gifts

i really liked joel and amy's presentation today- and not just because of the free food! it's interesting to watch how people respond to being given unexpected gifts and then once they are used to the idea of having the gift a sense of entitlement develops. and even the most stoic among us were moved to laughter and excitement at the prospect of presents!!! it was really fun and also a great way to involve everyone in the ideas from the reading without it being boring or putting anyone on the spot. my boyfriend's mom is constantly giving me unwanted gifts- the last time i saw her the gifts included: a pair of bright orange suede moccasins, a dream catcher, countless newspaper clippings from the NY Times arts section, a red satin purse and a silver claddah necklace. as anyone who knows me might guess, none of these gifts are in any way useful to me (maybe the clippings, but i read the times online). i can't even wear the moccasins (i'm probably spelling that wrong) because they are way too narrow. and i don't ever wear jewelry, i'm allergic to gold and silver. yet everytime i see her, she bestows on me more useless ephemera. it's really a horrible situation because she is so awesome and she really wants to give me what she considers to be cool stuff that she thinks i'll like. but the gifts often actually create resentment. i resent the fact that this woman who has known me for almost 4 years still gives me the same gifts that i have told her dozens of times i do not want or need in the most polite way possible. i eventually just resigned to the fact that the happiness she gets from giving me things is more important, so i just smile and say "i love the moccasins!!!" and then i re-gift them to whoever i can find who might want them. i used to feel guilty about the re-gifting. but i feel comfort in knowing that re-gifting is a part of that cycle of giving that hyde talks about. and my mom just happens to love dreamcatchers, so i have re-gifted about 4 to her and also several pairs of moccasins. which makes me and her happy, so i guess it all works out in the end

art

i just got back from nyc and i am supercharged with energy and optimism. i saw so much great work and i wanted to share some of the stuff i saw with you guys. if anyone is going to be in nyc in the coming weeks i highly recommend checking out the greater new york MFA exhibition at hunter college in midtown. it includes work from 20+ MFA programs ranging from montclair & rutgers to yale & brooklyn college. it was great to see what is happening in other programs. some of the work was great, some sucked- but it was just nice to have a bit of context for what we are doing and how other people are handling the grad experience. one of my best friends just started the program at hunter and it was great to have some insight from outside of our little pod city. i also went to PS1 and they have several great shows up. there's a vik muniz show that was so awesome i almost peed my pants. it had the toy soldier portraits, the peanut butter and jelly mona lisas and a bunch of my other favs along with a lot of stuff i had never seen. it was wonderful to be reminded that there are still people out there pushing the boundaries of photography. it seems like academia is trying to talk us out of the craft as if it "isn't enough". like when in one of daeshas critiques people kept saying she should intervene in the environments or stage some sort of public sculpture. why can't the photographs be enough??? when will we have to stop defending what we do? anyway, i just forgot how awesome vik muniz is and if you like him, get your ass down there. there was also a tom sandberg show at PS1 that was almost all gelatin silver prints. for those of us who know the significance- "the cult of silver" is alive and well- wink, wink. these photos also made me feel better about my own respect for craft and the process of photography- the respect that i was worried had been methodically brow beaten out of me, but it is still alive! and lastly, there was also a show at ps1 called "not for sale". an amazing group show that relates directly to the class. all the work was literally "not for sale". there was a broad range of stuff- richard prince, matthew richie, jeff koons, sharin neshat, robert rauschenberg, just a ton of stuff. most of the work had short explainations from the artists for why the piece was not available for purchase. the explainations were all over the place and given the status of many of the contributors, they were pretty funny to consider. especially the koons. (here's a link to the press release if you want more info: http://www.ps1.org/ps1_site/content/view/229/102/) it's well worth the trek to check these two shows out if you have time. here's some pics from the hunter show and the last one is from this funny interactive installation at ps1 that was supposed to be emulating iceland. i wanted to take more pics at PS1 but the security was on high alert or something...

funding

i have pretty strong feelings about this subject. i do think art is very important for society and that more people of diverse economic backgrounds should have access to art. that being said, i do not think it is the governments responsibility to fund individual artists. community arts programs, museums and other venues that are open to and benefit the general public should receive a certain amount of support, the same way health care and other social programs should, but as for individual artists, I don't think we should strive to rely on the government for money. There are many other professions that benefit the public- doctors, health care workers, day care workers, teachers- the list goes on- and none of these people are given individual support from the government for their efforts, so why should we as artists expect it? for me the choice of becoming an artist was not predicated on an assumption that i was owed a debt from society or the government for my noble efforts. there is so much private funding out there not only for artists, but for non-profit spaces- you just have to find it. like most careers, that of an artist takes a lot of administrative work. that anyone would expect to work in their studio 24/7 and just get handed money without lifting a finger to facilitate is just outrageous. yes, we will all probably have to work jobs that may or may not be related to art to get by at first, if not for the rest of our lives. and we will most likely bust our asses without a great deal of recognition. i believe that struggle is what makes life worth living and it is also what keeps you connected to humanity. living in an ivory tower where you make art that has no relevance to the general public is useless anyway. i'd much rather start a community arts center and impact the lives of young people than to exist in a bubble and receive accolades from an academic or other institutional structure that benifits only those with access to it.

dylan

overall i found the meredith tax writing to be on the mark in terms of how our criticism of different forms of expression become compartmentalized. and that the very categories people work within tend to weigh heavily on how the work is judged and interpreted. i did think her example of bob dylan was very funny though. of course dylan wrote from the heart and commented on the political climate, but to assume that everyone listening to his music was informed by it is absurd. he is largely regarded as a pop singer, not just a poet or even activist. and he distanced himself from many of the protest movements he had originally been a part of because he felt they were not really successful and that he was being exploited. his divergence from the folk scene was also a symptom of his own desire to change with the times and remain viable in american popular culture. which brings us back to the question of who his work was/is for? is it for young revolutionaries? maybe once it was. but now it is pop music that has about as much to do with revolution as the backstreet boys. i don't neccessarily think this deminishes the initial impact of his writing, but to hold him up as a pilar of "art as process" seems a little convoluted. i would posit ani difranco as a much better example of someone who never took the dangling carrot, always kept her artistic integrity and maintains popularity with her origianl fans because she has never waivered in her militant protests against civil injustice. and her work reaches far outside her music in her support of the arts locally and her personal involvement within the community. she will never be as mainstream as dylan, and that to me is a sign of her success as an activist. subversion can only go so far, sometimes you have to just say what you mean.

1st year opening

hey guys, i think our show looked pretty damn good! yeay us! here are some pics....