I would like to share a quote from a fascinating book I have been reading- Buddhist Mind in Contemporary Art (Baas and Jacob, 2004). They are writing in reference tp Duchamp’s definition of art making having two components.
“In the creative act,” he said, “the artists goes from intention to realization.” Duchamp spoke of a “gap” that “represents the inability of the artist to express fully his intention,” a gap that is filled by the participation of the spectator, whose own realization is a “phenomenon of transmutation”: an act of “transubstantiation” in which inert matter is experience as a work of art.
I was really excited when I came to this quote and I want to discuss it here relation to working in a museum. I constantly think about how artists leave their work in a museum. By leave I want to propose that its kind of like letting go of something or someone, all of a sudden that person is not there to talk anymore. I approach my visits to museums as a situation where I am charged with trying to make meaning about the work. I often make a mental list of the questions I would ask the artist if they were there and yet often I'm glad I don't get the questions answered whereas other times I know I really need to speak with that artist (although that is usually always impossible). I wonder why I don't always want to speak with them, I feel like sometimes I get so emotionally connected to a piece and I take my role as viewer too personally that I am afraid the work might fall short if I heard the artists view. I don't like that I think like that because I LOVE hearing artists speak about their work and I think it is so important to be able to hear someones view and still make your own meanings.
Either way, I liked how this text phrased t this experience as a gap. I also like that to be excited by the presence of that gap.
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wow, great quote! and i love your idea about imagining questions you'd ask the artist if given the chance, but i also think you shouldn't get down on yourself for the times when you'd rather not get their account. i think the fact that meaning-making with art can happen from so many perspectives and at so many different levels is a huge aspect of what makes me excited about art. this is not to say that every interpretation is just as valid and important as the next... leading to total meaninglessness in the end; but instead, as an educator of kids/teens, i think you're really on to something with showing folks that they CAN have their own interpretations, meanings, and feelings about a work. i think that stance helps break down some of the barriers and fears that people have about art, especially contemporary art. don't lose that elena! :)
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