One thing I have discovered over the years is that people have really strong opinions about art. If I write about an artist that people don’t like, they immediately press “unsubscribe” and sometimes follow-up with a reprimanding email saying that what the particular artist in question is doing, is not art. By now I am used to this and I amuse myself by predicting what kind of articles will solicit such a response. This is going to be one of those articles. Brace yourself.
An important goal of art and artists is to make us see the world in a different way. Often this is done through artworks in the form of paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs or videos. However another way contemporary artists challenge our ways of thinking is through actions. This kind of work might be described as performative art or social practice. Michael Landy is an artist who used the action of destroying every object he owned to make us question our accumulation of objects.
We all have moments in our life where we realize we own too much stuff: too many clothes, too many shoes, too many books and on it goes. Some of us attempt to de-clutter by following gurus such as Marie Kondo in the Magic Art of Tidying Up or others follow the Swedish “dostadning”, a hybrid of the words for death and cleaning. In 2001 Landy chose to deal with the burden of possessions by making an an art piece about getting rid of every object he owned.
In Breakdown Landy put all of his belongings on a conveyor belt and over a two-week period, he systematically broke them down into the smallest components possible given the machinery involved (see image below). While this might seem an extreme act, the loss of one’s possessions it is a thought that crosses everybody’s mind at some point. We convince ourselves that we cannot live without our objects, and yet this is not true considering many people have experienced such as loss through fire, flood or war and somehow they find a way to survive. Our possessions give our life meaning, but they also hold us back and can be seen as an unnecessary burden.
In a blog called SPACES, Landy describes the experience of destroying all his possessions:
“I really loved it, especially the actual process of destruction. I didn’t miss things because I rationalised them as part of an artwork – I wasn’t acting as a madman – so I was mentally prepared”. Landy meticulously documented all of his belongings (see image towards end of article) before breaking things down. The written record replaced the loss or absence of the actual objects. He discusses his process in a Canadian Art article: On the Art of Destruction. |
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Roberta Smith’s includes an exhibition of Landy’s work in her recent New York Times article: 5 Great Art Exhibitions to See Before They Close. Landy’s current project, Breaking News, includes a multitude of drawings described in Hyperallergic as “ranging in size from minuscule to monstrous”. This exhibition also contains a floor-to-ceiling text inventory of the 7,227 objects destroyed in Breakdown (see below). While the works are different in intent, the themes of the everyday and excess create a sense of continuity in Landy’s work spanning the last 17 years.
The thing that appealed to me most about Landy’s process was that of taking an “inventory”. The visual impact of the list of all the objects he owned is very powerful. After first seeing Landy’s work at the Vancouver Art Gallery at For the Record: Drawing Contemporary Art (2003), I attempted to make a list of all the things I owned. I stopped after a couple of pages because I couldn’t get past the immensity of the task at hand. The process did make me consider what I owned and why I owned it. Breakdown is an exemplary example of how art can make us think about how we live our lives.
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Art in windows
I was mesmerized as a child by the Christmas window of Ogilvy’s department store in Montreal. This window was filled to the brim with moving animals including hopping frogs, swaying monkies, working bunnies, nodding sheep, sliding donkies, as well as lights, sparkling snow, trees and lovely old-fashioned buildings: Ogilvy’s window. It had been the same display since 1946 and in 2015 it went through a Canadian make-over. It was a holiday tradition to go downtown and look at the Ogilvy window every year.
Whenever I see beautiful window displays, I think of the well-known artists who did window dressing for a living at the start of their art careers (Rauschenberg, Warhol, Johns, etc). Andy Warhol in particular used window dressing as a way to launch his career. The first holiday window display was done by Macy’s in 1874 and it coincided with the development of plate glass windows: The History of Department Store Holiday Window Displays.
A recent issue of Hyperallergic showcases the Bergdorf Goodman’s windows which are celebrating cultural institutions this year including American Museum of Natural History, New-York Historical Society, New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Academy of Music and others. The bird display in the image above right and the rhinestone covered dinosaurs in image below, pay homage to the American Museum of Natural History. The designer of these windows, David Hoey, explains that he wants to create “aesthetic delirium” and that the windows are the result of eleven months of work: How Bergdorf Goodman’s Holiday Windows Were Made.
David Hoey’s 5 tips on window designs could possibly applied to artwork. Here is an overview of Hoey’s working method and approach: Behind the Scenes. Bergdorf Goodman’s blog has an archive of their windows dating back to 2010. Of course theirs aren’t the only windows in town; for a overview of other beautiful windows in New York check out 2017 New York Holiday Windows. And for Harper’s Bazaar’s choice of best windows from around the world (which includes a Canadian mention -The Bay in Toronto): Best Christmas Window Displays 2017. And for a local Christmas surprise, check out the over-the-top window display at 665 Fort St made by Gunter Heinrich of Winchester Galleries.
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Doing things over and over
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What is the biggest question facing artists today?
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A visitor poses in front of an art installation by Argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno, entitled ‘Altostratus/M+1, 2017’ during the Frieze Art Fair in London.
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Artists will make work whether or not they have a studio space or a place to exhibit. As artist and VISA instructor Xane St Phillip likes to say, “art is its own reward”. Artists are finding alternative spaces such as borrowed or rented space for short term exhibitions, or by inviting people to their home/studio to see work there. And it is true we do need to continue making work despite lack of support from government and society at large, however it is important for this society to understand the role artists play in making our world a better place to live. Including a few paragraphs about “arts in culture” in strategic plans or government White Papers is not enough. As cities expand and develop, a serious consideration needs to be made for the artists that are going to make these cities exciting, diverse and interesting places to call home.
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Is photography over?
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Wim Wenders, Self-portrait, 1975
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Like the premature and frequent announcements of painting’s demise, Wenders might have underestimated people’s lack of interest in the “unique image”. Artists have long been fascinated with Polaroid cameras for a number of reasons. A big factor is the excitement of having an instantaneous image form before your eyes. The Polaroid company was always excited to work in partnership with artists. A Brief History of Polaroids in Art gives an overview of how artists used Polaroids in their work. The Polaroid: The Magic Material by Florian Kaps, the person responsible for the resurrection of the Polaroid, gives an overview of our love affair with this camera. He says “they really introduced a new way of photography …with instant film, every picture is a chemical adventure: the quality is really unpredictable, and they have a very special look and feel.” In the trailer to the book Instant: The Story of Polaroid, the founder of Polaroid, Edwin Land, makes an uncanny prediction in 1970s regarding the future of the camera, “the camera of tomorrow will be something people carry around with them in their wallets and people will be take photographs all the time”. The book is reviewed in Art News. All these recent publications certainly attest to the interest in the Polaroid and to the photographic image as tangible object.
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Wim Wenders, New York Parade, 1972
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