Prompt: Each class meeting, you should be writing one page on the topic we covered in class. You can also use this as a time to do independent research, create photo essays, or similar. If you’re unsure, contact me about it. You should also use this space as an opportunity to write about inspirations for your own work, and to put your sketches, illustrations, etc. online.
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In this sixth reflection, I will be:
a/ Putting down and reacting to my highlights among the things covered in class
b/ Giving Updates on my independent research
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a/ My highlights among the things covered in class
Today we explored the theme of “shapes, objects and outlines” in class. My highlight among the art works and artists we covered was “Landscape for Fire” by Anthony McCall (please find below).
Among all the works of arts we have seen in class, this was arguably the rawest and purest. It stuck in my mind for many reasons, and made me raise many questions about interactive media arts, and the arts in general. First and foremost let us give a description of the piece. Anthony McCall pre-determined a score to torch containers of flammable material with members of the British artist collaborative Exit. I perceive from this video a sense of art resisting and guarding its purity, and closeness with nature, while so much sophistication and artificialness is being used in its practice. But isn’t artificialness still a human invention and a form of human expression? Did artificialness and technology do good or bad to arts? It prompted me to ponder on the evolution of arts over time and the sustenance of its integrity in a world that is constantly evolving, a world where for instance the current financial system tends to commodify anything that doesn’t strongly exert a resistance to it.
In the afternoon, we visited a contemporary art district named M50. It is the heart of the art scene in Shanghai where admission is absolutely free of charge. I was very impressed by the vision behind the creation of M50. It is such initiatives I believe that feed a country’s art scene, and Senegal has a lot to learn from this example. My highlight from the excursion was our visit to Island6, a gallery of interactive art, where Thomas, the manager of the collective, uttered a statement that was strangely connected to the thoughts I was entertaining at the moment. When asked about what his limits are when it comes to the clients’ demands on his work, he said “I do it as long as it remains art”. Thomas was for me a vivid illustration of how questions of what is art and what is not in this day and age are still very relevant in certain artists’ psyche, and thus those questions deserve to be deeply pondered upon.
b/ Updates on my independent research
I did further research on the questions I mentioned above. I came across many resources to educate myself on the topic and the one that struck me most was the piece by the artist Kenneth A. Balfelt where she says that: “The problem with this is that by entering this realm of commodities and of the capitalistic paradigm, one could argue that you have already written off a large area to deal with as an artist. You are always already within a certain structure, and you cannot see it from the outside and critically assess it. You already depend on and subscribe to what I would call an ideology.” I do not have enough knowledge on the field yet to construct an educated discourse on it. However, this was definitely a start of my journey to explore questions pertaining to the ways in which art is sustaining its integrity over the decades, given the many assaults to it.