i'm an art bitch

Last night was the opening to the show. I’m so impressed by what the group has achieved, I feel we’ve made some amazing work and put on a great show, although my curatorial skills were limited to sitting on the floor blu tacking shit and rocking back and forth.

I had a great response from some people who were interested in my work, when asked where’s your piece then I just said you have to find it, this seemed to cause a bit of a stir, either annoying people because I wouldn’t reveal anything or really making them engage and look around the gallery space, looking in areas that they wouldn’t typically look at, which is fantastic.

Sheila confronted me last night, asking where my work is. I said to her, you have to find it. She said in “art school” I need to let them in and I’m unteachable. I am wondering, if you had these concerns about my work then as my teacher you should have brought this up in my crit or though out this whole project. I am still a student, I don’t know everything, I am here to develop my ideas but also I am here to get a degree and I am aware that I do need to do stuff to meet marking criteria, if you knew that what I was doing wasn’t going to allow me to meet that criteria why did you sit back and let me do it?

I feel strongly about how I want to do my work, I feel it truly reflects the person I am and my feelings towards being at art school, having to put on exhibitions and make art in general. I am concerned about the fact that we are encouraged to “think outside the box” and be different, but in the end all you really want us to do is make a waxwork about memory and put it on a plinth.

I am feeling very belittled, because although I have not produced any physical evidence of my work I have put a lot of time, thought and consideration into why this wouldn’t be appropriate, and now you have made me out to be some lazy arse person that is just trying to get away with doing as little work as possible. If you had bothered to speak to me, acknowledge my existence both in myself and my work, and read my writings and explanations, then you would be aware of all my considerations into my work.

I’m aware that I do have to produce a sketchbook, rationale and explain my ideas and document what I’m doing to conform to the whole “art school” criteria. I spend a lot of my time writing down what I do and why I am doing it and why I consciously made a decision not to reveal where my work is. If you had bothered to read anything that I’ve written for you, to let you in, then you would know this and not be confronting me at the exhibition opening night about the whereabouts of my work.

I am very concerned that there is no place for me at this art school anymore. I am spending a lot of money to come here, hoping to learn some fantastic skills and gain confidence in myself, but although I am learning stuff such as how to deal with arseholes and how fucked up the art world really is, I think I could learn this without having to spend another 3 grand of my money next year. The only reason I would continue to do my degree is so that I could go onto do a teaching course later in my life, but by doing the work I want to do I’m not going to achieve a high enough grade to do this anyway. Teaching is such an important job, whether it be at primary level or degree, it is so important that we are given full support at this stage, especially doing something as fickle as fine art. We are paying you to inspire us, to encourage us so and help us gain confidence in ourselves and our work. I know this is probably completely trivial to you because I am a shy person and don’t voice my opinions much or make a big song and dance every time I go to college, I am an unimportant person to you, I don’t think anyone deserves to feel like that. If anyone’s read this, cheers, last night was amazing by the way, it’s obvious we don’t need their help; we can put on a bloody good show on our own.

go down fighting

This is the first of my tiles that i've seen to have been forcably removed. I love that great big dirty white cement stain, it's like they've tried to remove me but the traces of my existance will always be there. Plus they've just made it worse. So hoorah I guess i've found an audience then. Who took it down? Where is it now? Did you like it?

fly fly fly away

I placed my flyers amongst the masses. They are a gift, my special flyers, whoever picks them up will probably not notice though.

infiltrations

In my crit it was mainly suggested that i shouldn't limit myself, and i was given permission to go to town with my interventions....in consideration to this i've been thinking about everything that goes with a typical exhibition and where you wouldn't expect to be encountering work. The marketing team finally finished the promotional stuff this week and I came to college on Friday to find flyers and posters literally everywhere! Thats some damn fine marketing.


I've infiltrated some of the flyers and plan to place them back in the piles tomorrow....you won't notice though.

exhibit this

I managed to get a load of plates and stuff from the fundraisers today I assured them I would return them safely hehe. I've considered having my work on the wine glasses, but then i thought about extending this further to incorporate other things, I also plan to do a few of the nooks and crannies of the gallery space when everyone has moved out. I placed my images on the bottom of a few plates, I like to think of someone carrying it around with them but not noticing. I will do the wine glasses as soon as they have arrived.

what if...?

Peer feedback from the crit, thanks everyone :-)

• What if it can be in a few places around town all the way through uni? Ask people if they mind it being near there work
• What if you had an unlimited budget? What choices would you make, what if college would pay for some of it?
• I like the wine glass idea, engaging with the audience is good, or on the plates, with the food.
• What if your art work was the invite?
• What if you used more than just the wine glaases, but plates, table? ? ?
• What if you consider the interraction and networks of people all (or some) carrying bits of your work. It might help the decision making.
• What if you put them in the exhibition but more subtley? Underneath plates, etc?
• What if they were hidden in the ceiling?
• What if you thought about the tiles being walked on
• What if you took over the world?

pissing on the city

The proof is in the pudding

opening night...

I stole this image from the college website fine arty section. Look how serious she looks looking at that chilli pepper hmm question question question thats really interesting i'm really interesting in that it's aesthetically stimulating to me. I'm thinking about how i can sneak my piece in to the exhibition, on opening night, people could be interacting with my pieces and not even know it.

Thinking about the folk that go to these things, how they interact with each other, standing around in groups having intelligent conversations, wandering, staring, thinking,pondering. You come for the art, or do you really? Did the free wine and food interest you in the slightest? Or what about the opportunity to just be seen here? How cultured...

Theres something interesting about the wine you get at opening nights. I've been watching how people act and behave in these situations, the wine glass is like a prop from social interaction, something to hold, like a cigarette, it is comforting to have you carry it with you and it is in integral part of the night but it isn't something you pay attention to or look at, something insignificant that really does have an essential purpose.

Perhaps I could place my pieces at the bottom of the wine glass? You won't bloody notice.

what the flux?

Fluxus is a Post Dada art movement that flourished in New York and Germany in the 1950s and 60s. Fluxus emphasised the concept of anti-art and mocks the seriousness of modern art. Fluxus artists used their minimal performances to question the boundaries between art and the everyday. Fluxus art encouraged a “do it yourself” aesthetic and was often presented in "events", which consisted of instructions. These events encouraged an audience interaction which reflected Duchamp’s notion regarding the viewer being integral to the art work.



Photograph of Hi Red Center performing their Street Cleaning Event,
taken June, 1966 at Grand Army Plaza (58th Street and 5th Avenue), New York City.
Photograph by George Maciunas, 1966.



“The Fluxus artistic philosophy can be expressed as a synthesis of four key factors that define the majority of Fluxus work:
1. Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style.
2. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.
3. Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.
4. Fluxus is fun. Humour has always been an important element in Fluxus.”

So why am I interesting in this? Was Fluxus just a bunch of people who didn’t know how to make real art so they made art against art? It was suggested to me to look at Fluxus in regards to how I sneak my way into the exhibition. Because Fluxus artists were annoying. They were stubborn. They refused to conform to the conventions of typical art presentation. A lot of Fluxus artists didn’t even document their work, they just happened, and only exist in the memories of others. But what about my pieces? Ok, so they exist outside. I haven’t given maps, I haven’t made clues, I haven’t revealed the locations to anyone, how do we even know they are there? Maybe my work is a myth? Maybe I’ve just been sat on my arse for the past 4 months pretending to be doing stuff.
Nah i’m messing with you they are really there, you just have to look harder. Or do you? Nah haha sorry what a shit entry. xx

let's dance

ba da bee ba boo