Interview: Nat Trotman on Re/Search Magazine

It was DAY ONE. I was at the panel titled INDUSTRIAL SUBLIME presented by the VISUAL CULTURE CAUCUS. (Incidentally so was fellow blogger Daniel and he took a selfie to prove it.)

The papers presented were some of my favorite from the conference:  Kristen Oehlrich‘s Reading the Photographic: W.G. Sebald and the Industrial Sublime and Nat Trotman‘s Noise Machine: Re/Search Magazine 1980-84. Both Oehlrich and Trotman spoke about texts that mash-up with visuals:

sebaldresearch

The two texts of the panel: Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald (2001), and Re/Search Magazine (Vol. #6/#7, Industrial Culture Handbook, (1983)

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Interview: Nat Trotman on Re/Search Magazine

It was DAY ONE. I was at the panel titled INDUSTRIAL SUBLIME presented by the VISUAL CULTURE CAUCUS. (Incidentally so was fellow blogger Daniel and he took a selfie to prove it.) The papers presented …

BA Art History '13 Meg Santisi, megsantisi@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

SHAPING THE WAVE: LGTBIQ + FEMINISM

Tracers

Last Friday, February 14th, I attended the panel “ LGBTIQ + Feminism,” as a part of TRACERS TAKES ON FEMINISM at Three Walls. Tracers hosted an all-day forum in which panel discussions considered feminism’s relationship with/to the LGBTIQ community, Motherhood, and Race. The first panel, moderated by Latham Zearfoss, consisted of Jillian Soto, Daviel Shy, Frederick Moffet, Malic Amalya, Silvia Malagrino, Amina Ross, and NIC Kay.

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SHAPING THE WAVE: LGTBIQ + FEMINISM

Last Friday, February 14th, I attended the panel “ LGBTIQ + Feminism,” as a part of TRACERS TAKES ON FEMINISM at Three Walls. Tracers hosted an all-day forum in which …

Daniel Scott Parker MFA Poetry Daniel Scott Parker, danielsparker@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

A Moment With Ivan Gaskell

On DAY TWO: I spent the morning at Music & Visual Culture: Assessing the State of the Field and the afternoon swamped in writing for the blog. Thankfully, I had just enough time to catch the Q&A portion of Objects, Objectives, Objections: The Goals and Limits of the New Materialisms in Art History.  

I am so glad I made it.  The room was packed. Everyone in the audience had eyes locked on the panelists; the papers must have been thrilling. I caught the end of Michael Schreyach‘s excellent paper, titled New Materialism’s Renunciation of Meaning.  As best I could tell, Schreyach’s essay critiques the methods used to locate meaning and to generate value. What bad luck to have missed the entire paper! (I have since bought the recording). As Schreyach finished, moderator Ben Tilghman opened the room to questions. The audience had many.

And one question struck right to the heart of the matter:

Q: Does any interest you may have in a thing as an artwork necessarily exhaust your interest in it?

The panel needed to hear it asked once more…

Q: Does any interest you may have in a thing as an artwork necessarily exhaust your interest in it?

Ivan Gaskell (Photo by Justin Ides, Courtesy Ivan Gaskell)

Ivan Gaskell (Photo by Justin Ides, Courtesy Ivan Gaskell)

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A Moment With Ivan Gaskell

On DAY TWO: I spent the morning at Music & Visual Culture: Assessing the State of the Field and the afternoon swamped in writing for the blog. Thankfully, I had just enough …

BA Art History '13 Meg Santisi, megsantisi@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Interview with Ariane Cherry of Design Cloud

I’ve been talking to many people about this thing social practice. On this subject, I had the privilege of speaking with someone with a unique perspective and many enlivening comments, Ariane Cherry. Ariane is Gallery Director at Design Cloud LLC.

We discussed social practice as an idea being exchanged between creatives. We touched on public design, urban philanthropy, and the risks associated with socially engaged practices – plus the potential success the endeavor could obtain. Read More below.

Ari_Headshot_1

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Interview with Ariane Cherry of Design Cloud

I’ve been talking to many people about this thing social practice. On this subject, I had the privilege of speaking with someone with a unique perspective and many enlivening comments, …

Arts Management/ Art History Matt Robinson, matthew.robinson1@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Interview: Debra Parr on Fashion-As-Art

Debra Riley Parr, post-presentation

Debra Riley Parr, post-presentation.

Debra Riley Parr is Chair of Fashion Studies and Associate Professor of Art and Design History at Columbia College Chicago. She serves as board member for the College Art Association and has published extensively in books and journals such as FiberartsMerge: Sound, Thought, Image, Ten by Ten: Space for Visual CultureArt and AuctionNew Art Examiner, and Artnews.

Debra served up a fantastic paper at the session À La Mode: The Contemporary Art And Fashion System.  Titled Glitter and Rubble: Chaos to Couture (and Back Again) in the Late Capitalist Fashion and Art Industries her paper addresses the intersection of Fashion and Art in a globalized economy.  Fast-fashion is central to the industry. Designs are copied from the runway and outsourced to production sites in other countries, where they are produced as quickly and cheaply as possible. Alternately, haute couture floods the red carpet and remains the exclusive domain of the hyper-rich.

Debra’s paper compares two events of Spring 2013: the Costume Institute gala celebrating the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Punk: Chaos to Couture and the horrific collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh (a major manufacturing site for Fashion wholesalers) that killed thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers.  The paper’s dialectical image – the glittery excess of the gala poised against the disastrous rubble of the factory collapse – is given further nuance when considering the Met Gala’s choice of theme: PUNK.

Celebs "Performing Punk" at Met Gala 2013

Celebs “Performing Punk” at Met Gala 2013

I’ve been fortunate to work with Debra for the last few months as her research assistant, and her work has shaped much of my thinking regarding Fashion as a site for critical inquiry. I caught up with Debra over coffee to discuss it all for the blog…

MS: To begin, where and how do you see Fashion intersecting with contemporary art and design practices?

DP:  The connection has been there for a long time, but the way we are articulating it is changing. The other Fashion panel at the conference [Re-Examining Fashion in Western Art 1775-1975] is a more traditional investigation of the intersection. One paper discusses a specific dress in a specific painting, and historically, as Gilles Lipovetsky articulates, Fashion really taught people how to see detail. From [Lipovetsky’s] deeply historical perspective, Fashion defined social positions through tiny differentiations in styles of dress. For art historians this is really how we define the close read.

"Fashion And Art" edited by Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas (IMG: Sydney Edu)

“Fashion And Art” edited by Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas (IMG: Sydney.edu)

MS: Does Fashion respond to contemporary art or does Fashion shape contemporary art? 

DP: SooJin [fellow panelist SooJin Lee] did a fantastic job of looking at that. And Theodor Adorno, if we are to believe him (and I’m not totally sure that I do), declares that Fashion, in his estimation, has the power to shape all cultural arenas because it is concerned with with the new, with innovation, or what is “A La Mode.”

MS: Or, as you describe in your paper, following the modernist logic of speed and replacement.

DP: Yes. Art has a job – to critique culture. And central to my argument is that Fashion has a hard time being “Art” because it is unaware or unconscious of Art’s project as critique.

MS: I’m thinking now, because one of the panelists discussed it, of the Jay-Z and Marina Ambramovic performance; or the so-called “day performance art died.”  Thinking of it in the context of Fashion as a performance…

DP:   …there is definitely a borrowing from performance art. Like Alexander McQueen. And at the panel, Maud [panel discussant Maud Lavin] was trying to encourage us to think of the everyday, Fashion as an everyday performance. McQueen borrows from performance art.

Dress #13 Spring/Summer 1999, Steve McQueen (IMG: Met Museum)

Dress #13 Spring/Summer 1999, Steve McQueen (IMG: Met Museum)

MS: And McQueen was a student of art history, or, at least aware of Art’s project, right? He was exposed to it as a student? What about other designers who maybe aren’t taught Fashion-as-Art or Fashion-as-critique? 

DP: The education of Fashion designers has not been theoretically or historically grounded enough. But there are other designers too…Viktor & Rolf, Rick Owens

MS: And it is New York Fashion Week right now…anything that has struck you?

DP: I’m following on instagram mostly, and the Central Saint Martin’s graduate showcase was incredible.

MS: Moving into punk–We first met when I took your class titled Object & Image: Post-Punk Studies and  your paper addresses the ironic choice of punk as a theme for the Met Gala. In our class, we read Dick Hebdige’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style, and examined punk Fashion as a semiotic practice. What draws you to punk as a field of study?

Greil Marcus's "Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century" (IMG: Harvard Univ Press)

Greil Marcus’s “Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century” (IMG: Harvard Univ Press)

DP: Well I really, really, really love Greil Marcus’s Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century because it combines my interests in the historical avant-garde and punk. He sees punk as furthering the social disruptions of Dada. I also personally love the graphic design – Jamie Reed, Malcolm Garrett, Barney Bubbles, 4AD. When I interviewed for my job at Columbia they asked me to give an example of how I would teach something in the classroom, so I played the Buzzcocks’ Autonomy.

MS: Is anyone today continuing the project that Hebdige started, or doing a semiotic reading of fashion?

DP: In cultural studies certainly, and Hebdige is ubiquitous in the academy.

MS: What about Fashion under late-capital – What are the current problems related to the Fashion industry in this economic model?

DP: Certainly the problem of hidden subcontracting processes [in manufacturing]. Capital will flow to unregulated sites. It begs the question – Who is in charge? The state? The labels? Who bears responsibility?

Mohammed Sohel Rana (IMG: BBC)

Mohammed Sohel Rana (IMG: BBC)

MS: Which is why I love the moment in your paper when you address the scape-goating of Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the Rana factories, as if his arrest resolved the problem. It is similar to punk really, the Met Gala appears to “cleanse punk.”

DP: And there is a rich history of trying to make punk safe for consumption. The Met is the ultimate situation of that. And don’t get me wrong, I loved the exhibit.

MS: Why? What did you love about it?

DP:  I often really love the things that need the most critique. Like fast-fashion, TopShop, it’s fun to shop there. And at the exhibit I loved seeing these garments up close, all in one place. And I really love the idea of punk having this energizing effect. Imagine yourself as a designer, fashion demands something new, something exciting.

MS: So what is selling-out?

DP: Just because some one adopts you doesn’t mean that you’ve sold out. Should I be critiqued for using or adapting punk in my classroom? Is it a sell-out for the lead singer of Sonic Youth to be at the Met Gala, or for Vivienne Westwood to become a dame?

MS: Why do you think people have such a problem with that?

DP: It seems disconcerting – it’s like how I love looking at the Karl Lagerfeld “punk” suit he designed for Chanel.  Chanel is luxe, elegance. For me that suit is the object that speaks to all of this.  It is exciting, it is a tour de force, it’s wonderful- and it is just all wrong.

 

Coco Chanel in the "Chanel Suit" (IMG: Wonderland Magazine)

Coco Chanel in the “Chanel Suit” (IMG: Wonderland Magazine)

Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols (IMG: The Daily Mail)

Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols (IMG: The Daily Mail)

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel (IMG: David Sims/Vogue)

Model wearing Karl Lagerfeld’s Punk Suit, designed for fashion label Chanel (IMG: David Sims/Vogue)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interview: Debra Parr on Fashion-As-Art

Debra Riley Parr is Chair of Fashion Studies and Associate Professor of Art and Design History at Columbia College Chicago. She serves as board member for the College Art Association and has published …

BA Art History '13 Meg Santisi, megsantisi@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Thank you James. Thank you Theaster.

 

In 1963, James Baldwin published  The Negro Child – His Self-Image; originally published in The Saturday Review, December 21, 1963 and reprinted in The Price of the Ticket, Collected Non-Fiction 1948-1985, Saint Martins 1985. Baldwin wrote:

 

Black and White Photo Collage by Janelle Vaughn Dowell

Black and White Photo Collage by Janelle Vaughn Dowell (original T. Gates photo by Nahtan Keavy @ MCA Chicago

 

A society, in turn, depends on certain things which everyone within that society takes for granted.  Now the crucial paradox which confronts us here is that the whole process of education occurs within a social framework and is designed to perpetuate the aims of society…The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.  The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not.  To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity.  But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around.  What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society.  If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish.  The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it – at no matter what risk.  This is the only hope society has.  This is the only way societies change.”          
Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet and social critic who explored palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, class and sexual distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America. 
On Saturday, February 15, 2014, I enjoyed all of the presenters in the Creative Capital session: Nike Cave, Theaster Gates and Christine Tarkowski, but I felt the spirit of Baldwin permeating through Theaster Gates in the full Marquette room at the Hilton Hotel. Gates is a multidisciplinary artist, working with performance, sculpture, installation, and large-scale urban interventions. He received a degree in urban planning, but also studied ceramic. This combination of fields informs the multifaceted approach to his artistic practices. His works are not just objects. He manipulates, reconstructs, and activates them in order to breathe further life into the end result.
During the session, Gates presented a chilling picture of a crumbled photograph of Martin Luther King, Jr. inside of a locked glass case. The relic was left at one of the many closing schools in Chicago. Understanding the multifaceted meaning, Gates used the imagery as a provocative art installation and as a compelling symbol of educational inequality. Immediately I felt a reverberation of Baldwin’s position and thought about my responsibility as an artist. I, too, must observe our world and try to change it no matter the obstacle. 

Thank you James. Thank you Theaster. 

 

(Creative Capital has awarded $29 million to 530 groundbreaking artists nationwide through funding, counsel and career development services) 

 

Thank you James. Thank you Theaster.

  In 1963, James Baldwin published  The Negro Child – His Self-Image; originally published in The Saturday Review, December 21, 1963 and reprinted in The Price of the Ticket, Collected …

InterArts Janelle Dowell, janelle.dowell@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

“I Saw You” (Again) at CAA in Chicago

“I Saw You” gets candid with CAA conference go-ers, capturing the movers and ‘shapers’ of the conference in the act. Will you be next?

Special Thanks to Michael D.

Special Thanks to Michael D.

Your blogger ran into Michael D, a Professor of Photography at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania. Are all the cool cats networking in the lobby? Yes.

Q: What brings you to the conference this year?

A: I am here for the panels, the dialogue; I’m here to learn and engage my colleagues.

Q: What are your interests personally?

A: Well, I am a Professor who is interested in  wide-range of panels and discussions. Also, I am very interested in mixing Art and Science.

Q: Have you seen the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and what’s your take on Archive State?

A: Yes, I have. I was very captivated by the STASI photos by Simon Menner. [On found photography] As artists we’re always used to looking and composing, and we all train ourselves toward our interests and toward aesthetic clarity. I can appreciate the craft in that respect.

Thanks Michael!

 

“I Saw You” (Again) at CAA in Chicago

“I Saw You” gets candid with CAA conference go-ers, capturing the movers and ‘shapers’ of the conference in the act. Will you be next? Your blogger ran into Michael D, a Professor …

Arts Management/ Art History Matt Robinson, matthew.robinson1@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

ATTENDING TO WHAT IS VALUABLE

Valuables

As the resident and perhaps even interloping poet-blogger for CAA, I would be remiss, or at least ashamed of myself, if I didn’t mention a couple peripheral poetry events happing during or around CAA.

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ATTENDING TO WHAT IS VALUABLE

As the resident and perhaps even interloping poet-blogger for CAA, I would be remiss, or at least ashamed of myself, if I didn’t mention a couple peripheral poetry events happing …

Daniel Scott Parker MFA Poetry Daniel Scott Parker, danielsparker@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” a review of ARTexchange

ARTexchange is an open and free forum that showcases working artist. Artists applied and were chosen in December to be part of the event, which hosts forty or so working artists. I went there last night and here are a few highlights.

Magdal

Magdalena Olszanowski

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“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” a review of ARTexchange

ARTexchange is an open and free forum that showcases working artist. Artists applied and were chosen in December to be part of the event, which hosts forty or so working …

Interdisciplinary Arts and Media First Year MFA Julynn Wilderson, wilderpedia@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

TONITE TONITE: Saturday night options in Chicago

As we round out the final day of the conference, and many of you return home tomorrow, I thought I’d provide some options for non-conference arts events taking place in Chicago tonight:

CAAALTERNATE 2014 at Tritriangle (more info here), a salon of media art. Featuring works by Patrick Lichty, Andrew Blanton, Morehshin Allahyari, Christine Kirouac, Sanglim Han, and Kayla Beth Anderson. As a part of this event Jennifer Chan will be running STUFF ON STUFF ON STUFF, a free-for-all of screen-based work. 6pm, 1550 N Milwaukee Ave Fl 3.

Mana Contemporary February Opening, an evening of art, performance, and merriment on Saturday, February 15. The event is free and open to the public, and food and refreshments will be served throughout. Various performances and receptions will take place between 5pm and midnight (see event page), including works and performances by High Concept Laboratories, Yigal Ozeri, graduate students of University of Wisconsin Madison, Honey Pot Performance, Amber Ginsburg and Aaron Hughes, Industry of the Ordinary, and ACRE. 5pm to 12am, 2233 S Throop St.

Pivot Pop Up! The Sadness Show: An Ironic Valentine’s Day Celebration, featuring Music by Sad Brad Smith (Up In The Air); A Sadness Game Show hosted by Brigid Murphy (Millie’s Orchid Show) with sad works by top playwrights Ike Holter, Noah Haidle, Mickle Maher, Shannon Matesky, Brett Neveu, and Tanya Palmer judged by a panel of “Sadness Experts.” Break-Up Karaoke DJed by Carlo Garcia. 7:30pm, 4101 N. Broadway Avenue

LOVESICK : Art Show, a show at 32Forty including mural painting, watercolor, sculpture, drawing, comic books, artist book, and mixed media. Curated by Michelle Graves, featuring work by Sean Backus, Vyto Grybauskas, Tine Defiore, Angela Erickson, Dana Grossmann, Cathy Hannah, Megan ‘Pain Gwen’ Larcher, Jenna Rodriguez, and Joan McDonald. 7pm, 3240 S Morgan St.

I n c o g n i t o, co-curated by the Pigeon Bench and Jack Collier, featuring art by Heather Marie, Olivia Rogers, Pan Gelic A, and Erik Peterson, and projections by Glen Jennings and Brian Hochberger, as well as music by a variety of objects. 9pm, 3036 N Lincoln Ave.

 

TONITE TONITE: Saturday night options in Chicago

As we round out the final day of the conference, and many of you return home tomorrow, I thought I’d provide some options for non-conference arts events taking place in …

MFA Candidate, Interdisciplinary Arts & Media Sid Branca, sid@sidbranca.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605