Claire Bishop
Quotes
Many artists now make no
distinction between their work inside and outside the gallery, and even highly established and
commercially successful figures like Francis Alÿs, Pierre Huyghe, Matthew Barney, and
Thomas Hirschhorn have all turned to social collaboration as an extension of their conceptual
or sculptural practice. Although the objectives and output of these various artists and groups
vary enormously, all are linked by a belief in the empowering creativity of collective action and
shared ideas.
Pg1
But the urgency of this political
task has led to a situation in which such collaborative practices are automatically perceived to
be equally important artistic gestures of resistance: There can be no failed, unsuccessful,
unresolved, or boring works of collaborative art because all are equally essential to the task of
strengthening the social bond. While I am broadly sympathetic to that ambition, I would argue
that it is also crucial to discuss, analyze, and compare such work critically as art. This critical
task is particularly pressing in Britain, where New Labour uses a rhetoric almost identical to
that of socially engaged art to steer culture toward policies of social inclusion. Reducing art to
statistical information about target audiences and "performance indicators," the government
prioritizes social effect over considerations of artistic quality.
Pg2
Questions
distinction between their work inside and outside the gallery, and even highly established and
commercially successful figures like Francis Alÿs, Pierre Huyghe, Matthew Barney, and
Thomas Hirschhorn have all turned to social collaboration as an extension of their conceptual
or sculptural practice. Although the objectives and output of these various artists and groups
vary enormously, all are linked by a belief in the empowering creativity of collective action and
shared ideas.
Pg1
But the urgency of this political
task has led to a situation in which such collaborative practices are automatically perceived to
be equally important artistic gestures of resistance: There can be no failed, unsuccessful,
unresolved, or boring works of collaborative art because all are equally essential to the task of
strengthening the social bond. While I am broadly sympathetic to that ambition, I would argue
that it is also crucial to discuss, analyze, and compare such work critically as art. This critical
task is particularly pressing in Britain, where New Labour uses a rhetoric almost identical to
that of socially engaged art to steer culture toward policies of social inclusion. Reducing art to
statistical information about target audiences and "performance indicators," the government
prioritizes social effect over considerations of artistic quality.
Pg2
Questions
This debate over the quality or conscionability of an artwork causes me to wonder if one should not be more concerned with the art one is making and instead be concerned with who’s making the work and what are their ethical concerns?
In the description of the work They Shoot Horses 2004 I realize this critique culture is not only discourse for all viewers, it is also a direct response to the maker. In this it isn't an assault on what I do, because I have a code of ethics in which I ascribe to. And while an artistic exploration may be interesting, the motives behind it may be entirely questionable. That said, I feel less drawn to the discourse around art and art making to help guide my process. Instead I am more drawn to those who live genuine and authentic lives, and the lessons they’ve learned, live by, and teach through their actions are the best guides I could hope for in choosing a way for me to live, and make, art.
Would the critiques of larger movements hold up as well if the authors of this content were forced to include as many examples of successful works as they do works that are problematic in their writings? One can build a case for or against anything when the evidence is tailored to their case. What are we, in high school debate team?!
the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination
Quotes
“I don’t see art as having ever, in a
real sense, affected the course of
human affairs.”
Clement Greenberg
real sense, affected the course of
human affairs.”
Clement Greenberg
Pg 1
It’s easy to feel paralysed by the complexities of the
world, to feel like nothing you do will ever make a
difference. Those in authority want us to feel that way,
even though they tend to be the ones in the minority.
But when we look back at history we see that every
movement, every single shift in society began with
a small group of friends having an idea that seemed
impossible at the time.
What post-capitalist machine is waiting to
be imagined inside your head?
Pg 31
It’s easy to feel paralysed by the complexities of the
world, to feel like nothing you do will ever make a
difference. Those in authority want us to feel that way,
even though they tend to be the ones in the minority.
But when we look back at history we see that every
movement, every single shift in society began with
a small group of friends having an idea that seemed
impossible at the time.
What post-capitalist machine is waiting to
be imagined inside your head?
Pg 31
But without your identity you
are free, what you do becomes more important than
who you are, and what you do can be anything. You
may be surprised how art that forgets its name can
infiltrate unexpected places. Moving into other kinds
of making, other ways of relating, means slipping
at least partly out of the pages of art history and its
institutions, But you wouldn’t be the first spectre
haunting the art school…
However Gustave Courbet put down his paintbrushes and im-
mersed himself in the Commune. “I am up to my neck
in Politics” he wrote from a Paris that he described
as being paradise without the police. With his coura-
geous imagination, he planned the festival that was
to bring down the Vendôme Column, the hated public
monument to empire and hierarchy. Collective rebel-
lion became his paint, the city his canvas.
The greatest medium is the present. As Joseph Beuys
said, “Don’t wait to begin, use what you have.”
But there is another story to art. This is the one
where it escapes the prisons of the art world,
forgets its name, drops its starlit ego and becomes
a collective movement of creativity applied to the
material of everyday life.
Although the objectives and output of these various artists and groups
vary enormously, all are linked by a belief in the empowering creativity of collective action and
shared ideas.
For example, most reject the getting and spending that not only lay waste our own powers but put intolerable
pressures on the environment. They try to eat home-grown rather than processed foods, maintain physical well-being
through healthy habits rather than by dependence on prescription drugs, try to make livings in ways that are in
harmony with their convictions.
It’s easy to feel paralysed by the complexities of the
world, to feel like nothing you do will ever make a
difference. Those in authority want us to feel that way,
even though they tend to be the ones in the minority.
But when we look back at history we see that every
movement, every single shift in society began with
a small group of friends having an idea that seemed
impossible at the time.
world, to feel like nothing you do will ever make a
difference. Those in authority want us to feel that way,
even though they tend to be the ones in the minority.
But when we look back at history we see that every
movement, every single shift in society began with
a small group of friends having an idea that seemed
impossible at the time.
Pg 46
Questions
I get it, the written word has value. But how have we not evolved to even more complex pictographs over tiny shapes that together make words that strung along in a sentence has meaning. And then? How is it that all these texts profess the value of engagement and direct social action and then turn away from that to write it on a page. A page others read and hold up as law, at least those which they believe and agree with, the others lie on the ground in tatters as they walk over them to try and insist others read the text they clutch in their hand and follow it as devoutly. When will art historians and all wordsmiths for that matter realize that when they profess the values of those who deny politics and their nature they are acting contradictory to their own claims as they simply scribe words and sit back awaiting the revolution? When will those who seek to navigate and critique the colonized world through systems of colonial oppression realize they too flop and flounder in the same petri dish they believe they are on the microscope end of, but really the mirror they hold to society is none but a reflection of themselves?
Pg 14
If you are one who believes one’s actions can and will take hold in the fabric of the future as it slowly weaves itself into existence, is speculation on your ability to do so useful or inhibiting?
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