In response to Jen Graves’ provocative article, The Vancouver Problem (my response here), Ries Niemi logged the following reflections on Artdish, quoted in part:
I know a lot of Vancouver artists- and, some of them are just like Jen
describes, while others are just as provincial as she accuses Seattle
artists of being.
And in Vancouver, the shadow of a certain style of text and photo
based, detached and cold conceptual work, somewhat Baldessari-esqe,
hangs over a lot of the artists.
There has been a big concern lately, as Emily Carr has been closing all
the “crafty” art departments, and going more and more towards a Photoshop-only curriculum, that nothing but one style of art is
“approved” in Vancouver. And, strangely enough, THE EXACT SAME THING
has been happening at the (University of Washington).
Ries:
The text/photo crowd, most of whom are not “cold and detached” although
there’s nothing wrong with an ambitious chill, is in the ascendancy
everywhere. The extra reason why at the University of
Washington comes down to faculty: photographer Paul Berger and photo-technician/curator Michael Horn (neither of whom has a Web site), along with Rebecca Cummins and Ellen Garvens. Add the recently demised Larry Sommers, and you’ve got the Pied Pipers of the art department.
A
good crew graduates from the UW this year with BFAs in photography,
video and whatever trails those categories as installations.(Exhibit at
the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, through May 2. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-4)
From Sol Hashemi, Special Event
is a collage of the world’s corny surfaces, what takes up space around
us, our sometimes inadvertent lightening and brightening touches. At the
last minute, Hashemi added to the show a forlorn construct he’d made on
his way in, titled, Untitled (Mardi Gras Mylar Spray Pick #2).
He was doubtless thrilled to see it booted out soon after and placed
near a trash can, not in the trash can, which I presume would have been
better.
(Click images to enlarge.)
In the spirit of Robert Rauschenberg, rejoice.
Julia Salamonik’s still life looks as if a child put it together in her room and magically enlarged it to life size.
Jason Hirata
once licked a primed piece of canvas till his tongue bled. The blood is
the evidence of engagement. It’s a tribute the body artists of the
1970s but tied to painting. Yes, it’s hard. (below, Lick Painting, and detail.)
He has a lighter side.
His photos of various assemblages of wooden beams are like maps to a dance.
The photos of Zofia Gill
exude a breathing calm. Despite the clarity of her forms, they seem
fluid, almost in the Chinese landscape tradition. Instead of idealized
vistas, however, she presents semi-urban in between spaces, vacanies at
the edges of an unseen action.
Among the other projects I admired is Jacob Sweeney-Samuelson’s video of plastic tatters that is
framed in the same tatters, so much more glamorous on the screen, with
its tawdry pink and purple lights.
I like some of this art, and not others-
But everything you show has nothing to do with the fact that Emily Carr shut down its foundry. I was up there for the May student sale and exhibition 2 years ago, and it was chained shut. Many students were complaining.
Similarly, the UW has ramped down its metals department, not replacing teachers when they retire. They have reallocated budget to other departments from textiles, sculpture, and other craft based fields of art.
If there is no professor, then, by definition, there can be no “Pied Piper”.
This is a conscious administration policy, not the result of some happenstance. Good professors, in any field, are hired. Or not.
In the case of both Emily Carr and the University of Washington, somebody has been making executive decisions as to which programs will be funded, and this inevitably influences where the interesting young artists in any given field choose to attend college.
Paul Berger is great, and he attracts smart, motivated young artists to be like Sol and Jason. Needless to say, he does not attract the latest wood carvers, jewelers, or weavers to his program- the next Tom Joyce, or Nancy Worden, or Ed Rossbach is going to be going to another city.
So telling me how great some of the artists who do photo based work does not address my complaint at all.
I believe there is room for both the head and the hand at any given art school, and, in fact, I believe it is NECESSARY to teach both.
Call me old fashioned- it would be a lot nicer than some of the things I have been called lately.
You’re right. I didn’t address it at all, and shutting down the foundry is lamentable.