Category Archives: Values

Community, Values

Exceptional Art Economics

Art doesn’t play by conventional economic rules, argues Dutch economist and artist Hans Abbing in “Why Are Artists Poor?: The Exceptional Economy of the Arts.”

Art isn’t valued like typical commodities.
Art workers aren’t treated like other workers. Being an artist is similar, though, to being a small business owner — except that most small business owners have business plans, and know when to cut their losses.
Artists usually self-subsidize their practices, yet what most often makes artists stand out is their commitment to developing new work over the years. Like a Jenifer Wofford recently blogged, being an artist sometimes feels like a game of attrition — whoever sticks around long enough, whoever can still develop while forfeiting a salary and stability, wins.

But art is valued exceptionally, which inspires rare generosity. For example…

FRED went out on a limb to support my work for this year’s festival. They hadn’t heard of me and didn’t know anyone who could vouch for me (the “vouch” is important, not for cronyism, well, only, but because the terms “art” and “artist” are so unsanction-able; i.e., “artist” can refer to hobbyists and professionals alike), but they believed in my project. For the opportunity to realize my soft sculpture for FRED, I’m thankful.

When we made contact in England, Rico, my host in London, was a friend of the aforementioned Wofford. Without hesitation, Rico opened his home for a fellow artist. These days I would count him as a friend, and I’m grateful for his openness and hospitality.

I am also grateful to photographers who contribute art documentation to artists. Tony West shot brilliant photographs of my work for the FRED Festival. His excellent photos are vast improvements in my art documentation. I am so thankful to Tony West for sharing his photographs with me. Please check out Tony’s site. I am especially amazed with his landscapes. He’s a truly agile photographer, and you wouldn’t believe how quickly he works.

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Art & Development, Travelogue, Values

Manila, Manila

Four days into my 10-day sojourn in the Philippines as part of Galleon Trade, I’d like to take a break to consider generosity and joie de vivre.

I’m really impressed with the amazing people I’ve met, such as the artist-gallery owners presenting the Galleon Trade exhibitions: Norberto “PeeWee” Roldan, an artist and designer who runs Green Papaya Art Projects, and Rock Drillon, an artist who runs the mag:net cafe.

Filipinos are famous for their hospitality, and combined with the professionalism and generosity I’ve experienced from our collaborators, I can’t say enough how nice it has been here. The gallery owners have really extended themselves to help create the exhibitions we envision, ensure local publicity (photos and articles in the Philippines Daily Star and Inquirer), and arranging for rock and experimental sound bands to play at the openings. We’ve also had the honor of landing at The Living Room, an alternative space run by Carlos Celdran. I have heard nothing but amazing things about Carlos’ tours (from Lonely Planet as well as individuals), and my experience on the Intramuros tour with Carlos even exceeded my high expectations. He conveyed a very complex history with pride, pain, humor and characteristic style. He made the sense of loss of his beloved city (after Gen. MacArthur’s carpet-bombing of the jazz-age city known as the ‘Pearl of the Orient’) tangible, yet the talk encompassed Filipino spirit and spirituality.

While class divides allow only a fraction of Filipinos to afford the lifestyle we are enjoying as American visitors, I have to say that I have developed a fondness for Filipino joie de vivre and patience (though dozens of jeepney and taxi drivers might be honking at each other non-stop, none seem to be angry). I can’t remember the last time I sat down to coffee in little cups and saucers to have a quality conversation, but here it seems to happen at least once a day. Maybe it’s because we’re guests on a short visit, but the small moments of mutual exchange underscored by generosity are very sweet and inspiring, and hopefully I can pull away from multi-tasking back home long enough to re-create them.

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Art & Development, Values

Assisting an Artist

A while back, I realized that I wanted to gain perspective on the life of an established, full-time artist. I started looking for an artist’s assistant position. But since San Francisco’s art market is so small, it can support only a limited number of working contemporary artists. My chances looked slim.

Luckily, I had the good fortune to assist Mario Ybarra Jr. in June. A Los Angeles based artist, Ybarra was a Capp Street Artist in Residence at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. I was at the right place at the right time, but it was serendipitous in other ways.

First, I felt that my interest in contemporary art and background in community art were at odds. Ybarra’s project for the Wattis was—can you believe it—a mural. I jumped at the opportunity to work with an artist weighing the conceptual considerations of mural painting. Second, my sensitivity to CCA’s poor racial diversity had become more acute, and Ybarra freely supplied his perspectives on being a contemporary artist of color. I appreciated our frank discussions, which raised questions of access (described in terms of squeezing through a hole in a chain-link fence, and now holding the fence for others to enter), identity politics and being pigeon-holed or tokenized. Third, I was interested in shaping the art world into one that I would want to participate in. Ybarra is a great case study for changing the terms of engagement. In addition to his inventive artistic practice (his studio is the street), he’s also a youth educator and gallery owner—an entrepreneur who proudly employs neighborhood locals, a curator who seeks artists that might not have a venue otherwise. His generosity is clear; his gratitude for his teachers lives on as a practice of mentoring emerging artists (and, by the way, donating work to support Galleon Trade).

Of course, I picked up on many practical, technical and conceptual skills (like rag-throwing, spray-bottle painting, and balancing the urge to upset cliches with a commitment to humanizing his subjects) as well, and actually, I had a great time working with him and his other assistants from Wilmington.

Ybarra’s two-story mural is in the stairwell at the entrance of the Wattis Institute, on the San Francisco campus of the California College of the Arts. The mural will be unveiled in September, along with a new monograph.

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Values

Going to “the manly place to be”

To get ready for Galleon Trade: Ship Launch, I went shopping for Kleen Sweep, a moss-like powder that’s great for trapping harmful dusts on the ground. It’s really useful after sanding gallery walls. So I headed to the hardware store nicknamed “the manly place to be” in an old rock ditty.

In the past, I’ve heard arguments that men should have “man spaces.” I believe that men and women would greatly benefit if men had reflective, discursive spaces to consider manhood and the role of men in struggles for equality. Unfortunately, most contemporary male-centric spaces–in my experience, fight- and motor-sports arenas–function as spaces for exhibiting the stereotypical male qualities that A.O. Scott brilliantly contextualized within a culture of consumption and sexual entitlement.

Usually, I’m pretty fond of hardware stores—bigger quantities, competitive prices, more open-ended materials. They’re like interesting cousins from out of town to the sibling art stores, whose idiosyncracies are too familiar to excuse.

But sometimes I’ll be reminded of hardware stores’ gendered context. (There’s no better place to witness the different treatment you get in a skirt instead of jeans than my neighborhood Ace.)

My Kleen Sweep quest wasn’t going well, so I asked a gentlemanly sales associate for assistance. Perfectly politely, he pointed me towards the broom aisle. I scanned the products — no Kleen Sweep. I went back for more help, and the guy ‘fessed up: he knew what Kleen Sweep was, he just assumed I meant Swiffers…. As in the TV ad with a housewife cleaning and rocking out to the debased Devo tune, “Swiff it up.”

Interestingly, more female employees and a housewares section does not correlate to a more female-friendly experience. My new favorite hardware store, a builder’s supplier where the parking lot is filled with pick-up trucks, has the best service and products (like Kleen Sweep) in stock.

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Research, Values

Values and Everyday Heroism, via Movie Review

A minute for a movie review. A+ for writing, and interesting morsels on values and everyday heroism.

Pre-justification #1: The focus of this blog is art, but artists, curators and critics can be concerned with culture at large.

Pre-justification #2: Movie reviews can be useful examples of beautifully concise, insightful writing. See David Denby of the New Yorker Magazine.

I don’t know which offense is more pervasive and exasperating: the issue of the portrayal of women and men in movies, or our age of irony and immaturity. Below, A.O. Scott elegantly sums up big ideas in a few sentences, in a movie review of “Knocked Up.”

“…The absence of a credible model of male adulthood is clearly one of the forces trapping Ben and his friends in their state of blithe immaturity.
Mr. Apatow’s critique of contemporary mores is easy to miss — it is obscured as much by geniality as by profanity — but it is nonetheless severe and directed at the young men who make up the core of this film’s likely audience. The culture of sexual entitlement and compulsive consumption encourages men to remain boys, for whom women serve as bedmates and babysitters. Resistance requires the kind of quixotic heroism Steve Carell showed in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” or a life-changing accident, like Alison’s serendipitous pregnancy….”

Bye-Bye, Bong. Hello, Baby.
By A. O. SCOTT
June 1, 2007
New York Times

I have always resented how male bonding often privileges dumbed-down culture, and the permission that males seem to have in associating women with growing up, the loss of innocence and by extension, evil. Look closely and you’ll find many examples in popular culture–music (including rap and rock), movies, comics, etc. One can find similar attitudes in contemporary art — art by men-boys for men-boys, and the women who don’t mind.

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Art & Development, Community, Values

SFAI Graduate Exhibition

I may not be objective about the work of students at a so-called rival school, but a recent visit to the San Francisco Art Institute’s MFA exhibition provided a useful point of reference for my own experiences.

Like CCA’s graduate exhibition, the SFAI show opened with a bang and closed after only a brief week. Eight-day exhibitions seem freakishly short; on the morning of my de-installation, I smothered a petulant whine: “I don’t wanna take it down!” SFAI students enjoyed the benefit of a printed catalog; CCA’s online catalog seemed like an ecological and economical, though under-utilized, alternative.

Understandable criticisms of the CCA show were that the number of artists was overwhelming, and the space was too difficult to navigate. I can see how a show of CCA’s 50 MFAs could be daunting–and I could relate to the sentiment when I attempted to view the work of SFAI’s 98 artists.

The exhibition was held at the Herbst Pavilion at Fort Mason. The gallery set-up was provisional: clamp lights snaked across the tops of false walls held up by makeshift shims. At times I found the installation earnest (The numerous artists were accommodated in a huge space, so what more could you ask for?), but more often, I found installation decisions baffling and distracting. In one extreme case, decent landscape paintings about environmental destruction were hung above horrendous pumpkin-orange floor molding. Later, I enjoyed some confident paintings and a video about the sea, however, a borrowed wooden pier and taxidermied sea gull impinged on the physical space and seemed like clunky, redundant buttresses to ideas that stood on their own. Finally, confident works by two artists with gay male perspectives were adjacent, but the pairing was formally disadvantageous and curatorially marginalizing.

OK, enough with the nitpicking. My subjective highlights:

Whitney Lynn‘s bunker of canvas cushions was the only work that directly addressed the Herbst Pavilion’s military history. This site-specific work was unassuming, and it was my favorite piece in the sprawling show. Employing only a small pencil drawing and a sculpture of uncolored fabric and soft texture, the artist pulled off a political statement that was more evocative than the agitprop at the front of the exhibition.

Michele Carollo makes room-sized installations that look like modernist paintings. Photos of the installations appear to be expressive two-dimensional works, but in reality the installations are a little bit goofy, reminiscent of a funhouse. Her investigation seems original and fun, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Jana Rumberger’s birdcages made of calendar pages and cellophane tape were pretty and poetic.

J. Kristen Van Patten exhibited a well-executed wall-based installation composed of wires, abstracted prosthetics and tiny magnets. It was reminiscent of Miro and Calder, but less whimsical and more formal.

Alan Disparte’s paintings verge a little too close to Clayton Brothers cuteness for me, but the one-minute video was a refreshing, if bite-sized, take on graphic design and nostalgia.

(On another note, I’ve been thinking about cuteness a lot lately, picturing a parent’s warning that misbehavior is “not cute.” Cuteness seems indicative of novelty and bemused consumption, and its widespread adoration seems dangerous or at least dismal, signalling relationships built upon simplistic visual appeal. In place of cuteness, what about that old-fashioned value of character? Strength and morality may not be hip or ironic, but that’s the point.)

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Citizenship, Research, Values

Inspiration: Philip Zimbardo & The Heroic Imagination

In contrast with the “hostile imagination,” in which warring countries dehumanize their enemies, Philip Zimbardo promotes the “heroic imagination”–and I love this idea.

Have you wondered if your fellow citizens would come to a stranger’s aid if needed? Have you ever witnessed a chance to do the right thing, and seen people’s reluctance to get involved? I’m tired of seeing bystanders simply stand by — from kids on a bus mutely hoping someone else will tell the bus driver he took a wrong turn, to people gawking at others obviously in need of assistance.

How can we foster the heroic imagination? In “The Banality of Heroism,” from the Fall 2006/Winter 2007 issue of Greater Good, Philip Zimbardo and Zeno Franco suggest:
1. Develop our “discontinuity detector.”
2. Don’t let a fear of interpersonal conflicts get in the way of standing up for your principles.
3. Think beyond the present.
4. Resist inaction.
5. Don’t be afraid to go left when everyone else goes right.

Zimbardo’s ideas are from his new book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. Zimbardo is the man behind the Stanford Prison Experiment, which demonstrated how quickly people abused their power over others. The subjects tortured and humiliated ‘prisoners,’ in shockingly similar ways to the events at Abu Gharib. What Zimbardo emphasizes, however, is that “there are no bad apples, just bad barrels.” That is, context is key–Zimbardo takes a “public health” approach (concerned with conditions), rather than a medical one (concerned with pathology). What were the conditions that made it possible for Abu Gharib to happen, for abuse in prisons and covert detention facilities around the world to continue?

I think the steps towards developing the heroic imagination sounds like cultivating critical thinking, courage and integrity. These are key ingredients, of course, towards becoming better citizens and resisting all forms of injustice. (How is it that “patriots,” in the U.S., often refers to people who support their government without question? Can’t we be active, critical citizens and patriots?) It’s significant for me to see this clear connection between everyday attitudes and an approach to larger, more complex issues.

If we cultivate the heroic imagination, if we maintain our integrity and courage in this age of irony and pessimism, if we did what we really knew was right—What would be possible?

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Community, Values

Recommended: Events

Thursday 4/19

5-8pm: Opening Reception: Faction at Playspace Gallery
Faction is an exhibition/zine/screening by CCA Curatorial Practice students. Yours truly has work in the zine. Don’t miss work by Stephanie Syjuco, Luke Butler, Zachary Scholz. At CCA’s Playspace Gallery.

Also tonite: Opening for Beasties at Crucible Steel Gallery at Cellspace. After being reminded of what a “furry” is in the post Kenneth Eng debacle, I’ve been a little creeped out by animal art. But Josh Short is prodigious, smart artist, and promises to delight with a giant cardboard beast that might have good content on recylcing and the Mission neighborhood context.

Friday 4/20

Midday: Ann Markusen talks at Cal
Fascinated by the cold logic of economics, that sweet, indifferent science? Ann Markusen, who recently published a report about artists working in different sectors, will be speaking at Cal 4/20 mid-day…

6-9pm: Opening reception: Breakthrough at SF Arts Commission Gallery

Billed “An Amateur Photography Revolution,” this show by JPG Magazine seems to hit some current notes… Crowdsourcing… People as art producers, instead of art consumers… More.

7-10pm: Opening Reception: Cult Classics, Not Best Sellers at Queen’s Nails Annex
Keith Boadwee & Patrick Rock. Two one-man shows. Leave the kids at home.Queen’s Nails Annex.

Saturday 4/21

Noon: Jim Campbell speaks at BAM
Artist and M.I.T. techie Jim Campbell speaks at the Berkeley Art Museum at noon. Campbell’s current show at the Hosfelt Gallery was astounding. Life-affirming, even. The gallery images are nice, but the exhibition’s amazing. See it yourself. It’s up through 4/28.

Noon: San Francisco World’s Fair on Third Street, SF
Art on the edge of the city, curatorial activity on the edge of where art meets life meets cultural production meets ecology and transportation. (Nice title in contrast with the former paternalistic usage, BTW.) Features Poppa Nuetrino of New Yorker fame. Free, outdoors, eclectic in a good way. Continues through Sunday… See the website for a map and schedule.

1pm: Art on Market Street Walking Tour
You’ve seen the SF Art Commission’s Art on Market Street posters, now go on the tour. With Amanda Hughen, Jennifer Starkweather, and David Buuck. Link

1-3pm: Walter Kituundu Artist’s Lecture and Kid’s art workshop at MOCFA

OK, I’m in the show at MOCFA right now, but even if I wasn’t I’d be excited to hear the self-taught artist/photoharpist/instrument maker talk and make music. I saw him a few years ago at Meridian Gallery. The instruments are stunning and his music is gorgeous. Bring the little ones to make mini instruments. Part of the Beats Per Minute exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art.
(Next week will be my workshop. We’ll be doing papercuts of your favorite word, and maybe even some gothic lettering. Gothic as in medieval, not Marilyn Manson, k? For kids and adults!)

Sunday 4/21

Earth Day, well, is actually everyday. Yes to bikes. No to crappy plastic goods (plastic=petrol!). Yes to re-ducing and re-using, too! No to bottled water. In the US, almost 2.5 million water bottles are used every hour, but only one in five get recycled. And plastic, compared with glass, is much more difficult to recycle, uses lots of water in the recycling process, and the resulting plastic is really degraded. I read it in Recycle: the essential guide, an easy book for getting to know your PETs. Besides, safe, clean, affordable tap water should be a public right, not a private commodity.

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