Pamela M. Lee
In the context of contemporary art, what is your vision of a yet unknown art? I find this question provocative on a number of levels, not the least of which is that it seems both vaguely contradictory and a little old-fashioned. How, after all, can one have a "vision" of something that is yet unknown? Does the business of speculation -- art critical or otherwise - necessarily yield up a concrete image of something that hasn't happened? Perhaps you are simply asking us to identify the "next big thing" -- a task that has, no doubt, fallen upon countless art critics and artists in recent times. Regardless of my reservations, your question demands to be taken seriously. In fact, I'd like to take it so seriously that I'm going to refuse to answer it. Part of my resistance has something to do with a certain exhaustion experienced in the face of contemporary art reportage and its impulse to document, preview and (here's the rub) market the New, the Emerging, the Up-and-Coming. This is hardly a new phenomenon in itself, but the situation feels even more extreme now given the proliferation of websites devoted to spreading the Gospel of contemporary art (including, yes, anthologies of the kind to which I am now contributing. The irony smarts.) And while this is probably not the most politic thing to admit (indeed, it would seem the proverbial case of biting the hand that feeds you), there are times when opening a contemporary art magazine inspires a peculiar kind of dread. The dread of rampant hyperbole around this young artist or that; of this brand new gallery or style or critical school. Of keeping up, in other words, with the next big fashion in art. Contemporary art, of course, requires contemporary documentation: this is less a profundity than a tautology. But I suppose my reluctance to answer your query stems from the sense that I don't want to know about everything, everywhere, now, that is Art. I don't want to see the future of art before it's ready. I like the idea of some artist doing his or her thing in some corner, working slowly, working among a community of like-minded peers, developing his or her interests apart from the rapaciousness of the art market/press. I like the idea of a practice that has yet to be colonized in advance of the fact. Perhaps the sentiment is romantic, perhaps old-fashioned in its own right. But it seems to me that we've got plenty to chew on right now, plenty to question, praise and criticize without the distraction of crystal balls. Pamela M. Lee Stanford, USA |
