Where I'm Art

(that image is from James Farmer at Seblogging Cognitive Architects)





I am very confused and shifting, these days.


I let myself shocked by details that would
probably not cross the mind of many.

I take as argument the fact that even the public friendly William Kentridge exhibit
in Montreal shocked me when it received a lot of great press everywhere else.


I won't go here about what went wrong in my mind.


I am questioning wrether it's time or not for me to do art,
and wrether that wouldn't be my best option to respond to what
is going on around me, instead of sitting here blogging
about art shows that not much people care about.


I remember last month when I finished writting a whole
show review on Sarah Lucas, linking some images, right before
the gallery took all the images off, probably at the request of the artist.

I thought: Oops...ok, well...this one is going to be all
text with maybe one or two links to artnet.

But then, and perhaps under the influence of whom I was writting
about (Lucas had always been an extremist thinker), I
started to question: "Why do I care?".

I mean, Does Sarah cares ? Is it like she has a blog,
and talks about what she wants to do next, shares her opinions
on the world and other people's art, and show images
of her art??


No way. Her art is out there, take it or leave it
No discussion.


Not that I'm reproaching her anything, because what I
just described in fact would be the situation with 93 per cent of
visual artists I know.


I even thought Damien Hirst had a website until recently
when I realized that it was a devoted fan site.


It used to be complex enterprise to start a website, but the era
of blogging is shifting all this.

It is becoming almost the reverse situation when anyone will
soonly get nailed against a wall and asked why or why not are they writting
blogs.


I believe blog will have a strong impact on
the development of art and the artworld.
Not only blog are a new form of art,
accentuated on the now, the everyday,
the archiving, and the flutuaction
of process (admitting your mistakes),
but they shift a lot of parameters
in the conventions of information control,
much more directly than it was ever
predicted since internet became
a popular application in the early 90's.


I don't think Google Video is such a revolution
when you can already blog your own videos.


I don't think Kentridge in museums will last when
the next Kentridge will blog their own video animations on the web.

Why go in a museum see a video about the urgency
of the situation of aids in Africa when someone
else can blog his art about the same subject
the morning it's done (Google even offers you
to make people pay for a stream). For now at least
you can reply "Because Kentridge is much better", but that
is temporary. Chances are the future Kentridge will be decided
upon by the public, when they will not need anymore to be told by gallerists
the art they should be gazing at.


The media canvase is irremediably shifting (once again).
Media artists are getting new means to develop their way
of collaborating with the world. "Instantaneification of broadcast".
Designers don't have the monopole of web expression anymore as new media systems are
implemented. It will be interesting to see where all this go.



----------------------------


In the meantime, I've seen a lot of art lately
that didn't leave an impression.


I've seen art non-stop since 1987, and yet it's
the first time I'm getting a serious sentiment of
getting "blasé". I wonder if the sentiment is shared.


Even artists we once dearly believed in
now bore us (Damien Hirst).


"Why did I come to see this?" was a question
I asked myself a lot recently. Not too
far from "why do I write this?" or "why would
or should I write about this?".


Recently I have been more preocupied with
making art than sharing opinions about what
others do, probably because I feel my
skills are there in the first place.
I have no idea, to be honest (yet, plenty of ideas).


I've seen art in Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, and Boston,
during the course of April, cancelling a New York
trip after seeing samples on the web of artists I
planned to visit (I'm tired of painters using the skills
of other people without citing them...at least call it
Art Inc., or any name implying you are not alone, like
on the programme of a theatre presentation).


Nothing...I insist... Nothing enthralled me.
(except Claire Savoie in Québec, which was an
old idea of hers but, much enhanced).


Either I questioned the pertinence of a lot
of stuff, or I was left with art I had already seen
before (Lemieux in Quebec).


My hopes are on Toronto (that Dedicated show, that Bruce Mau show)
and Quebec (Manif) for some great art. Than Public Art Fund in New York
this May, with Ernst at the Met, and Janet Cardiff (again) in Washington.

Is that all ?

....maybe that Alberta Scene thing in Ottawa? (in May).



Until I decide to review more art (or not),
I will be sending notices about personal
wherabouts and projects here.


Here is my promissed Art Link Of The Month for April,
in a series attempting to dig ou where lies the real,
true, new art:


Avant Gaming


If you didn't know that one at least that gives you
a reason to come back here once per month. ;-)


Cheers,


Cedric Caspesyan
centiment@hotmail.com