WORK 2 - brief in full

WORK 2 – WHAT

Subject to Change

 A recurring theme in lecture is the roll of the artist as interpreter, as a figure able to adopt new perspectives, invert the expected, transform the everyday-expected into surprising new forms.

Steve Fagin went further to speak of this as an obligation –to push hard against the boundaries of convention and ambitiously attempt the impossible/invisible/as yet unthinkable. He spoke of the Art World as a space of ‘contradiction and hypocrisy’, and the benefits of working within institutions that are malleable and subject to change.

Anya’s block of ice in the pump house elegantly demonstrated the power of combining unexpected elements, to activate a process that combines conflict, chaos, interactivity and elements of grace in a site-specific context.

The formal simplicity of this work thrusts one’s focus onto the materiality of ice and salt, and contradictions of hot Vs cold, drawing the viewer into the process of decay and it’s broader implications.

Marcus Erre did something comparable, forcing us to reconsider the relationship between opposites (good/bad, self/other) afresh. He adopted multiple character perspectives, unfolding his own complex personal history into three figures of uncertainty and contradiction.

For this second project I want you to create a similar system of de-familiarization. Take something familiar and subject it’s meaning to change: re-arrange its elements, alter its function, challenge its value, its usefulness, its form.

Two crucial guidelines:

1. The object/behavior/institution that you choose to reconsider MUST bare direct relationship to your own interests and motivations. Locate an urgency: What do you need to change (personally, socially, academically, politically?) What frustrates you? Why are you in this class?

You must begin with the need to explore or challenge, with the urgency that Steve mentioned.

2. Simplify. The potency of a work does not necessitate complexity or lots of ‘stuff’.  Of course some artworks are highly complex and materially diverse, but here, given the short period of time you have to produce this project (and as a general rule) use only those components - both conceptual and material – which are absolutely necessary to activate the work and demonstrate your system.

Abstract

 Use this week’s abstract to diagram your process. What does it look like when reduced to elements and their interrelationships? This could be dense and full or incredibly simple. 

Also, a short piece of text outlining the specifics that demand and make sense of your particular process and outcome.

Work-in-progress and abstracts due Mon 30^th/ Wed 1^st for critique. Final outcome to be finished and documented by next Monday’s class (Feb 6^th)

The week of the 6^th we will have two non-critique based sessions in the larger group.