Michael Taussig - “The Language of Flowers”

Michael Taussig, “The Language of Flowers”, Walter Benjamin’s Grave, Chicago: The University of Chicago press, 2006, pp. 189-218.

In this text Taussig begins to unravel the complex relationship between art and nature.  The discussion is concentrated around flowers then, at one point, begins to investigate the relationship between flowers and disaster. An instance of this can be seen in the response to the 2001 attack on the world trade centre when flowers where laid layers deep at the site of the tragedy - a reaction when one does not know how to react. It is an example of how ‘when disaster strikes the useless becomes useful’ (Taussig 12). Flowers don’t have any inherent function yet they have an important and relevant purpose.

Often the occurrence of such a disaster leads people to search for hope and to make meaning. Flowers are a manifestation of a response which has moved through different states. Flowers have a poignant simplicity and beauty, a ‘contrast to the toughness all around them’ (Stewart 2). A reaction when no words are apt, they symbolise an exchange outside economy. A symbol and an expression of grief, of community, of loss and of hope all rolled into one.

A parallel experience exists in art as it is also inherently useless yet, because of this very quality, it is rendered powerful. Art has the ability to address the important issues; it communicates in a space predominantly outside of language and has the ability to be a gesture that can memorialise a situation.

Michael Taussig, “The Language of Flowers”, Walter Benjamin’s Grave, Chicago: The University of Chicago press, 2006, pp. 189-218.

Stewart, Barbara, “Even the Delicate Survive”, The New York Times 22 Sept. 2001: 1-2. Print.

James Clifford – “On Collecting Art and Culture”

Clifford, James, “On Collecting Art and Culture” in The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998, pp.215-251. Print.

In this text, Clifford begins to unravel the complex relationship between art and culture. In the discussion, Clifford states that ‘Collecting- at least in the west, where time is generally thought of to be linear and irreversible- implies a rescue of phenomena from inevitable historical decay or loss’ (Clifford 231).  The specific conception of time (unique to the west) can aid in the understanding of why collections are formed.

Collecting is described as ‘an exercise in how to make the world one’s own’, a way to relive moments from the past (Clifford 218). However, when objects are ‘saved out of time’ they take on a new importance (Clifford 231). The original desire to cherish and preserve that past is not achieved. A collection warps time as the objects are just fragments ripped from their original context. A tension exists between an attempt to preserve the original context of an object and the belief that ‘human artistic creation transcends location and time’ - that the objects can exist without their original context (Clifford 242). There is a desire for both but an impossibility of entirely achieving either.

We take objects from a time we do not understand, placing value on them because they are aged, and making meaning in the present. Collecting constructs a ‘dimension of our life that is both real and imaginary’ - objects and fantastical meaning (Clifford 220). History and time are subjective (created) - the ‘past and future exist only in the mind’ (Le Poidevin). Essentially the collections we have take on a new life within a fabricated, distorted value system that makes guesses about history.

Clifford, James, “On Collecting Art and Culture” in The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998, pp.215-251. Print.

Le Poidevin, Robin, "The Experience and Perception of Time", The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 2009. Web.  3 Mar. 2011.

Epeli Hau’ofa – “Our Sea of Islands”

Hau’ofa, Epeli “Our Sea of Islands”, A New Oceania: Rediscovering Our Sea Of Islands, Suva, Fiji: The University of the South Pacific, 1993, pp.2-16. Print.

The text by Hau’ofa flesh’s out an argument against what used to be (and still remains somewhat) a common presumption that the Pacific nations are small and isolated. Hau’ofa explains how this way of seeing the Pacific is a relatively recent perspective formed through the boundaries imposed by imperialism. These limitations have no historical grounding, as prior to this they saw ‘Their world was anything but tiny’ (Hau’ofa 7). They believed they were connected and part of a larger sphere which included the ocean and heavens (Hau’ofa). This demonstrates the difference between identifying the pacific as ‘islands in a far sea’ compared to a ‘sea of islands’ – ‘Smallness is a state of mind’ (Hau’ofa 7). This important distinction serves a reminder that knowledge is often only a matter of perception.

History is determined by its successors. Knowledge is not absolute, rather, it sits within a particular context and often has self-involved motivation. As time goes on, the hierarchical relationships that produced certain conceptualisations become blurred. It becomes harder to trace back and identify the beginnings of suppression once it has been deeply ingrained as the dominant view.

However, the situation is not hopeless; those such as Hau’ofa have played a critical role examining the epistemological roots of these ideas. It is within these kinds of contexts that art has the ability to play a valuable role by being able to critique, challenge or simply acknowledge certain relationships. Artists such as Patricia Piccinini and Taryn Simon have produced work which challenges presumptions and seeks to uncover certain truths. In Simon’s series ‘An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar’ she ‘attempts to gain access to the guarded domains of culture and knowledge, made abstract and inaccessible to the masses by the anonymous powers that be’ (James 1). It is this kind of questioning that encourages more open minded approaches to knowledge. It allows for suppressive perspectives to be challenged and productive conceptualizations to be formed.

Hau’ofa, Epeli “Our Sea of Islands”, A New Oceania: Rediscovering Our Sea Of Islands, Suva, Fiji: The University of the South Pacific, 1993, pp. 2-16. Print.

James, Sarah Edith “Photography Between the Image & the Word: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar” The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2009, London, England: The Photographers’ Gallery, 2009, pp. 1-3. Print.

Glenn Adamson – “Thinking Through Craft”

Adamson, Glenn Thinking Through Craft, Oxford: Berg, 2007, pp.69-101. Print.

In the excerpt from Adamson’s book ‘Thinking through craft’, the relationship between skill and craft is investigated. Adamson discusses the implementation of ‘trade schools as alternatives to high schools’ that occurred in 1918 (Adamson 79). In this system, working class children were encouraged to attend the trade schools whilst children from wealthier families engaged in ‘intellectual pursuits’ (Adamson 79). This ‘inevitably raised questions of class prejudice’ and begins to ask how education should operate ethically and equally in society.

Education seemed to offer the possibility of ‘simultaneously improving economic development, social efficiency and social justice through social mobility’ and was one of the major features of modernity (Dale 295). It was introduced as a system where the individual’s status could be based on achievement rather than determined at birth (Dale 296). The boast of democracy and the ability to eliminate class prejudice was far from the reality. This education system became a new form of discrimination based on one’s perceived abilities and served to separate out individuals to maximise ‘economic efficiency’ (Adamson 79). The educational input and judgements of intelligence continued to be based on previous ideologies which effectively served to perpetuate ‘existing social relationships’ – which as sociologists emphasised - benefited only a minority. (Dale 295).

The end of last century did see a shift in the consideration of education. The key changes included; the separation of the state and the economy (which eroded the economic foundation upon which education was based), individualisation (resulting in increased personal responsibility), and dispersion of national power (Dale 306). Although these milestones were significant, much is still left un-answered. Education continues to have a prominent role in society and people are increasingly seeking higher education at a tertiary or post-graduate level. It is our generation’s responsibility to be critical of the objectives, outcome and implications that education can have, does have and will have on society.

Adamson, Glenn Thinking Through Craft, Oxford: Berg, 2007, pp. 69-101. Print.

Dale, Roger. “Education” Being Sociological. Ed. Steve Matthewman, Catherine L. West Newman & Bruce Curtis. New York: Palgrave McMillian, 2007. pp. 295-317. Print.

Chris Kraus - "Cast Away"

Kraus, Chris “Cast Away.”  Video Green: Los Angeles Art and The Triumph of Nothingness,  New York: Semiotext(e), 2004, pp.145-150. Print.

Kraus’s anecdote ‘Cast Away’ reflects on a collection of photographs displayed in a shop window.  In the piece, Kruss begins to investigate what constitutes art and states that ‘anything is permissible in the contemporary art world so long as it is pedigreed, substantiated, referentialized’ (Kraus 147). An illustration that springs to mind was the group show ‘Frieze’ held at Gow Langsford gallery in late 2010 where - in substitute of Billy Apple’s work - the text ‘to be commissioned’ was displayed (Apple 1). The work was quite literally nothing; however, it is certainly permissible and arguably successful.

Its significance isn’t inherent in the physicality, as the work certainly ‘requires negotiation and conversation’ (Hurrell 4). Instead, it holds its value because of the context in which it is displayed (an art gallery) as well as the ideas it is in conversation with, such as a questioning of capitalism (Byrt 2). There has been much that has come before this work and much it can be referred to (Byrt 2).  I would argue that nothing - in and of itself - remains as nothing. However, nothing, situated within the said climate and stamped with Apple’s name gives it not only relevance but importance.

This is so, in part, because the art institution breeds a specific kind of response to artwork. This certain attitude - or as Duve would call it, a mandatory “critical attitude”- is the analysis of art on the basis of its relationship to the social and political Status quo (Duve 27). Therefore anything – no matter how banal – has the potential to be a reflection of a “critical attitude” by being situating and contextualised (Duve 27). This may be demonstrated in Apple’s (non)work through questioning the expectations of what art should be and showing the power of branding (as apparently several of these ‘works’ sold).

Broadening the horizons of what can be considered art up opens up a flood gate of possibility. It surges forward with the promise of originality. It means niches can be to found between traditional medium bound practises as well as beginning to close the gap between art and life. Allowing for boundaries to be shaken and the unusual to be considered brings freshness without rejecting the context and history art is situated within. This shift pushes art beyond the simple focus of what is in front of us. It gives contemporary art the freedom to ask more questions than it answers, provoke more – it is given the ability to shift our perceptions.

References:

Apple, Billy “To Be Commissioned”, 2010. Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland (http://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/exhibitions/pastexhibitions/2010/frieze.asp)

Byrt, Anthony “And the brand played on”,  Listener (Wellington, N.Z.) 220.3616 (August 2009) pp.36- . Print.

Duve, Tierry de “When Form Has Become Attitude – And Beyond” (1994), Theory in contemporary art since 1945, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005, pp.19-31. Print.

Kraus, Chris “Cast Away.”  Video Green: Los Angeles Art and The Triumph of Nothingness,  New York: Semiotext(e), 2004, pp.145-150. Print.

Hurrell, John “Group Show in Tightly Linear Fromat”, Eye Contact 2011. Web. 1 April. 2011.
(http://eyecontactsite.com/2011/01/group-show-in-a-linear-format)