, will end up being his one great legacy, that the world of high art has been attached to the ruling class (and the bourgeiosie) by an umbilical cord of gold.

I have added an image of some of Hans Haacke's recent work, when he was the Dean of Students, or whatever at Cooper Union in the city. (Hows that for institutional critique!) But Haacke is totally rad, I highly advise getting to know his work very well...

So tonight we go conceptual style,
Shafier of the Night Flowers of Utter Doom

1.) In Carl Andre's response to Anonymous Sculptures he read the Becher's work as though it were primarily defined by its compulsive attention to serial repetition relating them to Minimalism and Post Minimalism aesthetics. Do you agree with Andre's on how he read the Becher's work or is there something that sets their work apart from the Minimalist/Post Minimalist ideas.

2.) When looking at Broodthaer's work, Especially the piece Pense Bete, where he takes his last fifty copies of a recent volume of poetry and plasters them together to transform them into a visual object. The text says: "Bloodthaer's action implicitly askes the spectator why he or she refused to be a reader and wished to become a viewer instead. Therefore his work would take as one of its key questions the status of the work of art as commodity." Do you agree that he work would fall under that catagory of a commodity, of something obsolete?

Conceptual Art

Hey everybody. Time to post questions:

1. Collectivity, anonymity, and functionalism are all seen as key artistic values to Bernd and Hilla Becher. Why are these values important, and how does the work of the Bechers relate to minimalism (think of the grids!)? Also, how did the Bechers photographs effect the field of archaeological preservation?

2. Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Joseph Kosuth, and Richard Long all opposed the installation of Daniel Buren's huge bannerlike work in the Guggenheim International Exhibition, stating Buren's banner "obscured the view of their works". Despite the flaws in their case, Buren's work was removed. Explain why the minimalists (Judd, Flavin, etc.) clashed with conceptual artists such as Buren. How does Buren's conceptual work activate space differently than the minimalists' sculptures?

Language and Communication

Here is one of Smithson's most pivotal pieces. It is called "Heap of Language", I believe this may help illustrate Smithson's ideas about language, communication and semiotic breakdown (think entropy) of what we mean when we use language. Remeber "The Phenomenology of Perception"? Melreau-Ponty talks about the differences between spoken language and speaking language? Refer to our "Midterm Study Guide 1" on this blog. He sees two modes of linguistic expression: the language we speak and the language that speaks directly to our perception. Smithson was very familiar with Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

Go New Jersey Phenomenology!

Le Prof Shafier,
Ordre de Fausrtroll, par les sédimentations de notre esprit collectif

woooo hooooo

ok fellow witches and wizards, i figure i should post 2 questions before i leave for artmaking class.


1. Do you agree or disagree with Michael Fried's claim that Minimalism is ideological, non-modernist, theatrical, and thus hostile to art? Use both personal opinion and Robert Smithson's article in the packet to support your claim.

2. Do you agree with Smithson and feel that movements incorporating industrialization (Anthony Caro and David Smith used steel and aluminum) has less of an artistic value than rust? Also, what do you feel about this type of sculpture material's use of time (does it just convey the concept of supply and demand?) For aesthetic value, do you appreciate earth art or minimalist art more?

3. I also wanted to talk about the link of language/communication through semiotics in terms of this reading, because i'm not finding much of a connection between the two.

may the force be with every young witch and wizard.

A Sedimentation of the Mind

I finished grading the midterms, and you guys for the most part did exceptionally well. I didn't grade on a curve because if I did, half of the class would be well over 100%. So I am very happy about that. Otherwise, I will give the tests back Thursday and if we need to discuss anything extra at that time, like extra credit, we can. Speaking of extra credit, you can do an essay paper for me to get 10-15 points added to your exams, but you have to talk with me about it first!

Other than that dark entropy magic, Robert Smithson's essay 'A Sedimentation of the Mind' was our only reading for this week. we will continue on into post-minimalist practices this week.

Think of

1) Earth art
2) site vs. non-site
3) social entropy
4) language as a material (even an industrial material)
5) Art and Objecthood by Michael Fried (this essay by Smithson spanks Fried like Richard Feynman spanked NASA for it's O-Ring Conspiracy)
6) language and communication (think semiotics)
7) the metaphor of rust, decay and the idea that things fall apart
8) anti-architecture, etc...

See you guys in class.

Professor Shafier,
and his Reptilian Familiar Ms. Lutembi

Next Semester

Hey ya'll magical sorts...

Next semester we are still Section 3 if you want to keep the same crew, and we will be meeting in Room 404 at CSB on Fridays from 11:00 to 12:30.


Keep up the good work, and the midterms should be graded by next class.

Nathan Shafier, Order of Faustroll Zepto Sigma Poo

Post-Minimalism

Sorry about the later post, but I have had a busy week grading tests and all, which are not done yet, and several other aspects of this class for next semester. However, our class tonight will be on post-minimalism, which is a pretty big and open-ended term, which takes in a lot of different artistic practices, some of which are exceptionally important in how artworks are made today.

Some major points to come out of the readings you need to know:

1) the idea of site-specificity, particularly in relation to the idea of minimalist art as phenomenological objects.
2) the notion of entropy (the second law of thermodynamics), look up the scientific definition of entropy and apply it to culture/ the social, then think how Smithson used these ideas to fuel his projects. IT IS AN EXTREMELY NEW JERSEY AESTHETIC! This is our turf here young witches and wizrds...
3) anarchitecture, related to Gordon Matta-Clark
4) the abject, look up what is related to Julia Kristeva's theory of the bject from her book The Powers of Horror
5) I hope everyone is noticing the fetish art theorists have for scat. And I really mean that literally. They love poo. Eveything looks like it to them, and they love calling things 'shit'.
6) metaphysics (de Chirico in relation to Arte Povera)
7) mnemonics, or memory systems, (remember the cultural challenge Germans had with their own identities after WWII?, well the Italians had it too, look at how they coped, and how they still have scrap in them that goes nowhere...)
8) the expanded field, this was a term first set in stone by Rosalind Krauss, who is one of the writers of this text.

See you young and talented witches and wizards in class, bring a bell, book and candle, we are going to have an All-Saints Day Post-Minimalism Seance!

Professor Nathan Shafier,
Order of Faustroll, Ninth Belt