Abstracts


	1995 Monday, June 5 WELCOME: Sheryl Conkelton KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Establishing Concepts of Aesthetics Victor Burgin Burgin will address the question, ‘Why this topic at this time?’ Tuesday, June 6 ARTIST PRESENTATION: Lorie Novak I combine and revisualize photographic imagery, exploring its relationship with memory. I am particularly interested in how personal and collective memory affect the reading of photographs. Working with slide projections, I create ephemeral installations that combine family snapshots with historical/cultural images. This work with projected photographic imagery takes two forms: multi-slide projector installations that are made either to be photographed or to exist in their projected form. I will talk about my photographs and slide installations from 1983 to present. In addition to showing slides, I will show a video documenting my most recent installation, Collected Visions. To make this piece, I collected snapshots from approximately one hundred women and girls in order to examine the representation of women and girls in family photographs and the experience of growing up female. In addition to showing examples of my own work, I will discuss (and show photographs and books) the photography program I co-founded in a community center in East Harlem. This program is part of an after-school youth and teen program and has been thriving since 1988. LECTURE: The Nature of Beauty Participants: David Hickey Peter Schjeldahl David Hickey I begin with Oscar Wilde’s premise that "life imitates art," that there is no "nature" of "beauty"— or "beauty" of "nature" for that matter. Beauty is simply the culturally constructed agency that causes visual pleasure in the beholder. Specifically, I would suggest that the word "beauty" signifies the optimum effect that arises when the horizontal signification of patterned light and noise interacts with what those patterns of light and noise signify vertically, as signs, beyond themselves, in a specific context. Peter Schjeldahl Beauty is a physiological experience common to everyone. I enclose "Notes on Beauty" from my book, Columns and Catalogues, 1994. DISCUSSION: Contemporary Art Theory Panel Participants: Victor Burgin David Hickey Shelley Rice Peter Schjeldahl Victor Burgin Burgin will look back on some of the main arguments of his book of 1986, The End of Art Theory: Criticism and Postmodernity. David Hickey Operating on the premise that all works of art exceed their description, I tend to treat all theoretical constructs as tools–as lens filters through which we may look at works of art in a simplified state. Each one of the five or six theoretical models available to contemporary critics highlights and prioritizes certain aspects of the visible object’s physical, semiotic, or economic constitution and filters out other, equally relevant aspects. The application of theory to works of art, then, is an efficacious, orderly form of censorship, an instrument through which we pursue our own local, political agendas. Theories are intellectual sunglasses, in other words, through which we may more clearly perceive our own desires embodied in cultural constructions. Wednesday, June 7 ARTIST PRESENTATION: Dorit Cypis I’m an artist surviving in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I wear many hats professionally, which says everything about subjectivity. My questioning on "identity" over the past fifteen years have led me to many aspects of "the body"–physical, metaphysical, political, and mythological. I work through "the museum" on one hand, and with "homeless" youth on the other. DISCUSSION: (at The Whitney Museum) 1995 Whitney Biennial Klaus Kertess ARTIST PRESENTATION: Susan Jahoda I will present work from two interconnected projects: Theaters of Madness, a book project for an anthology titled Deviant Bodies, and The Unstable Subject, a mixed-media installation which addresses an interplay of a "self," the family and the State. While Theaters of Madness primarily focuses on representations of hysteria and neurosis in nineteenth and twentieth century white women,The Unstable Subject includes representations of so called madness interwoven as one subtext amongst others. Both projects draw from appropriated medical treatises, pharmaceutical and other forms of advertising, found and taken photographs, fictional and diarisitic texts, and film footage. The framework for contexualizing the above projects is a discussion of the ways in which images/representations are produced within their own historical, social, cultural and political moments, and diverse meanings. How, in turn, are these meanings circulated, resisted by, and inscribed upon bodies? LECTURE: Imaging the Body/Depicting the Physical Self: Meditations on The Anatomy Lesson Joyce Cutler-Shaw How we depict the body and interpret the body of women and of men, from "ape man" to "cyborg," reveals the way we see and understand ourselves. As Artist-in-Residence/Visiting Scholar, Joyce Cutler-Shaw is pursuing an investigation of the human body, and its historical and current representations, in a medical school setting. Through drawing as an act of empathy, and of inquiry, as well as written texts and multi-media forms, she explores the physical self at its most raw and essential, in dissection, and at its most ephemeral, as it is dematerialized and redefined by new electronic medical technologies. The Anatomy Lesson, is the temporal, physical self in a search for origins, identity and human meaning. DISCUSSION: Viewing the Body Participants: Joyce Cutler-Shaw Dorit Cypis Thursday, June 8 LECTURE: Bodies at the Vanishing Point Peggy Phelan LECTURE: The Veil Carole Naggar Since the 1850’s, when photographers and painters traveled to the Middle East in search of new, exotic views, representing the veiled woman has been a fascination and a challenge to artists. We will explore through a number of examples, how photographers (both male and female) have dealt with taboos linked to female representations in the Middle East between the nineteenth century and now. ARTIST PRESENTATION: William Christenberry Work from The Klan Room. ARTIST PRESENTATION: David Levinthal Tableaux Photography and the Fabrication of Duality. Friday, June 9 LECTURE: Celebrities as News: Paparazzi Photography Carol Squiers The most reviled and most fascinating of all photographic callings is that of the paparazzi, the skulking outlaw of tabloid journalism, despite his (or her) bad reputation. Though the paparazzi has assumed an increasingly more prominent position in contemporary culture. This paper will address who the paparazzi are, where they began, what their function is, and how privacy and libel laws affect what they do, and what you see. LECTURE: Gerhard Richter’s Atlas Christopher Phillips One of the most influential artists of recent decades, Gerhard Richter has, from the early sixties combined, in extremely paradoxical ways, the visual idioms of painting and photography. Alongside his production of paintings and sculptures, he has, since the late sixties channeled his visual source materials–found imagery as well as his own drawings and photographs–into a vast ongoing work called Atlas. Currently on view at the Dia Center for the Arts, it contains almost 600 framed panels comprising around 5000 images laid out in grid fashion. In a short lecture I will provide an introduction to Richter’s chief concerns as an artist. This presentation will serve as a starting-point for discussion of the work itself at Dia. Saturday, June 10 LECTURE: Pornography in Photography: What To Do When the Authorities Take A Negative View Allan M. Harris, Esquire Allan Harris will be discussing criminal law as it relates to adults and minors in relation to artistic photography. He will review the current status of criminal law with the concerns of artistic photographers–what they can do to avoid charges and what to do if involved in a criminal investigation. DISCUSSION: Censorship Panel Participants: Merry Alpern Ellen Brooks Barbara DeGenevieve Allan M. Harris Ellen Brooks Brooks will talk about her own experience in confronting censorship, both as an artist and as a Peer Panelist on the 1994 NEA Panel. Barbara DeGenevieve Cultural violence resulting in death; female sexual pleasure; and Wall Street prostitution: the current hit-list of subjects inappropriate for federal funding. Under the convenient cover of being the final arbiters of "quality," the National Council on the Arts succumbed to conservative threats to cut NEA funding by flagging three, peer-panel approved applicants and revoking their grants. Although denying government funding to controversial art does not in itself constitute censorship, the underlying ideological control of "disturbing" or "sensitive" subject matter points to a continuing attempt to regulate access and dialogue about critical social issues, whenever possible. This presentation will address specifics of the 1994 grants, as well as other philosophical concerns regarding "shit," kitsch, and fear. Sunday, June 11 DISCUSSION: Implications of Recent Radical Technological Changes Participants: Judith Barry Victor Burgin Timothy Druckrey Fred Ritchin Wendel White Judith Barry Barry will present remarks on the technological differences between US artists and Western European artists. She will discuss several large international art shows in relation to the uses of technologies and the various ways artists employ them. Additionally, she will discuss differences in commercial/art world strategies as they determine access to production facilities. Victor Burgin Burgin will discuss the relation of photography to identity in the context of digital technologies, with special reference to some recent uses of digital photography in US news journals. Timothy Druckrey To address the shift from photography to experiential media to virtual reality to networked creativity, some reformulations are necessary. If the essentialist characterizations of photography are to be grafted into ‘postphotography’, then the theory will be circumscribed by lingering of critiques of representation that are not fully adequate for interactive or experimental imagery. While the issue of the photograph forms a significant foundation for the understanding of images, the splintering of the ontological substance of the image is both welcomed and entangled in the intricate relationship between the legitimation of the subject of the image and representation of the intention of the producer. So much of the status of the photograph is predicated on its necessary link with a concept of the "real" that has been discredited. Instead of an ontological relationship, the image emerging in ‘postphotography’ is more reasonably positioned as epistemological and simultaneously ‘distributed.’ This talk will address some of the issues raised by the transformation of photography by digital media. Fred Ritchin Fred Ritchin will talk about the possibilities of having an impact on the building of humanistic models for new media. Monday, June 12 LECTURE: Intentional Communities James Baker Throughout history, intentional communities have developed independently from the prevailing culture of their time. These communities, such as Black Mountain, Findhorn, and New Harmony, are broadly described as organizations initiated by people with shared ideals–whether religious, artistic, or social. James Baker will briefly outline the history of some intentional communities and summarize their similarities, idiosyncrasies, their successes and failures. Through exploring how these communities are manifestations of people’s desires, the discussion will broaden to how individuals may create alternative paths for personal growth and livelihood. LECTURE: Kamoinge: The Members, the Cohesion and Evolution of the Group Louis H. Draper Kamoinge, a word from the Kikuyu language of East Africa, means, "a group of people acting together." This was the name we chose in 1963 when Kamoinge was formed because it signified a possible way out of the photographic isolation we each felt, individually. Ray Francis, a founding member, summed it up very well when he said that we were each working on little islands, unaware of the others presence. This sense of isolation and the general "unwelcomeness" from downtown magazines and exhibition outlets, served to fuel our collective frustrations. What we needed most was critical feedback and encouragement, the urgency of which was propelled by and ran parallel to human rights struggles exploding upon the national stage. I will present, with a series of slides and commentary, Kamoinge’s evolution, its search for an identity and its current concerns. LECTURE: Communities in Cyberspace Allucquere Rosanne Stone ARTIST PRESENTATION: Jolene Rickard Who thinks about Native Americans or American Indians anyway? The focus of my discussion will be about examining the representational ruins of indigenous America. What’s it like to live in a colonized space? How does it differ from you own? Are Indians really different or just a footnote in the B section of the New York Times? Who cares? Not the culturally focused world. Understand why not. Why bother to think about or consider the rights of indigenous people? This has been the work of my family and it continues to be my work. Projects shown will include: Cracked Shell: Why did they put Stontium 90 in my back yard?, The First Words, and Skywoman Falls on Patriarchy. ARTIST PRESENTATION: Photography and Teaching: An Artist’s Attempt To See From The Inside Wendy Ewald A presentation of photographs and stories in various countries. A video of a project in process will also be shown. DISCUSSION: Organizing and Working Within Communities Presenting: Wendy Ewald Lorie Novak Jolene Rickard Jorge Daniel Veneciano Responding: James Baker Louis H. Draper Allucquere Rosanne Stone Jorge Daniel Veneciano Los Angeles, like New York, is a city of immigrants. It is the Ellis Island of this half-century and leading into the next millennium. My presentation will center around a project, executed in LA, entitled Intersections: Work, the Street and the Document which involved exhibitions, community meetings, educational programs, recitals and social services designed to address some of the issues arising from an increasing Latin American presence in the city. The project focused primarily on Latinos who make their livelihood by, first, establishing their presence on the street (e.g. street vendors, day laborers), and the artists, photographers and documentarians who worked with them. I will also address, more broadly, the role of artist as community activist, and more specifically, my own role in photographic work with ethnically defined communities. Tuesday, June 13 ARTIST PRESENTATIONS: Susan Unterberg and Joan Murray Susan Unterberg I will speak on the collaborative nature of my work which explores the psychological complexities of intimate relationships, especially familial ones. Issues of gender are at the core of the work. My subjects, who willingly pose for me, have always been my collaborators. Lately, I have made collaborations with a video artist, as well as a poet, and very recently an artist who uses paint and collage. I will present some of my family pieces, then talk about a book project made in collaboration with poet Joan Murray, who is also here to engage in a dialogue. Joan Murray Individual work and collaboration–why do two artists (a photographer and a writer) working successfully in independent areas choose to collaborate? What difficulties are inherent in such collaborations and what are the rewards? Is the art created an entity (shaped by the collaborative process itself), or merely the sum of its parts (i.e. how does it differ from "images with captions" or "text with illustration")? I will present examples of my individual poems which "make use of" photographic images and will briefly discuss my forthcoming video collaboration. The main focus of my presentation will be my ongoing collaboration with photographer Susan Unterberg. I hope to raise questions about freedom and control, inspiration vs. alteration, and art as interpretation. Wednesday, June 14 LECTURE: Bookmobile: A Survey of Recent Publications in the Visual Arts Christopher Phillips LECTURE: Images from Communities Under Fire Marie-Jo Mondzain Why present in the Venice Biennale a "Yugoslav section" entitled Facing It? To manifest the dignity and freedom of creation and connotations of face representation in regions of the world where the orthodox theology of the icon has become a deadly weapon, an auxiliary to nationalism. LECTURE: Curatorial Issues Marie-Jo Mondzain Jorge Daniel Veneciano Sylvia Wolf Marie-Jo Mondzain She will speak about her collaboration with N. Petrovitch Negoshi and about specific problems and difficulties, limited to working with communities in conflict. Jorge Daniel Veneciano My discussion will look at the insider-outsider art paradigm and its institutional component of mainstream-alternative venues from two points of view: first, from the perspective of a community arts curator, and second, from the perspective of a fine arts museum curator. Additionally, I will discuss the particular case of The Studio Museum in Harlem which has positioned itself historically in paradoxical, albeit necessary, relationships to mainstream and alternative modes of institutional functioning. Sylvia Wolf Using exhibitions I’ve organized for The Art Institute of Chicago and a book recently written for children on five women photographers, I’ll discuss what kinds of questions I face when deciding how to install an artist’s work , or what format to use for a publication. For example: What kind of text should be incorporated and how much should there be? How does this project contribute to what is already known about the artist or subject? Who is the audience for the project and how does that affect the decisions I make? CLOSING REMARKS: A Field of Dreams: Taking a Good Look Through Peripheral Vision James Enyeart A presentation of ideas and discussion on more than a dozen issues in "the field" facing emerging artists including institutions, collecting, technology, funding, mentorship, censorship, and issues behind aesthetics.