This book, it’s been troubling me.
Who is this person telling me how to look at contemporary art? I say telling, as I don’t feel like its advice or suggestions as I delve deeper in to the chapter. It is instructions; I must not be looking at contemporary art correctly. I admit that I previously haven’t, I didn’t linger and wait for meaning or emotion to hit me, I grazed past the blurbs pasted neatly to the gallery walls, I flicked through the catalogues before storing them neatly in the pile under my desk, not at all times but a large majority. With time and as understanding of my own practice grew, so did the understanding of other artists work.
Perhaps we’re looking at this book wrong; perhaps it’s not a guide to help you look at contemporary art to gain understanding; perhaps it’s a guide to give your own work understanding; a subject I have troubled through recently, which is why reading this text now frustrates me that the lessons I have discovered myself are being spelt out in not so simplistic terms.
The beginning of this book refers to the use of ‘arts speak’ and declares it will not be implied in this volume although I lost count of the visits to the dictionary to discover what the next obscure and infrequently used word means for myself. Offering the possible meanings of contemporary are to those that want them but just out of reach to those that shouldn’t have them perhaps? Is that how art writing is created, you must have some knowledge of academic writing to understand the meaning of art or it’s lost on you anyway: ‘here is a pocket dictionary, good luck’. Fine art is elitist, I’m not sure it will ever touch the masses as many proponents wish it too. Public art is viewed and seen by many but rarely understood and in many times the argument is to whether it needs to be?
Words needing clarification:
Reverentially – deep respect
Emblematic - symbolic
Rejoinders – sharp or witty reply
Dialectics – investigating or discussing the truth of opinions
Paradigm – a typical example / pattern of something
Obfuscatory – obscure or unclear, unintelligible, bewilder.
Endemic – regularly found
Verbose – using more words than needed
Elucidate – make something clear
‘Kunsthalles’ – a facility that hosts art exhibitions
‘Lingua franca’ – a language adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different (bridge language).
I am dyslexic and understood the basic meanings of these words but wanted to clarify the exact meanings for future reference. Every day’s a school day!
What’s it about:
This book has garnered a lot of praise as a way in, a user guide to contemporary art. Tabula Rasa – the clean slate
T – Time
A – Association
B – Background
U – Understand
L – Look Again
A – Assessment
– instructions for looking at contemporary art, a way to give it a fair chance and not view it with clouded judgment.
It looks at art as entertainment, confrontation, event, message, joke, spectacle, and meditation all from the point of the viewer not the artist. So it does not cover things like art as expression, or symbolism as these would be from the perspective of the artist.
He touches on artists that are I consider valuable influencers to my own practice. Miroslaw Balka, James Turrell, and Martin Creed; an artist I frequently used to teach art theory and the classification of what art is. Looking back, I did this rather crudely, and clearly not discussing the work as deftly as I could now (not that I proclaim to be an expert, but I certainly understand the work better than I previously did).
Regarding Balka, when experienced first hand it sparked a release, an epiphany moment. I was touched by the work and immediately wrote about it. A sensation I had not received before, an encounter; art became substantial as message portrayer, I knew it was there but it had remained out of reach, tempting me enough to keep my interest around. At the time I was oblivious to the Background, to the references of the holocaust, concentration camps, and human trafficking containers, there was no Association with the work in that sense. It resonated at a personal level, through my own interpretation, negating the artist’s message.
My journal entry from that day: 26th Feb 2009
Tate Modern, Miroslaw Blaka – How It Is – Unilever Series. A large Iron box stands before me, its entrance concealed from vision against the wall, it’s not as tall as the hall itself but it’s big. Rounding the corner a ramp leads up, is it wider or does the eye deceive me? It is black, the blackest of blacks. Faint figures can be distinguished walking towards me. I look, I keep looking but I can’t see the end, it feels like it’s getting darker, I feel nervous, where is the wall? I know it’s there, I’ve seen it from outside but I can’t seem to find it in. There it is and it’s soft, comforting like velvet, a familiar feeling. I stroke it, I try to see my hand but as I look hard at it my eyes gets confused and my hand disappears. I feel safe here, I don’t want to turn around, I can hear people talking and laughing using phones and cameras to shed light inside, it doesn’t work, it’s absorbing it all; it doesn’t want it, it doesn’t need it. Finally reluctantly I turn. The entrance is like a large frame encompassing the expanse of the rear hall wall. The light flood in, it’s ruined now, that feeling won’t happen again; my brain knows what is there and how it works. I walk to the end feeling exhausted by the experience. I sit on the floor facing the box, children run noisily in out, people take photos. I write…
Since seeing the work I found it has resonated with me regarding the aspect of overconsumption and being truly alone. Within How It Is the darkness envelopes you to the point that you’re aware people are there but they don’t really interact with you so there’s solitude in viewing the work, unless of course you see it with another person. In today’s current contemporary life is very difficult to be truly alone and truly switched off, I found myself longing for that installation to be nearby; to find a dark corner covered in velvet. In fact I have even purchased a black velvet chair to find that element of comfort that I found within that work as it made such an impact on me. The work is about fear it’s about for me anyway it’s about going into an open space that you don’t know the end, you don’t know what’s coming you, are at the mercy of the artist in walking into this void. Once you’ve experienced it you are no longer fearful.
Ai Weiwei’s Coloured Vases (2010), Abu Dhabi Art 2016: over looked, acknowledged because of their status but their meaning was unknown. I was oblivious to the fact that they were Neolithic Vases dipped in industrial paint, and the gallery was not highlighting that fact. Increasingly it seems that here in Dubai art is exhibited in commercial galleries, which don’t always put the meaning behind the art first but rather the status of the artist or the ‘aesthetic appeal’ of the work instead. So the question then becomes is it my fault that I overlooked the work as the meaning wasn’t initially apparent or are the representatives of the work at fault for not allowing the viewers that information? Perhaps the blame is divided, as I ‘should’ have paid more attention to the information the gallery ‘should’ have had available.
James Turrell, The Deer Shelter (2006) experienced at Yorkshire Sculpture Park on the 8th Dec 2009. As I sat in that space in a rather chilly December I could have happily let a day pass in to night and not visit another single work while letting the sky pass above in this work. It was cloudy that day, and the subtly of white and grey tones was entrancing. The fact that the ever-changing sky was the viewpoint, the work was not the shelter but the shelter enabled you to view the beauty of the atmosphere we take from granted above our heads.
The key is that this book is biased, its Ward’s way of looking at Contemporary art, and that’s perfectly fine. If you are unsure of how to approach Contemporary art, or any art for that matter, you can use his useful acronym TABULA to work through the pieces to gain more understanding or opinion. The problem is he just doesn’t seem very positive about it! As a critic his phrasing is negatively persuasive, openly voicing his disapproval or dismissiveness towards art, then explains how he looks again. It makes it a tough read for me as I have already tried to move away from that style of thinking and be more open. It’s like listening to your friend gossip over coffee about someone you actually quite like.
I also read through In Praise of Shadows by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, translated by Thomas J. Harper and Edward G. Seidensticker, 1977.It's an essay that has some questionable opinions in it regarding Japanese life and decor and Western influence of aesthetics but the descriptions of objects, interiors and activities are quite delightful and insightful even if the discussion is very pessimistic.
