Orals vs. Summer

So, apparently it's hard to force yourself to read art history books when the weather is gorgeous and you play loads of softball and go on awesome roadtrips to the Berkshires with your friends. Who knew?? None-the-less, I continue to press on!

Currently barreling through Cubism and Culture, which actually gives a lot of intellectual history behind such figures as Duchamp and Matisse, as well as more commonly known Cubist artists. I still need to learn how to pronounce Gleizes. Any ideas?? Maybe learning proper pronunciation would be too much at this point. Yes, I think it is. Scratch that.

I've also realized how helpful shelving in the library is for studying for orals. I find myself seeing a book on a movement or artist and instantly trying to call up canonical works of art and (most importantly) smartypants things to say about them. Today I also found a book on Neue Sachlichkeit and basically said "oh crap...nothing is coming up, I'd better check this one out." Though harrowing, this is also a useful part of seeing hundreds of art books as I work.

The Berkshires wasn't all fun and games, though. We made it up to Mass MoCA, where I gained a new respect for Sol LeWitt and experienced an actual Santiago Sierra performance. The latter piece, Veteran Standing in a Corner, really affected me. The museum recruited actual vets to stand, in uniform, so close to the corner that you could not see their face. While this work certainly draws attention to the treatment of war vets in this country and uses Sierra's signature antagonism to make the viewer think, my sense of unease went a bit deeper than I usually expect in a gallery-based performance. I kept wanting to go speak to the performer, or at least see his face. Not to mention how the connotations that come with "standing in a corner" certainly made this civilian watching feel unfairly placed into the role of judging schoolmaster/voter, forcing punishment for potential acts or decisions I will never be able to understand. This sense of unease and implication is no doubt intended, but I just wonder what (if any) benefit it could provide for the performer. I definitely want to do an interview with one of them.

Perhaps my recent research on Wodiczko's three recent pieces working with veterans makes me predisposed to a more therapeutic collaboration with veterans of war - while still maintaining a critical sense of confrontation with the viewer/spectator. Sierra's piece, along with Wodiczko's and the recent collaborative venture Combat Paper Project are rich investigations of how art can be part of a return from war or even a means to (hopefully) begin to heal its wounds.

OK, now it's Orals vs. Future Research Projects. Basically Orals vs. other stuff in general. Also the Nats got swept by the Angels, which was distracting.

And now before bed, it's back to the Cubists, who apparently were into far-out theories about perception and the fourth dimension. I'm seeing a Cubist-Psychedelic comparison in my mind now. It is optically giving me a headache.

More to come...