I got to the show with only an hour of it left. In the past, like I said before, I've felt mostly nothing when I've been to shows of hers; it didn't make me go one way or the other. At moments it was beautiful or terrible or made me think. But mostly I could just shrug my shoulders cause if there was something more there I didn't really get it. She's so angry, and race is a huge complicated issue, but still, I couldn't connect with her specific anger because it didn't really feel personal to her, to me (that one-dimensionality I think Matt spoke of.) Basically, I suppose I mostly felt like she had her shtick and that part bored me right away, of course.
All that aside, I did wish they hadn't kicked me out of the show yesterday. I would have like to go through the whole floor. I felt more open (maybe this was only because I know you had a change of heart, Matt, and that influenced me? not sure). I can't say that I loved the show, or even liked it, but everything seemed to be more open and softer, maybe? She's so angry, but somehow I was more tolerant of that this time around. Or maybe it is that she changed something, however minuscule, and brought people into her world in a better way? What are your thoughts, Matt? Anybody else see the show?
~steph
3 comments:
I saw the show a couple weeks ago on a friday night, where I was trying to see that show, Weiner, and the video show they have there, television delivers people.
I actually had a somewhat opposite history with her work, always liking it and seeing it as subversive and talking about the abuse of power, and trying to uncover how racism developed over time. Her was always a nice injection of clarity and anger in group shows that might have other work that skirted controversy, or that might seem less political.
In this show though, i began to sense the one-dimensionality you are talking about steph, and that her work seems to be sort of repeating the same thing over and over, which exhausted me a quite a bit. Her diversity of approach, is interesting though, and kept her work (and the show) from being a complete dead end.
The Weiner show was sort of frustrating in the opposite way...I had no idea what he was trying to say, and i felt like he was functioning under some sort of rational system i couldn't understand. I guess you could call him a combination of dada and sol lewitt..that was the show that i was sad to have to leave so quickly, because i felt compelled to look, to think, to figure things out, and his world felt completely open, whereas walkers seemed sadly closed, doomed for endless permutations of the same messages...
anyway, the best show ever was at marian goodman, that i saw right before the whitney, it's tino sehgal, i recommend seeing it before it closes on the 10th.
One-dimensionality. Hm ... Is this a criticism we apply to other artists but not to ourselves? Race and gender are, of course, still valid reasons to make work (as most reasons are) and are issues we deal with directly in our day to day lives (some more than others). I wonder what it is that makes it one dimensional. Perhaps it's her attitude about it all - or maybe the way the attitude comes across? I think about other artists and their work as one-dimensional all of the time. Seems to me that Goya could be considered one-dimensional if we don't investigate further into his body of work, etc. Let's just be careful.
Well said. I agree that we need to be careful with the terms we throw out.. Even though I think everyone here is pretty honest with themselves, it's good to point out every now and again to remind ourselves and each other that we need to reverse our comments and thoughts of others and see how they sit with our own work.
I wasn't throwing the term loosely with Walker though, that was a feeling I left many of her shows with over the years. I think the attitude that comes across could have something to do with it, I'm not saying whatever attitude it is isn't unfounded, just that... maybe she doesn't seem to be asking any questions.. more like she's just giving answers.
Anyway - that's a good topic I think - questioning and answering.. in regards to anyone and everyone who makes art.
I didn't see the Weiner show thought, so can't comment on that.
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