Monday, February 13, 2006
"While there is often a mirage of consensus in the London art world, the Paris scene remains complex, layered and critical." - This is a quote from a ICA press release that I found on the mm paris website. mm paris is a French graphic design company. I think there is an exhibition of mm paris work at The Haunch of Venison Gallery sometime in February.
The last thing I saw at the Haunch of Venison was Richard Long. He frustrates me. I find his work fascinating, however, the fact that he feels the need to photograph it and sell the photographs for several thousand pounds destroys the integrity of the work to such an extent that I feel that it's no longer worth looking at. Part of his work seems to be a discussion about the 'art object', but how can he legitimately talk about it when he so blatantly creates an art object purely for the market.
Another artist who frustrates me in this way is Matthew Barney; he makes elaborate, highly produced video art that he could very easily make thousands of copies and sell to every person that wanted to own it. But instead he makes only 4 copies which cost several hundred thousand dollars each. Artists and galleries try to hide behind this anti commercial, anti capitalist veil that allows them to be exclusive, inaccessible, luxury. But on the other hand I might be wrong!
Maybe this connects to the idea of activist art. If an aim of activist art is to reach as many people as possible, conventional ideas of the art object become redundant. ¶ 1:41 PM
The last thing I saw at the Haunch of Venison was Richard Long. He frustrates me. I find his work fascinating, however, the fact that he feels the need to photograph it and sell the photographs for several thousand pounds destroys the integrity of the work to such an extent that I feel that it's no longer worth looking at. Part of his work seems to be a discussion about the 'art object', but how can he legitimately talk about it when he so blatantly creates an art object purely for the market.
Another artist who frustrates me in this way is Matthew Barney; he makes elaborate, highly produced video art that he could very easily make thousands of copies and sell to every person that wanted to own it. But instead he makes only 4 copies which cost several hundred thousand dollars each. Artists and galleries try to hide behind this anti commercial, anti capitalist veil that allows them to be exclusive, inaccessible, luxury. But on the other hand I might be wrong!
Maybe this connects to the idea of activist art. If an aim of activist art is to reach as many people as possible, conventional ideas of the art object become redundant. ¶ 1:41 PM
