Sarah Zuckerman
September 14, 2013
Research Methodologies AVT 600
Assignment #2
Summary of Articles
Institutional Critique, Ecology of social and
biological systems - Hans Haacke
Haacke believes that the term industry is apt and
beneficial in describing the art world. It removes the façade of the artist
creating art for arts sake and impresses upon them the truth of art, that it is
created, marketed, and distributed just like any other product. Although this
has been happening for ages, it has become more of an overt cultural norm as
art managers become more present within art society. These art managers have
been studying how to market, sell, and price point art in schools and have no
disillusionment with the mysticism of art being removed.
Funding comes from companies to the arts for a
variety of reasons. Businesses can break into new areas using arts as a means;
it can also help them through political and social situations. Good will is
given to companies who help fund the arts and make it available to be seen.
Through the arts their hidden agendas of recognition in society can be exercised,
as their advertisements are prominent throughout promotional materials and
elsewhere. Perhaps in an inadvertent way this has caused museums to
self-censor. In an effort to create exhibits that will be seen, they have to
procure and show work that will entice a company to fund it (as well as their
museum and their jobs, really it’s a means of survival). As museums pander to
the needs of the company’s, they can no longer freely say that they are solely
institutions of learning.
Meanwhile there are artists who are still trying
to create work within the context of art for arts sake, which seems nearly
impossible once it is in any real standing within a public realm. There are
social and political contexts that surround the piece and the piece cannot be
separated. Artists would like to think that their art could be made and held in
a pure bubble of conscious creativity. Art making itself is informed by the
thoughts of the artist that are created by social adherences, no matter how
overt or subliminal. There is a small area where art can be so ambiguous that
its meaning can be misinterpreted or interpreted in multiple ways as to subvert
the process of industrialization of the art making, but mostly that is an act
that is fewer and further between.
Reverse Anthropology - Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Guillermo Gómez-Peña is a performance artist
living in the San Francisco area. He considers using his artwork as a means for
blurring the lines between art and political activism. He brings into question
all the viewer believes they know about race, gender, sexuality, stereotypes,
and class through use of elaborate costumes, and extreme “audience
participation”. The audience can be involved directly and actually ‘perform’
with Gómez-Peña and his troop or they can watch, but in doing so are also
implicated by gazing upon the acts that he does. It forces the viewers to turn
their gaze on things from outward forces to inward workings to sharply question
what they think they know. Gómez-Peña has had difficulties in getting reactions
to his work in the place he lives, San Francisco, as they are welcoming of a
type of art the subvert political, gender, and class norms, and actually
welcomes and expects it. He constantly tries to break or blur borders, which
also plays to the issue of immigration that is consistent through his work. He
believes all artists have must make use of their critical voices and make sure
that they are heard so that those in power listen to them and think about their
ideas concerning the number of issues Gómez-Peña works though in his art.
Through some research online I was able to find
some of his video performances and I found them to be very aggressive and
uncomfortable, which I do believe is what he is partially going for. I can only
image that his performances in real time resonate much more with the viewer in
participation.
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