laundry rooms are the new coffee house/delis.

Nature has had her day

"Nature had had her day, as he put it.  By the disgusting sameness of her landscapes and skies, she had once and for all wearied the considerate patience of aesthetes.  Really, what dullness! the dullness of the specialist confined to his narrow work.  What manners! the manners of the tradesman offering one particular ware to the exclusion of all others.  What a monotonous storehouse of fields and trees! What a banal agency of mountains and seas! 

There is not one of her inventions, no matter how subtle or imposing it my be, which human genius cannot create; no fountainbleau forest, no moonlight which a scenic setting flooded with electricity cannot produce; no waterfall which hydraulics cannot imitate to perfection; no rock which pasteboard cannot be made to resemble; no flower which taffetas and delicately painted papers cannot simulate.

There can be no doubt about it: this eternal driveling, old woman is no longer admired by true artists, and the moment has come to replace her by artifice."

-Huysman's "Against the Grain"

Progress report

I thought maybe a progress report of the physical work I am doing/have done up to this point, might be helpful...

-I started my physical work by painting and drawing overtop of photographs I had taken of things in the natural world. I was trying to add a layer of artifice to 'the natural' and an obvious 'personal hand of the artist' to the work.  I wanted to take something of the natural world and turn it into art.  I wanted to take a beauty that is very seductive but push it past something that is "pretty".  However, after a review, it was pointed out that adding this layer of artifice wasn't translating as artificially reinventing the natural elements being depicted, because the viewer cold not move past the photographs themselves.  They were photographs I had taken and therefore the viewer's relationship to the photograph was not what I wanted.  I wanted the viewer to see what was in the photograph and read it as a representation of the natural world, then see the layers of artifice I put overtop of it as the 'work of art'.  But, because the photographs were originally by me, 'the artist', they weren't being read as representations for something else, but as the art themselves and therefore the layers of artifice ('the art') overtop, were not making any sense.  From there I knew I needed to work with someone else's works. The original work could not be by me. 

-Since the next iteration of the project was proposed, I have since been gathering a little collection of paintings and photographs from everywhere I can find them for a low cost. Paintings and photographs of landscape sceneries, and other depictions of 'things from the natural world' (animals, wild flowers, trees, leaves, etc).

-I have taken pictures of all these works and have begun to manipulate them in varying degrees.  For example, i started with a photograph I found of autumn leaves on a grassy background.  ( I bought this for three dollars), I took that pictures and actually remade it physically with real autumn leaves and grass, that I then put in a picture frame like the original.  The colors are brighter, the layout differently composed, but all in all, the collage 'picture' is of the same thing. Then I photographed my collage and put it in photoshop. After a few quick photoshop alterations, I had an interesting looking black and white abstract photograph (done in a digital watercolor style). this took me no more than a half hour. Next I took that digital reproduction and printed it out and used it as a reference to paint an actual abstract oil painting of the collage. Lastly I took all four reproductions and hung them on the wall all next to each other and asked passerby's to identify which of the four is 'the art'.  Issues considered were 'framed and not framed' 'time it took to make' 'cost' 'media (oil paint says art, photoshop doesnt)' etc.

The physical products of this are not stunningly appealing to me, but it is starting to raise some of the questions I am hoping to address.  

-Next I have my photography series.  I have been taking pictures of people/families/couples who own these landscape/nature paintings in their houses, hung on there walls, with them posed in the picture alongside these works.  I am trying to understand people's relationship to these works.  Why they choose to hang them in their houses, above their couches, etc. how do they view them- as art, paintings, photographs, decorations- what is the language they use to describe them?  I have two sets of these so far and will have many more after returning from Thanksgiving break (I found it is easiest to use family friends, or people who I am in some way affiliated with but do not know all that well).  After the first two rounds, and the conversations that took place, I now have a strong desire to also film my encounter in these people's homes (if they are willing).  Unfortunately the print was on the wrong kind of paper and so it needs reprinting, but one photograph I took was of an older couple siting on their couch, both with hands crossed in their laps, with their nature landscape painting hanging on the wall behind them.  At one point I took this picture and hung it above my couch in my studio and I really enjoyed the relationship I had created there- I want to look at this more.

-Lastly, I have been out filming about 15 times (approximately 20 hours out).  I have gathered just over 10 hours of footage, and imported about 8 of the 10. The 8 hours that are imported have been cut, and cataloged (or labeled) to make editing much quicker-finding clips will be simpler, I will not have to look through every clip to find what I want.

-I am waiting to finish the tape to export the remaining footage, which will be finished, imported and cataloged by the end of the weekend.

-I have begun work actually editing a few small pieces of the film together trying to illustrate visually my intentions for the film.  Last thursday however my hard drive power supply fried (luckily the surge protector did its job and that was ALL that was ruined), so I spent all of friday at IT moving my files from my hard drive to a loaner hard drive while I wait for the new power supply to ship...(thats about two to three weeks) In doing that, I had to move the entire capture scratch to the new hard drive, so all of the clips disconnected- final cut basically could not recognize where the original clips were being stored so the clips will not play in final cut until you reconnect all the media.  The majority of the work I did this weekend was reconnecting some 200 clips by hand in final cut so the project was playable/editable again. Apparently some of the clips were lost in the transition to the new hard drive so I will head back to IT soon to find where they went.  Other than that the film is ready for editing again.

-I also have a list of local(ish) 'craft shows' 'art shows' for the months of October, November and December and made it to the two that have taken place so far. One in Dexter and one in Grand Rapids. There is another this coming weekend in Brighton that I will be attending.  I have just been going, taking notes, getting some film footage, taking a few pictures, and talking to some of the booth owners.  I am not sure where these experiences are leading me, it is mostly a research type of activity at this point.  I have gathered some flyers though, looking at how these craft shows advertise themselves- as art shows, as crafts, as decorations,  to buy art for your house, etc.

-Meanwhile the physical work is going on, I am entertaining and stimulating  my brain with books and books and books.  Of particular interest to me so far, i found a play by Moliere called "The middle class gentleman" (there are a few posts about that here on my blog), Baudrillard's "Exit from Dialog",  Bourdieu's "Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste", Kant's "Observation on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime", Huysman's "Against the Grain", and  Elkin's "Why Art Cannot be Taught" (for my own sanity). 

"..the buyers did the editing."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/arts/design/04auction.html?_r=1

Found this article today- thought it was pertinent.

Below are a few paragraphs excerpted from the article that really caught my eye concerning the ideas I am trying to sift through and talk about. Or possibly some examples of why I am allocating a grotesque amount of time and energy to addressing these topics.

-a concerned artist

"It wasn’t surprising that such a classic Impressionist image brought a strong price. These prettier works are what buyers have been gravitating toward since the recession began. In May at Sotheby’s, three paintings that had belonged to an heir of Henry O. and Louisine Waldron Elder Havemeyer — celebrated collectors who left prime examples by Degas, Cassatt, Courbet, Manet and Monet to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1929 — were snapped up by collectors at solid prices."

***(please ignore the emphasis on 'impressionism', but rather, gravitate your attention towards the description of 'prettier works')*** I don't want to have a discussion about impressionism, I am not attacking impressionism- I am attacking taste.

"After the sale, as the audience milled outside Christie’s [the gallery], James Roundell, a London dealer, perhaps summed up the auction best when he said, “It was a night where the buyers did the editing."

***(I am noticing a theme. Sound familiar... recall Moliere's play perhaps?)