Stupid people shouldn't breed

So Holzer is back at the MCA! There is a small exhibition of 4 artists and Holzer is one of them. Now I personally LOVE her work and am so thrilled that she has a presence in the institution once again. The striking thing though is that after her work was so dramatically presented in darkened galleries last year in her solo exhibition I was struck today when I saw two of her LED pieces in starkly lit rooms. This made me think about our reliance on predicable built environments which I know Gillick and Deller are exploring in very different yet intentional ways.* But this moment of first encountering Holzer after last seeing her work for months in the dim galleries of yesteryear the concept of environmental impact was stronger than ever. The LED lights scrolling her startling and ever-interesting truisms felt less magical and more real. There was less beauty in the honesty and/or boldness of her truisms- and instead of feeling of "well shit, she's kinda right about that one too". I am still in complete awe of her work after seeing her Protect, protect exhibition last year but why am I so distressed without the dark environment that felt like it offered me a safe zone, a cradle, holding me while I explored her work...I thought I was stronger than this.

Politics/art/thinking= lots to think about

I attended the Columbia College Teaching Artist Conference last week and during a panel discussion one of the questions was, “Do you see your work as a teaching artist as inherently political?” Now wait a moment, maybe consider your thoughts……… ok so the first answer to this question by one of the panel speakers was: “Everything you do in this field has political implications.” Interesting response, loaded response. This was then elaborated on, “politics want the status quo, art disrupts that”. I share that thought because how amazing and eloquent is that!! A solid yet expanding definintion of what it is that we do as teaching artists, as artists. What I was thinking about in relation to this was in connection with some of the challenges that President Obama encountered when he was our democratic candidate last year. The whole Ayers situation raised so many interesting realities of our now hyper connected society that we live in. Now that everything that we do is recorded, noted, catalogued young people growing up have a hightened awareness of how their choices have implications that could be held against them in the future. I recall last year a conversation in another class when someone was working to get signatures for planned parenthood support and a high school student said they do support pro-choice organizations but that they cannot put their name down on a paper because they are interested in a career in politics and they know that a signature like that would marry them to this cause. Wow! Now I think that we do need to work on fostering a greater sense of accountability for our actions from youth straight into adulthood, but I find that there is also a sadness to the thought process of this high school student in the planned parenthood situation. If youth cannot feel like they can explore and support, change and amend their values and beliefs as they grow as people then geez that’s a whole lot of pressure! Now getting back to this idea that “politics want status quo and art distrupts that”- I know there is a connection here but I’m struggling to make it. Perhaps what I’m trying to get at is: if one identifies as an artist, people seem to have a more understanding view of why someone might explore their political views in their work. Why are we looking at artists differently than this high school student- why can’t he explore his political views by signing that petition or other petitions that he believes in at this point in his life, its where he is right now...

Interesting

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html?_r=1

5th grade boys are funny

Funny line today at work
I was about to take a group of 5th grade boys into the painting exhibition and one of the boys said:


"Painting! Boring! I mean you dip a paintbrush in some paint, paint a donkey on some paper, and done. Whats the big deal?!??"


Hahahahaha. He actually ended up really liking the exhibition. And I still can't figure out where the donkey part came from.

So as my thesis work progresses I am beginning to feel like I am studying this one topic and this one topic only. Now I'm not saying that this is a boring practice- rather that I LOVE being this invested in one specific area but I am feeling a bit selfish almost. It seems that I have always found great value in not being too focused on one area, always valuing the open minded approach to learning- that you can learn about a million topics in any given day and that is so exciting. However here with this thesis study I really am looking with a microscopic lense at my ONE topic. It literally is painful for me, and almost feels wrong, that I print off articles to read and then I notice its not on my topic so I don't read them. What is going on! I know that I get to be this specialized in my interests this year because that is how to write a comprehensive study of this topic- it is my job and my privilege to slow down from the fanatic pace of education and study in depth this topic. I feel that this is an appropriate time to be learning in such a specialized way but I feel fortunate that I didn't get too specialized earlier in my education. I was always glad that I wasn't a kid who picked one activity and only did that activity- or in college going to a liberal arts school allowed me to not have to pick one discipline until well into my 2nd year. That model worked well for me. But now with this thesis project I am starting to see great value in a specified study and I'm going to attempt to relate that thinking to other areas of life:
Is there immense value in buckling down to one activity or discipline and excelling there versus learning through doing many?
Was my experience "just exploring and doing whichever activity seemed interesting that day/year" a kind of hodge-podge approach to finding my interests?

Modern Wing

I am a big fan of the Modern Wing because with all the technology and the politics of museums aside it is simply gorgeous. I love how it feel like if you were to put the Modern Wing on a scale it would only weight maybe 5 pounds, it seems so airy and light- literally. I also am in love with the garden seating area just south of the Education Center and north of the photography galleries. I think that the green chairs that are out there are lovely and hope that area becomes more widely used as a quiet seating place within the bustling museum- like a library without book, just with your thoughts in it. I spent some time there this summer with two teenagers that I worked with and we used that space as a think tank. We would go in the galleries, get all riled up by the hot topics of the artwork and then go to those pale green chairs and sit and think and talk. It was wonderful.
Now on a different note- technology. So I love the touch screen maps but it feels too open- like I think its awesome that you can map out where the next artwork is but what then... Therefore I propose that there are some selected groupings available that are chosen by different groups of people. At the MOMA they have audio tours by teens, children, adults, impressionist themed ones, animal themed ones, etc.
http://www.moma.org/visit/plan/atthemuseum/momaaudio
That's what I think those touch screens could be. Groups that already work in some ways with the museum- partner schools, teen interns, regular family programs, the board- would each be invited to come up with a theme and then select 10 pieces that explore that theme from multiple angles. Then you could choose a theme depending on who you are, your interest, whatever and then you would have some pieces that were linked thematically. That would be a good way to explore the museum without feeling like you were just on a random trek to the next piece. Once you selected your theme the tour list would print out. In a different manner but going off of the same idea the Brooklyn Museum of Art has a pre printed tour written by teens, for teens.
www.brooklynmuseum.org/education/.../Teen_Guide_to_Art.pdf
My proposed program would have this for many different groups and you could choose which group you most identify with.

Not sure what to title this, and thats ok

I spoke with a doctor recently who had hired a candidate with an art degree over a candidate with a medical background for a job because they had felt that an art student has skills of looking were more developed and would be extremely beneficial in this position. I shared this story with a friend who is also and artist and she summed her art educaiton in the following way: "I learned to be comfortable with ambiguity". I just fell in love with this phrase- it is so complex and begs to be unpacked. I was thinking about how sometimes we can let this comfort with ambiguity be an excuse for not fully investing ourselves in a study- not working hard enough to entertain whether a concrete outcome is a possibility. But other times, the beauty of resting with ambiguity is just stunning.