"Institutional critique is an artistic practice that reflects critically on its own housing in galleries and museums and on the concept and social function of art itself."
- Alberro & Stimson, Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artist Writings, 2011Quotes
The following quotes are from artist writings collected in Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artist Writings, Alberro & Stimson, 2011.“In actuality, as we all know, things as they are and they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those, women among them, who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class, and above all, male. The fault lies not in our stars… but in our institutions and our education.” - Linda Nochlin, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”
“Our task is to link up the theoretical critique of modern society with the critique of it in acts. By detourning the very propositions of the spectacle, we can directly reveal the implications of present and future revolts. I propose that we pursue… the promotion of guerrilla tactics in the mass media --- an important form of contestation, not only at the urban guerrilla stage, but event before it.” - Rene Vienet, “The Situationists and the New Forms of Action against Politics and Art”
“One may generalize that the environment context of the artwork today is of greater importance than its specific forms and that it is this surrounding, furthermore, which will determine the nature and shape of the container of these forms. It leads to the speculation that as a museum is obsolete, so are the kinds of art -- pictures and statues-- for which it was conceived. I suggested in the article referred to above that in all probability, “the spirit and body of our [art] is on our TV screens and in our vitamin pills… The modern museums should be turned into swimming pools and night clubs,” or in the best-looking examples, emptied and left as environmental sculpture.” - Allan Kaprow, “Where art thou, sweet muse? (I’m hung up at the Whitney)”, 1967
“I am an artist. I am a woman. I am a wife. I am a mother. (Random order) I do a hell of a lot of washing, cleaning, cooking, renewing, supporting, preserving, etc. Also, (up to now separately) I ‘do’ Art. Now I will simply do these everyday things, and flush them up to consciousness, exhibit them, as Art [...] MY WORKING WILL BE THE WORK” - Mierle Laderman Ukeles, “Manifesto for Maintenance Art”, 1969
“We never considered ourselves an “alternative space.” In fact, it seemed to us that the more prominent alternative spaces were actually in appearance, character, and exhibition policies, the children of the dominant commercial galleries. To distinguish ourselves and to raise art exhibition as a political issue, we never showed artists as singular entities. Instead, we organized artists, nonartists, children -- a broad range of people -- to exhibit about special social issues…” - Group Material “Caution! Alternative Space!”, 1982
“Galleries and museums are public spaces.
Public spaces are political arenas in which power is gained, recognized, underwritten, disputed, attacked, lost, and gained. These interactions are often obscurred when power relationships are stable, ideological programming is effective, and the players collaborate in defeating their own best interests.
Galleries and museums are political arenas in which these conditions no longer hold.” - Adrian Piper, “Some thoughts on the political character of this situation”, 1983
Works
Guerrilla Girls
Collective actions and advertisements as institutional critique to to combat sexual, racial and economic inequality in the arts.
Group Material, "Democracy"
A four-month long show that grew out of a two-year project, eventually adopting the place of a commercial gallery in organizing four exhibitions and related town meetings addressing sub-themes of timeliness and civic urgency: Education, Politics and Election, Cultural Participation, and, finally, AIDS and Democracy: A Case Study. Doug Ashford describing the curatorial method: “To defend the notion of an artwork as an encounter with a person and then display this encounter in the context of new politics was Group Material’s contradictory innovation, the design of a place where the self expands by rupturing in relationship to others. . . . It meant that we would have to try to invent visual solutions (to argument) that would be able to question themselves.”
LIBERATE TATE, "Human Cost"
Human Cost, Tate Britain Performance – First Anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico Disaster, 20 April 2011, performance, 87 min, charcoal and sunflower oil.
Harrell Fletcher, "People's Biennial" & "Corentine's Turtle"
"People’s Biennial is an exhibition that examines the work of artists who operate outside the sanctioned mainstream art world. As such it recognizes a wide array of artistic expression present in many communities across the United States. Working in cities that are not considered the primary art capitals, the 36 artists in this exhibition present significant contemporary work ranging from documentary photographs of military life in the heartland, to video works focusing on the biological activity in urban ecosystems, and complex, minute marble-like sculptures carved out of soap bars. In covering even the little-known, the overlooked, the marginalized, and the excluded, the exhibition represents a real snapshot of creative practice in America today."
Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin, "Circle through New York"
In their new project A talking parrot, a high school drama class, a Punjabi TV show, the oldest song in the world, a museum artwork, and a congregation’s call to action circle through New York, artists Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin create a complex system of social and material exchange that brings together city communities often separated by cultural, economic, geographic, or circumstantial boundaries. The artists have drawn an imaginary circle through Harlem, the South Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan’s Upper East Side and invited six public venues along the circle’s path to participate in a system of social and material exchange. These spaces, which include a pet store, a high school, a TV network, an academic research institute, the Guggenheim, and a church, serve as the project’s cocreators and hosts. The artists worked with the venues to select aspects of their identities—referenced in the project’s full title—that will rotate among the six locations over a period of six months.
Occupy Museums, "Stress, Fear, and Anxiety Bundle" (2015)
"Each year, more American artists go to school to get M.F.A. degrees, and more people come out of those programs in debt. Becoming a successful artist may, in other words, come at a financial cost. 'Debt,' the collective Occupy Museums writes in a manifesto on the website for its ongoing project Debtfair, 'is the key to American art today.'"
The counter-commencement featured some 40 “students,” some in traditional graduation caps and gowns who would later reveal their naked bodies covered with green, black, and white paint, and stuck with fake $100 bills.
"People’s Biennial is an exhibition that examines the work of artists who operate outside the sanctioned mainstream art world. As such it recognizes a wide array of artistic expression present in many communities across the United States. Working in cities that are not considered the primary art capitals, the 36 artists in this exhibition present significant contemporary work ranging from documentary photographs of military life in the heartland, to video works focusing on the biological activity in urban ecosystems, and complex, minute marble-like sculptures carved out of soap bars. In covering even the little-known, the overlooked, the marginalized, and the excluded, the exhibition represents a real snapshot of creative practice in America today."
Corentine's Turtle is a public art sculpture Harrell Fletcher made with an 8 year old boy for a sculpture garden in a small town in France. Fletcher surveyed people around the town and people said they didn't like the sculptures. So he asked what people did want. An 8-year-old named Corentine wanted a turtle made of gold but painted green. Together they created this project
Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin, "Circle through New York"
In their new project A talking parrot, a high school drama class, a Punjabi TV show, the oldest song in the world, a museum artwork, and a congregation’s call to action circle through New York, artists Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin create a complex system of social and material exchange that brings together city communities often separated by cultural, economic, geographic, or circumstantial boundaries. The artists have drawn an imaginary circle through Harlem, the South Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan’s Upper East Side and invited six public venues along the circle’s path to participate in a system of social and material exchange. These spaces, which include a pet store, a high school, a TV network, an academic research institute, the Guggenheim, and a church, serve as the project’s cocreators and hosts. The artists worked with the venues to select aspects of their identities—referenced in the project’s full title—that will rotate among the six locations over a period of six months.
Occupy Museums, "Stress, Fear, and Anxiety Bundle" (2015)
"Each year, more American artists go to school to get M.F.A. degrees, and more people come out of those programs in debt. Becoming a successful artist may, in other words, come at a financial cost. 'Debt,' the collective Occupy Museums writes in a manifesto on the website for its ongoing project Debtfair, 'is the key to American art today.'"
The counter-commencement featured some 40 “students,” some in traditional graduation caps and gowns who would later reveal their naked bodies covered with green, black, and white paint, and stuck with fake $100 bills.
No comments:
Post a Comment