how is one to create a simple, elegant, fluid and seemingly effortless piece of writing?
Sunday, October 31, 2010
"words words words"
how is one to create a simple, elegant, fluid and seemingly effortless piece of writing?
Friday, October 29, 2010
art writing as extension?
perhaps art writing can extend art, the way a pointed foot or long fingers extend the line of a dancer...
sometimes an articulate friend's recounting of a film, novel or exhibition is more exciting than the actual work itself... because they bring it to life in a shared language accentuating elements they know we will like... inflecting the work in a certain way...
art writing as anecdote?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
drinking bath-water
Daniel Webby Performance
20th October
RM, ground floor, 295 Karangahape Road, Auckland
20th October
RM, ground floor, 295 Karangahape Road, Auckland
In the middle of RM sat a large concrete trough or tub filled with water, a towel and facecloth, then off to one side a ladder contraption, between it hanging a pair of beige stockings holding a weighty black substance in their feet- Ernesto Neto- style.
Next to the ladder sat a tray with a number of small drinking glasses on it.
The artist- Daniel Webby began by reading from a scrap of paper, the contents of which is now obliterated in my memory by the artists proceeding actions.
After a somewhat nervous talk the artist retreated behind a plastic curtain, and emerged naked except for a towel.
He then steeped into the large tub and began to bathe himself, immersing his whole body under water, washing his face with the facecloth, all the things one would do in their own home, but heightened by our looking in a sort of double gesture, or more conscious movements.
Unlike connotations that the naked body often has in performance art- endurance, testing bodily limits, watching someone bathe, naked, was a gentle, uneasily private action.
On stepping out of the bath Webby scooped some of the water up in a jug and poured it through the stocking contraption, which he told us was filtering system the black weighty stuff was a mixture of substances- some charcoal, that absorbed any impurities from his bathed-in water.
Webby then proceeded to pour a little amount of the bath water into the small glasses distributing them to the people in the room, to drink.
The bath water was tepid and had a curious concrete-y taste
Later walking home, the taste still lingered- carrying a residue of the performance home, I had the feeling that something had been imparted.
I felt like I had carried out some act of worship, I thought of the Eucharist, and about how we had all consumed something that had been intimate with the artist’s body.
But there was also something silly maybe even jokey about the whole thing, our compliance, and perhaps reverence for the artist in drinking his dirty bath water…
Upon leaving I felt quite excited even jubilant, complicit, and ultimately convinced…
Next to the ladder sat a tray with a number of small drinking glasses on it.
The artist- Daniel Webby began by reading from a scrap of paper, the contents of which is now obliterated in my memory by the artists proceeding actions.
After a somewhat nervous talk the artist retreated behind a plastic curtain, and emerged naked except for a towel.
He then steeped into the large tub and began to bathe himself, immersing his whole body under water, washing his face with the facecloth, all the things one would do in their own home, but heightened by our looking in a sort of double gesture, or more conscious movements.
Unlike connotations that the naked body often has in performance art- endurance, testing bodily limits, watching someone bathe, naked, was a gentle, uneasily private action.
On stepping out of the bath Webby scooped some of the water up in a jug and poured it through the stocking contraption, which he told us was filtering system the black weighty stuff was a mixture of substances- some charcoal, that absorbed any impurities from his bathed-in water.
Webby then proceeded to pour a little amount of the bath water into the small glasses distributing them to the people in the room, to drink.
The bath water was tepid and had a curious concrete-y taste
Later walking home, the taste still lingered- carrying a residue of the performance home, I had the feeling that something had been imparted.
I felt like I had carried out some act of worship, I thought of the Eucharist, and about how we had all consumed something that had been intimate with the artist’s body.
But there was also something silly maybe even jokey about the whole thing, our compliance, and perhaps reverence for the artist in drinking his dirty bath water…
Upon leaving I felt quite excited even jubilant, complicit, and ultimately convinced…
Monday, October 18, 2010
art writing as rhyme
i like the idea of art writing as a tidy tangle, a weaving, a rhyming between art work and text, between text and artwork, a fragile symbiosis
art writing for me extends my experience of an art work, as does reading a novel, a poem, a shopping list...
Sunday, October 17, 2010
art writing as parasite?
art writing as ... fluctuating between the poetic, sprawling and minimal... wandering, shifting and adapting to artworks accordingly... sometimes occupying a similar structures to the art work itself... art writing as mimicry of artwork? or as rhyming?
art writing as parasite... vampyric? engorging itself... or sitting in quietude upon art like mistletoe on a tree ... or lichen... there is certainly something ad hoc about writing about art... slightly superfluous, unnecessary perhaps... something unstable... precarious...
art writing as a cautious pointing?
art writing as parasite... vampyric? engorging itself... or sitting in quietude upon art like mistletoe on a tree ... or lichen... there is certainly something ad hoc about writing about art... slightly superfluous, unnecessary perhaps... something unstable... precarious...
art writing as a cautious pointing?
why write about art at all?
art writing as parasite?
a story?
art writing should ... involve proust... create terms anew in italics... have a balance between the oeuvre of an artist, a little theory (just enough)... sometimes context... occasional remarks by the artist... links to other sympathetic texts whether they are novels, poetry or philosophy...
art writing should not: have too many footnotes or preach.
perhaps another important question is: why write about art at all?
art writing should not: have too many footnotes or preach.
perhaps another important question is: why write about art at all?
Saturday, October 16, 2010
the art of writing
What is art writing? what should art writing be? a moment of illumination?
a story?
in the dark
I went to Art in the Dark last night, taking place all over Western Park in Ponsonby.Trees were strung up with illuminated, shiny, flickering, flashing, child and moth friendly works.
I think this work was my favorite...
not an artwork, but a piece of processed silver?
it happened that
curated by charlotte huddleston
at st. paul street gallery, auckland
[maddie leach "the matter of higher moments" 2010]
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Saskia
Saskia Leek, You and Me, 2008Saskia Leek is the master of the not quite right, she paints with a studied awkwardness. Her work is almost disconcerting in its familiarity...
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