The Original, with cross-references

It’s impossible to be truly original or free of influences. (See postmodernism.)
Besides, originality is overrated. (See Appropriation Art.)

I saw my past and future in other artists’ works today.

THE PAST

“Seven Future Gifts” (2008) is an installation by Mircea Cantor (see a photo on VVork.com) of ribbons and bows around empty spaces, suggesting absent gifts. The shape is very similar to my “Absent Presents” (2007) series of sculptures.

Christine Wong Yap, Green Present, 2007

But the similarity doesn’t bother me.

As I mentioned in the previous post, what matters is not who comes up with an idea first, but who does it best (a cousin to the cynical saying, If you can’t do it better, make it bigger).

Cantor’s Future Gifts are significantly bigger; they appear to range in scale from about one foot tall to 10 feet tall. In terms of engineering and craftsmanship, the concrete Future Gifts are easily more impressive than my Absent Presents, of modest scale and materials (balsa wood, paper and glue).

Yet for all their similarities, Cantor’s Future Gifts function completely differently than my Absent Presents. What mattered to me most were the concept of a vessel for the viewer’s projections, my skepticism of the role of the artist, the play on words, the colors, the ho-hum store-bought materials juxtaposed with Minimalist forms. Cantor, I’m sure, meant to reference Minimalism as well, but to a contrasting result: the Future Gifts‘ monumental scale, unfinished concrete and simple, unvarying bow are funereal, high-art serious. I’m guessing the extreme shifts in scale are a result of an interest in the phenomenological experience. And perhaps by repeating the same exact shape throughout seven gifts, Cantor may be making a point about industrial modes of production and consumption. I’m also interested in consumption, but in a dorky, Christmas store display sort of way. Whereas the Future Gifts are serious, the Absent Presents’ human scale, festive colors, and exuberant bows are playful. The Absent Presents wink at viewers.

THE FUTURE

During my research for the Anti-Campfire project, I came across the engrossing factoid that diamonds and graphite are both allotropes of carbon. This is a rich metaphor — diamonds are rare, valued for clarity and refractivity, while graphite is common, dark, cheap.

Naturally, I wanted to make drawings of diamonds in graphite or charcoal (another common carbon allotrope). Conceptually, such a drawing would raise the question of value, by conflating the artist’s labor with great beauty, and the work of art with a pricey commodity. I was also greatly interested in the implications of the interconnectedness of light and dark / optimism and pessimism. I printed photos of famous diamonds and brought them to my studio a few months ago.

I hadn’t actually made any drawings, but tonight I saw what the drawings would look like, more or less, courtesy of Sylwia Gorak.

Gorak is an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, where she presented her work, including a past series of charcoal drawings of famous diamonds. She mentioned her interest in the conceptual logic of depicting a diamond with a material of the same base element — same as me. The results were nice charcoal drawings — accomplished, probably better photo-realist images than I could have done.

So I found myself in the funny position of looking at images that I had considered making, but finding the conceptual rationale sort of one-dimensional (“Thunk!”). It sort of offered me a peek beyond my own subjectivity. I’m interested in conceptual art when it gives viewers more to tease out beyond visuality; but if the concept engages the mind for only a second or two, that’s not good enough. There has to be a better payoff.

THE PRESENT

A lot of artists fear being unoriginal, so they usually wince when they encounter similar work by other artists. Whatever. Here’s a new saying: Similarities happen. It’s not the worst thing in the world. In fact, it can work out for everyone.

—–

[I’m not always so peppy. There are other times, like when I feel like Eric Clapton crying after a Jimi Hendrix concert: I’ll never be that good! Grab a tissue box and click over to Abelardo Morrell’s photos of interiors made into pinhole cameras at Bonni Benrubi Gallery.]

Art & Development

some art highlights

First Thursday openings in San Francisco. Some highlights:

Lynn Hershman Leeson
Ant Farm
Gallery Paule Anglim

Cheers to Anglim for consistency: local notables, nice work, a smartly paired exhibition.

Leeson, of course, is a significant figure from early Feminist Art, has been in and around San Francisco for decades, and has continued to make new work in new media. I really loved her museum show at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, which showed off her facilities in multiple media. At Anglim, she’s showing mostly large, impressive photographs of a female mannequin with a look of surprise; the mannequin has also been placed behind a digital projection of Manet’s Olympia, and there’s also a wholly digital, multivalent media presenting another female avatar. The odd, cold distance between viewer and subject (mannequin, avatar) is an important part of the work, so there’s lots of “meta-” to mull over.

Detail of slides at Ant Farm show (Gallery Paule Anglim)

Detail from drawing/print on vellum by Ant Farm (Gallery Paule Anglim). Text: As if to steer the future.

In the small room, Ant Farm presents fantastic dreams of a media van via architectural prints/drawings on vellum, with some supplementary media (such as digital photo collages and a completely conceptually honest lightbox displaying slides from 1977-78, when Ant Farm initiated their first van project). Of course, the van itself will be on view at SFMOMA (whose site has finally undergone a cleaner, crisper re-design) in The Art of Participation exhibition, which opens Nov. 8. It’s great to see how these art elements take form in the public sphere after seeing the van in production for months at the building next door to my studio.

David Huffman at Patricia Sweetow Gallery

David Huffman
Jefferson Pinder
Patricia Sweetow Gallery

Another nice pairing of good art!

I never met David Huffman, though our stints at CCA overlapped quite a bit: me undergrad, Huffman grad; me grad, Huffman professor. So I’ve seen his work a bunch. His ‘bots continue to evolve, and his paintings are staying a few astral steps ahead of those of many Bay Area painters. In this exhibition, washes of paint and glitter verge on sublime, still, they’re paired with tightly rendered, pointedly racial people, places and things, such as the pyramid of watermelons in the picture above. In lieu of a firsthand account of the artist himself, I offer in congratulatory spirit this favorable account of the painting professor’s words: “You’re a painter! You have to be a vampire of paint!” For sure! The teacher shows an insatiable drive to forge ahead…

Jefferson Pinder covers his photogenic face in shaving cream — a whitening-out reversal of Zhang Huan’s self-drenching in ink — in a series of self-portraits with butoh-like results. In fact, an Asian stringed instrument accompanies the riveting video of still images of the whitened-out artist behind a projection of a rocket launch. The juxtapositions are quite tense, and result in some brilliant images captured in additional photographs. It’s an interesting bridge between video, photography and performance, with much in kinship with experimental theater that incorporates video, like the work of Sarah Kraft and David Szlasa.

Vik Muniz
Rena Bransten Gallery

Gilson inspects a photograph of a paper cut by Vik Muniz (Rena Bransten Gallery)

Awe-inspiring. Muniz makes pictures out of food, garbage, and now, puzzles and cut paper. The sheer feats of craftsmanship are engaging, and the photos perfectly executed. The prints have an uncanny depth. As Gilson pointed out, it’s a common art school assignment to make a collage from gray paper or found objects. But Muniz proves that you don’t have to be the first one to do an idea, you just have to do it best. I’m starting to wonder what can’t he do?

Stripes!

There were also some nice pictures by Richard Avedon at Frankel Gallery, rare perfections from Life Before Photoshop. The Dustin Fosnot show at Steven Wolf Fine Arts was poetic, edited, and personal — in contrast with his last, which was quirky-quirky-quirky. I find pathetic art appealing. Ironic, distanced pathos is common and easy, but the new Fosnot pathos is restrained, uncomfortably intimate.

I missed two shows that are probably good — Diem Chau at Mark Wolfe Contemporary and Tiffany Bostwick at Gregory Lind — but I was already crossing Market and going back in time to 111 Minna, which manages to be forever young. At their group show of figurative painters and draw-ers concerned with fauna, I saw old friends with new beards. So goes 2008.

Uncategorized

November 5th!

It’s a happy, hopeful day in America for all those people whose parents told them that in America, it’s possible for any citizen to become the President… For those…

…People of color, children of immigrants, members of nontraditional families.

…Those 125,000 black, brown, white, yellow, old and young faces in Chicago last night watching President Elect Obama’s victory speech, and for the rest of the country that looks like that, who feel in our hearts, too, that we are REAL Americans just as much as anybody else!

…Who are proud of America for doing the right thing in a time of crisis; that our fellow citizens are not apathetic, and do make up their own minds, and can change for the better!

…Whose cynicism is cracking like a frozen lake in springtime; that for all the corruption and unethical tactics we’ve witnessed in the past eight years, they can’t take this win away! And in the next four years, we will start undoing the damage and disenchantment of the last eight.

…Who are proud of our President Elect: a self-made man, a community organizer, an intellectual, and even after a long, hard-fought campaign, a person big enough to still reach out to all Americans, especially those who didn’t vote for him.

…Who are just as thrilled by First Lady Michelle Obama.

…Americans whose hopes are further buoyed by the news that the world celebrates with us today (see “For Many Abroad, an Ideal Renewed” on NYTimes for relief and enthusiasm from around the globe)…

—–

However, in California, a majority of voters have voted Yes on Prop. 8, and it’s a sad day for people who want to end discrimination, for all our friends whose marriages have been banned by vote of the People. Why anyone would go out of their way to stop others from enjoying a right that they already have? It’s contrary to the core American value: equality under the law.

(BTW, has anyone wondered why the Church of Latter Day Saints — a huge pro-8 donor — should be telling Californians what a “normal” marriage is, when there’s 60,000 polygamists in their own state? Come on! I’m all for religious freedom, but it doesn’t give some the moral imperative to dictate to others who can marry whom in the eyes of the law. Some straights really honor marriages, some don’t: some cheat, serial marry, drunk marry, joke marry. Straights aren’t inherently better at marriage. Get over it!)

—–

We have come so far, and still have so far to go…

Art & Development, Citizenship

ambivalence

I embrace my ambi•valence [being pulled two ways] between optimism and pessimism, but an overall ambiguousness has been disorienting lately.

I’ll reel this blog back towards art momentarily… but in the meantime, the coverage of electoral politics has become both “pornographic” (you can’t look away, as one NPR programmer said today), and yet, any other topic seems trifling.

[Given:] It’s so important to turn out the vote,
but…
[Questionable:] as far as the presidential election, is it really? I live in California and feel like my presidential vote is insignificant. A new infographic on NYTimes.com on state influence by electoral college members explains why.

Of course, in California, the ballot measures are a big fight — don’t believe the hype (“Red Sex, Blue Sex” in this week’s New Yorker Magazine shows how misdirected the evangelical impulse to “preserve” marriage is; rather than targeting gay marriage, red states could address their high divorce rates {linked to high teen pregnancy rates stemming from anti-abortion and abstience-only stances}) and vote no on 8.

—–

Finally a few notes about art•life….

Photography and the Invisible, 1840-1900
SFMOMA
Pretty great. Large educational and enjoyable survey of early photographic works, including goodies like Muybridges, experimental prints made with electro-magnetism, daguerrotypes of the moon, 3-D botanical pictures, and lots of impressively clear photos of faraway planets. Lots to see and think about. Wear sensible shoes and clear the afternoon — the didactic texts are very informative.

Depleted Selves by Cheryl Meeker
Mission 17
I arrived late and didn’t get to digest the whole show, but Meeker is showing some really beautiful portraits wherein the subjects resist identification. Thoughtful and unsettling. I’m undergoing a late-onset respect for fine picture-making, and Meeker’s facility with making cool, exacting images is inspiring.

Elizabeth Mooney
McCaig Welles Rosenthal
An solo show by a MFA friend inaugurates a new gallery. Lots of small paintings on panels layered with landscape contours, as well as a few curious objects, like real branches covered in mirror tiles and a kinetic kalidescopic installation for viewing paintings.

Shifted Focus
Kearny Street Workshop
OK, I’m in this show, but I’m honored to be in it with some well-respected longtime locals. The curators, Ellen Oh and Sally Szwed, have put together an interesting show of new contemporary works, many of which might surprise you. From the press release,

In reflecting back over a decade of APAture festivals, we have chosen to also look forward by selecting new works by each artist, many of which have never previously been shown. … The artists featured in SHIFTED FOCUS have all produced work that functions as interpreters of our common surroundings. While in the past many have looked inward at issues of identity, now they are looking outward at the world and investigating it through various vantage points—by zooming in, dissecting, inverting, or filtering through a critical or historical lens.

See photos of Shifted Focus on Jenifer Wofford’s blog.

Research

The dangerous pretension of knowing what’s best

Sarah Vowell shares a look at the roots of American Exceptionalism, tying…

Gov. Sarah Palin
to
Pres. Ronald Reagan
to
Puritan leader John Winthrop (1588-1649), who wrote “A Model of Christian Charity”
to
Jesus and his “Sermon on the Mount”

…in this week’s episode of Studio 360 from PRI.

I suspected that American Exceptionalism stems from the same principles that justified Manifest Destiny — that Americans are ‘chosen’ people, and that non-Americans are rightfully subject to Americans’ will.

So the fact that its roots go back to 15th century — the Age of Discovery, when Christian missionaries were covering the earth — affirms my suspicions. Furthermore, John Winthrop may have been interested in helping the poor, but he was also anti-democratic: he believed that aristocrats had a responsibility to help poor people, but the poor shouldn’t be allowed to have a voice. How paternalistic.

As Stuff White People Like #62: Knowing What’s Best for Poor People goes, “It is a poorly guarded secret that, deep down, white people believe if given money and education that all poor people would be EXACTLY like them.” If American Exceptionalists believe we Americans are similarly privileged — we know what’s best for the rest of the world — and we embody the universal ideal — that the greatest potential of the world is to become more like us: more democratic, more free-market Capitalist, more Wal-Marts and Whole Foods — it’s an awfully pretentious vision.

I realized that my objection to American Exceptionalism is similar to my position on Activist Art; that the underlying assumption that one is responsible for fixing the world is based on distinguishing oneself from the world. But as Johanna Drucker reminds us, “we are not better than the world we inhabit.” We are part of the world. And that we ought to accept our interdependence and complicity in the state of the world. The responsibility to fix it isn’t ours alone, but should be approached with mutual investment and collaboration.

Citizenship

No on Prop. 8: protect marriage equality

Though I can’t wait for Nov. 5, the polls are showing the Prop. 8 numbers are too close for comfort. Apparently out-of-state conservatives have been funding the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign to stop gay people from having the same rights as straight people.

This seems like an obvious one to me: it’s not OK to discriminate.

Banning gays from having the full rights of marriage, to having possibly only “domestic partnerships” is a way of creating unequal, discriminatory laws. “Separate but equal” is unacceptable.

I’m married. It’s great. Why wouldn’t I want other loving couples to have all the rights that I have enjoyed automatically, since the day I said “I do?” Allowing gay and lesbian couples to get married doesn’t harm my marriage. In fact, knowing that all people have the same rights as I do will only make it better.

Help show that California stands for equality. Vote No on Prop 8. And if you can, support No on Prop. 8 with a donation.

News

Tomorrow: Headlands Mystery Ball, KSW’s Shifted Focus

two sides installation
New site-specific installation at the Headlands Center for the Arts

I’m really looking forward to my first time at the Mystery Ball, an annual costume party at the Headlands Center for the Arts.

I’m exhibiting a new site-specific project. There will also be installations by five great local artists — Whitney Lynn, Joshua Churchill, Michael Hall, Lisa Ricci and Lacey Jane Roberts — as well as a veritable smorgasbord of tastes, sights, and sounds. Punk polka, creameries, tarot readings, and much more.

Mystery Ball 2008
Saturday, October 25, 7:30 pm–midnight
Headlands Center for the Arts
944 Simmonds Road, Sausalito, CA

I can’t be in two places at once, but if I could, I’d also be at the opening of Shifted Focus, the 10-year anniversary APAture retrospective exhibition. One artist from each year of APAture is represented. It’ll be a good show with some heavy hitters!

shifted focus

I’ll be showing new work from the Lorem Ipsum series (works on paper and panel), alongside nine other past APAture artists: Kevin B. Chen, Binh Danh, Rajkamal Kahlon, Michael Arcega, Kana Tanaka, Rebecca Szeto, Jenifer Wofford, Mark Baugh-Sasaki and Weston Teruya.

Shifted Focus: An APAture Retrospective
Opening Reception: October 25, 7–9 pm
Exhibition: October 25, 2008–January 23, 2009
Gallery Hours: Wed.–Sat., 3–6 pm
Kearny Street Workshop, 180 Capp St., San Francisco

—

And if you happen to be by the de Young Museum, you can pick up the Activist Imagination catalog at the de Young store. Of course they’re always available at christinewongyap.com/store too.

Citizenship

I can’t wait for November 5th already.

Maybe it’s because I’ve already mailed my ballot, but I’m finding all the election season debating, campaigning, commentary and publicity-stunting to be quite gaseous and slightly nauseating. I’ve had my fill of catchphrases, insistent manipulations of facts, deflections and ugly, reactionary extremism.

I value the opportunity to learn about the candidates, but I’m losing my ability to see past the demogoguery and make sense of it anymore. Where’s the substance? The facts? The reason?

I suspect all this electioneering is media junk food as much as the next televised garbage.

In fact, my political-propaganda-fatigue is reminiscent of Christmas-fatigue — the exhaustion of being bombarded with the omnipresent, fourth-quarter-sales-driven pressure to consume. At Christmastime, I find myself asking, What am I doing in this store? I can’t hear myself think! These days, I’m asking, Why am I clicking on this link? How did I become so partisan? In both cases, I look forward for the quiet of the new year to bring some relief.

R+D

On Be(com)ing an Artist, Citizen and Arts Community member, by Christine Wong Yap

Author Archives: cwongyap