So we went to New York for five days last weekend. It was the usual late August hot, humid weather but we had two amazing art experiences that made it all entirely worthwhile.

1. Big Bambu on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum.

Doug and Mike Starn’s 40-foot high bamboo structure exemplifies what I always say about artists that do design-y type installations. It’s important to go big. The installation should always overwhelm the viewer so that the viewer feels the effect of the artwork. And that may mean that the artist needs to work for days, months on the project to get it large enough. A lot of young installation artists should heed this advice, I think.

We didn’t get to take a tour through the bamboo, but friends of ours did and said it was incredible.

All images of Big Bambu: VoCA

2. Dia: Beacon

The only photo I was allowed to take. Image: VoCA

Robert Smithson’s Ithaca Mirror Trail, 1969. I couldn’t find specific images of the works they had at Dia, especially my favorite, Leaning Mirror, 1969. Image: c4gallery.com

We had always wanted to check out the Dia Foundation’s outpost in Beacon, New York. It is the perfect thing to do in 100 degree heat. Somehow, the minimalist sculptures had a cooling effect. It is, essentially the perfect venue for minimalism. I finally came to totally appreciate Donald Judd. And the Chamberlain crumpled automobile sculptures were stunning, there was one of the finest Lawrence Weiner wall works I’ve ever seen and a wonderful Bruce Nauman video of his empty studio at night, completely still save for a mouse now and then.

The Richard Serra sculptures were astounding. You realize why he’s one of the greatest American sculptors.

Serra’s large spirals at Dia make you feel free and constrained at the same time. Awesome. Image: coloradocollege.edu

Michael Heizer’s North, East, South, West, 1967/2002. Image: saatchi-gallery.co.uk

One interesting thing to note if you’re headed there is that if you email or phone ahead, you can book a tour every day at 10:30 am, to be toured around Michael Heizer’s fantastic installation North, East, South, West, 1967/2002.

But my favorite piece – by far – was Robert Smithson’s excellent Leaning Mirror, from 1969, which was a large pristine mirror that had been elegantly inserted into a pile of dusty earth.

Click HERE for the Dia Foundation’s website.

DECONSTRUCT – PERCEIVE – ACT – QUESTION

Speaking of young artists, I recently ran into the young, formerly-Toronto based curator Alissa Firth-Eagland, who had been living in Europe for the past two years and who was back in town for a few weeks of studio visits before taking off again.

Firth-Eagland, second from left, with her fellow participants of the Curatorial Training Program. Image: ecoledumagasin.com

She handed me a copy of one of her recent publications, The Learning Public, which she co-edited with Veronica Valentini from Milan. It was published on the occasion of a round table, back in May, which corresponded to an exhibition called How not to make an exhibition at the international cutarorial training program Ecole du Magasin, in Grenoble, France. The round table was titled How to Act in the Public Sphere, the participants were The Bruce High Quality Foundation and the French artist Clarie Fontaine.

The publication is clearly intended as a work of art. On its cover is a story of Bruce and Claire, but the story asks the reader to consider: “What if this text is a public space? Yes. This one.”

Members of the Bruce High Quality Foundation. Image: nytimes.com

Inside, a manifesto of sorts from the BHQF, whose mission, on their website, HERE, is, in part “to resurect art history from the bowels of despair.” Discussing what they term the learning public, or the public that exists in order to validate art history and the art market, they put forward the idea that that this public has relinquished its power because they have “misconstrued the battle for power over what art is as a battle between the private and public sectors. Currently, the most significant and creative remodeling of art’s institutions are coming from the private sector…”

It goes on to say that this is because the private sector is more creative, more willing to take risks, acts like an engaged student. Nonetheless, the private sector “still instrumentalizes art for profit.”

Their goal? “To position the learning public of art in such a way that it can engulf the public and the private…to understand art through the educational frame.”

Claire Fontaine submits an allegorical text, using her words “to address her own powerlessness in today’s messy apolitical world”.

The exhibition poster, courtesy Alissa Firth-Eagland.

The exhibition was designed to offer alternatives to established systems of learning by putting into question their coercive aspects.  It’s interesting - especially in light of the last post on Hugh Scott-Douglas - how young artists and curators are thinking about and reacting to the market, how it is formed and what their place is within it.

For more information – in French – please see the website HERE.

More on Alissa Firth-Eagland, is HERE.

The other day, I did a studio visit with the young artist and very recent OCAD grad (2010) Hugh Scott-Douglas.

I had seen his ceramic sculptures at a collectors home and fell in love with them. They were mid-sized, off-balance ovals and loopy shapes that were roughly modeled but heavily and sophisticatedly glazed. Some, he showed at Clint Roenisch’s gallery in a 3-day exhibition this spring, had working light bulbs in their ends.

Hugh. Image: VoCA

I was expecting to see sculpture when I arrived, but Hugh’s tiny studio room was hung with paintings, which he was preparing for an upcoming show in L.A. (One of many shows this year, a testament to his ambition and social networking skills, but that’s another post, coming soon.)

Some ‘bad’ paintings by Hugh Scott-Douglas. Image: VoCA

He explained that while he studied in the sculpture program at school, he now worked in other media, mainly since he could stack more paintings together than he could store his extremely fragile, unfired clay sculptures.

A sculpture by Hugh Scott-Douglas. Image: verykunst.com

We spoke at length about his practice, mostly about ‘bad’ art, and the ‘willful idiocy’ that some young (and less young) painters have been bringing to their practices in recent years and which he is himself investigating.

I’m also interested in the idea of ‘bad’ art – in fact, what I loved about Hugh’s sculptures is the dichotomy between the off-kilter shapes and rich, heavy glazing. I love how much ‘bad’ art looks wonderful inside a white walled gallery. I love how clumsy execution is magically balanced by the artist’s intention. Of course, when artists make ‘bad’ art, it’s a deliberate move, a way of investigating new possibilities, or, as Raphael Rubenstein mentions in THIS article (that Hugh sent to me) a way of ignoring the ‘impossibility’ of painting.

His inspiration wall. From Mark Rothko to Tonya Harding - that’s kinda great. Image: VoCA

His tools. Image: VoCA

I feel it’s also a reaction against the market. From THIS article “Waxing Durr” in the quarterly publication Art Lies, on what they term “retard art”: “Posed as an act of passive market resistance, this recent slackerdom ultimately occupies a position of privilege and luxury, highlighting the market’s ready recuperation of any production, even the most retarded.”

Another of Hugh’s ‘bad’ paintings, soon to be shown in L.A. Image: VoCA

Check out Hugh Scott Douglas’s website HERE.

I think he’s definitely one to watch.

The Walrus has a good interview with Simon Brault, author of No Culture, No Future, the new book that exploresthe fact that the arts are a necessity, not a luxury.

As he puts it, the book is a “call to action” - for Brault, it’s up to everyone to communicate with one another to promote and encourage the arts.

Image: cormorantbooks.com

Here is some of what Brault has to say in the interview:

“When you look in the papers, the conversation around arts and culture is reduced to the economy or to presenting a particular cultural product. It’s not a broad conversation about what arts and culture bring to people — to children, to people who are lonely, to people who have a need for expressive life.”

“Every human being has a relationship with the arts. The fact that we are ignoring that — and trying to lecture people as if they are completely ignorant, as if they are completely disconnected from everything we believe in – is a big problem.”

“I read, I think, I write, but mostly I act. And I try to act with people around me. I still believe that ideas can change the world. I know it can sound like a very romantic vision — but it’s not so romantic because things are changing… ”

Author Simon Brault. Image: cormorantbooks.com

I haven’t read the book, but I’m looking forward to it.

If you want to know more on Brault’s thoughts vis a vis the arts in Canada (and the world), buy the book HERE.

I came across THIS link from the art:21 blog today – in it, Anna Milandri talks about what’s been going on, art-wise, in Berlin recently.

Baby Ghost From the 1900s Says Beat It With Your Chain, 2009, by Berlin-based Montreal painter Wil Murray.

New York’s Triple Canopy put together six evenings of art-related discussion, including one titled “Print and Demand” in which several publications, including Berlin’s 032c(a great issue, btw) and Vancouver’s Fillip, where they discussed the changing nature of print and online publishing.

It seems that some intriguing ideas came out of the discussion, including the idea that readers – and particularly commenters with something to say – should consider contributing.

I agree, and I welcome contributions from regular commenters on VoCA. Whether you agree with my posts or not, it’s the only way to get a real dialogue going among this community of readers. Of course, I’d be happy to feature perspectives other than my own.

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There seems to have been a lot of talk about the democratization of art lately.  Recently in the Globe and Mail, columnists Russell Smith and Lynn Crosbie have both offered their thoughts on recent developments in the cultural sphere.

Jan Vermeer, The Milkmaid, c. 1658-60. Image: navigo.com

In THIS article, Smith focuses on an online movement known as “folksonomy …or social tagging. It has created software that permits anybody to look at various museums’ online collections and label each image with as many descriptive keywords as they like.”

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Michelle Kuran has written an excellent article on the state of Canadian art criticism, in the Ryerson Review of Journalism. Read the article HERE.

Young, and determined critic Naja Sayej. Image: torontoist.com

Though Ms. Kuran did contact VoCA for our perspective, we were out of town and didn’t manage to make the interview happen.

Quoting everyone from R.M Vaughn to Artstars’ Nadja Sayej to Canadian Art editor Richard Rhodes and Eye magazine’s David Balzer, the article is an interesting insight into the ‘criticism-by-omission’ that dominates today, and not only in Canada, of course.

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Here’s a fascinating article by Ben Lewis from Prospect magazine. It’s definitely worth reading.

In it, he presents the case for “compelling parallels between much of the contemporary art of the last two decades…and French rococo, a movement that extolled frivolity, luxury and dilettantism, patronised by a corrupt and decadent ancien régime.”

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. Image: rawartint.com

“Boucher’s art represented the degradation of the baroque school’s classical and Christian values into a heavenly zone of soft porn, shorn of danger, conflict and moral purpose. Similarly, (Damien) Hirst’s work represents the degeneration of the modernist project from its mission to sweep away art’s “bourgeois relics” into a set of eye-pleasing and sentimental visual tropes.”

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Marshall McLuhan’s poetic description of photographs as “dreams that money can buy,” begins the catalogue text for the 2010 CONTACT photography festival in Toronto.

A view of the exhibition by David Rokeby. Image: VoCA

The 2010 festival, on throughout May in various venues across the city, celebrates the media legend – wonderfully and appropriately – on the 30th anniversary of his death.

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There’s so much happening in the Canadian art world, it can be difficult to keep up with it all. Here’s a reminder of some places you can hear excellent talks, watch videos and read thoughtful commentary.

On OCAD’s website, check out videos from their excellent speaker series, including talks by the critic Hal Foster, Jamelie Hassan and Vandana Shiva.

Jamelie Hassan, Wall with Door, 1977. Image: canadianart.ca

Also, Filip, the Vancouver-based art publication, has some excellent podcasts, including THIS one from last year by the writer Diedrich Diederichsen on Judgment, Objecthood, Temporality.

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