... we need to talk ...

personally, this was an impeccably well timed reading. (i am referring to the hand-out we were given, the introduction to Conversation Pieces, by Grant H. Kester. By that statement, what i mean is that, rather than posit the notion of discursive or dialogical art, or relational aesthetics and hitting the ground running as it were, Kester approaches this contemporary artistic tendency whilst providing it, or perhaps, foreshadowing it against traditional art-object based practices and theory.
this was incredibly helpful for me, because the problems that he laid out that traditional critics had in approaching art works like the roof is on fire which stimulate the creation of temporal collaberative dialogues and exchange within the public sphere are the exact same problems or frustrations that i was experiencing.
By which i mean: the results of these enterprises are often completely unaesthetic, or stimulate little to no visual pleasure, and hence, on that level can be seen as unengaging, or 'fluffy'
also: that these works are very difficult to distinguish from other activities within the broader social and political spheres of activity or demonstration in a certain city or country.

what i loved about this reading is how he Grant drew out links between many of the ultimate goals of so called 'traditional' modernist object art with those of relational art.
these being a "kind of epiphany that lifts viewers outside the familiar boundaries of a common language, existing modes of representation, and even their own sense of self." (pp 12)
but instead of attempting to achieve this through the 'shock', or blow of a single, object or image, it attempts to achieve this through " a cumulative process of exchange and dialogue."

question: what does 'Greenbergian' mean? so i can understand what 'post-Greenbergian' means. . .


on a brief note, i just checked out the website for the danish collective called superflux that was mentioned in the reading. they put on this show called 'FREE BEER', which "applies modern free software / open source methods to a traditional real-world product - namely the alcoholic beverage loved and enjoyed globally, and commonly known as beer."
exactly how they apply these 'open source methods' to beer is slightly unclear to me, i think maybe they all got together and brewed beer, and shared recipes and ideas for different brews?

i like that this project is still very colourful and aesthetically pleasing and well organised, and still exisiting within an institution.
but, more importantly, imagine how successful your opening night would be if your show was called 'FREE BEER'...