|
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
|
|
|
