Luis Camnitzer: Concept and Presentation

Maria Daniela Quirós recently introduced me to Luis Camnitzer. He is a German-born Uruguayan artist who uses text, humor, found objects, and rubber stamps in a conceptual manner. Here are two works from the catalog, Luis Camnitzer, that I continue to contemplate.

Luis Camnitzer, Arbitrary Objects and Their Titles, 1979/2010 (Detail)

Luis Camnitzer, Arbitrary Objects and Their Titles, 1979/2010 (Detail)

I love the installation and use of titles as nothing about this is traditional in the manner of display. All of a sudden the viewer must create relationships between objects that may or may not have any identification with one another. The titles look like an afterthought but they are deliberately torn and arranged and take on as much of a role as the item they identify. Handwriting is also important (and thankfully more legible than mine).

Luis Camnitzer, The Photograph, 1981

Even though Camnitzer created this work 23 years ago, I strongly identify with the concept. It is witty, ingenious and the photograph lives on a secondary plane (something I need to consider more in my own art).

The Collections of Susan Hiller

I recently discovered Susan Hiller on one of my new favorite blogs, Nihilsentimentalgia.

Susan Hiller, Homage to Joseph Beuys (felt lined cabinets of bottles of holy water collected by the artist from around the world), Ongoing from 1969

Susan Hiller, Painting Books and Painting Blocks, 1972-1984 (previously exhibited paintings reconfigured as sculpture)

 Susan Hiller, Homage to Marcel Broadthaers: Voyage, 2009

 Susan Hiller, The Last Silent Movie, 2007/2008 (20-minute single-screen video, continuous soundtrack of extinct and endangered languages subtitled on black screens)

From the artist's website:

"Each of Susan Hiller’s works is based on specific cultural artifacts from our society, which she uses as basic materials. Many of her works explore the liminality of certain phenomena including the practice of automatic writing, near death experiences, and collective experiences of unconscious, subconscious and paranormal activity."

Janfamily: Plans for Other Days

I wish I had discovered this book on the London based art collective, the Janfamily, years ago. It's part how-to and part instruction manual. Words often used to describe their activities: "they create alternatives to everyday routines." It's humorous and ingenious. It's Miranda July meets Fischli and Weiss. It's flat out awesome. Thanks interlibrary loan. Wish I had the $$ to buy my own copy.

From the introduction: "We are Janfamily. Each of us and all of us are called Jan. We are related but come from different places. We speak in individual voices, together, we speak up. This is how much we know. What we are made of and what makes us. We are making sense. Sit down where it feels comfortable. Sit down where it doesn’t feel comfortable. Do the book.”

Who could resist a book with four place markers (AKA cat toys) with the names of the chapters sewn onto the ribbon?

The back cover and all my post-its marking nearly every page that I found worthy enough to show future students in my Conceptual Art class or with a Performance and Its Relationship to Photography assignment.

Chosil Jan Kil, How not to do what you did yesterday
 

Oona Jan Culley & Nina Jan Beier, How to be in two places at the same time

Marie Jan Lund, How to build a fortress (December, Pemba)

Ingrid Jan Hora, How to give your full attention

In addition to photographs, text plays a central part in the publication. It may have a direct relationship to the image underneath or it might not as in the case above. I firmly believe that artists can create a humorous photograph by doing something unusual with their head (case in point seen here and below). The text that accompanies Ingrid Jan Hora's photograph reads: "Sometimes I like to lean on the wall of my flat. I like to listen to the sound of the pipes: it's very calming. Even better if I hear voices. But sometimes I think I just imagine them, because I really want to hear something."

Marie Jan Lund & Nina Jan Beier, How to grow together (January, London)
"We are trying to find out which grows faster, hair or trees." 

Daniel Jan Mair & Nina Jan Beier, How to hold hands in the dark

Marie Jan Lund & Nina Jan Beier, How to make an instant shelter

Nina Jan Beier, How to make two minuses into a plus

Oona Jan Culley, How to make your mark (April 2002, Reading)
"I wanted a way to remember the room where I used to work, before I moved away to London." 

Daniel Jan Mair, How to push it just far enough

Makin Jan Ma & Maria Jan Lund, How to soften a challenge

Marie Jan Lund, How to stop time (February, London)
"Several months later, spring was in the air and I went for a walk. A few of the leaves and bits of tape were still hanging on the tree."

Despite the fact that it was published in 2005, the text and photography are surprisingly relevant today. The Janfamily serves as inspiration for reevaluating daily life and the simple gesture as an art form.

Favorite Artworks: Vito Acconci's "Estimation" 1970

Vito Acconci, Estimation, 1970
Choose a distant point: photograph it: estimate steps required to reach it.


I saw this piece at an exhibition of photographs from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2002. At first I laughed but I was instantly reminded that I do similar activities (but neglect to make art about them). In any case, this photographic grid serves as a marker for not overlooking the mundane (art about walking); not being afraid to show obsessive counting tendencies (and providing visual proof); and owning up to the fact that text will always play an important role in my art (though Acconci's writing is far neater).

I often wondered if the actual steps meant touching the tree. I like to imagine Acconci interacting with it - like shaking hands with a stranger. It's good to set rules for oneself in making a work of art, however, it's equally important to break them. Acconci's grid makes me want to step outside and break some rules, however, I better wait until the wind chill factor is above -10º F.

"Now Here is Also Nowhere Part 1"

From the Henry Art Gallery website: "Now Here is also Nowhere is a two-part meditation and non-linear account of how—in making artworks about ideas and intangible concepts— artists continually question and destabilize the nature of the art object."

I haven't laughed out loud repeatedly in a gallery in a long time. It's quite refreshing when it does happen. I encountered Pierre Bismuth's work before on i like this art but this was the first piece I viewed in person: Following the Right Hand of Sigmund Freud, 2009. It is a one and half minute loop shot on 16 mm film featuring a laser pointer.

Tom Friedman always captures my interest and Open Black Box suspended from the ceiling continues his use of voids and drawing the audience's attention to areas of the gallery not normally used.

Stefan Brüggemann's This Work Should Be Turned Off When I Die made me question how the gallery attendants and preparators feel each time they unplug the neon sculpture at the end of the day or pack it for exhibition. I loved the temporary quality of it and wonder if there are instructions for the work upon the artist's death.

I was also fond of Ján Mančuška's While I walked... in my studio in ISCP, 323 W. 39th Street, #811, New York, 2003. The story wrapped around the room and one had to duck underneath it without touching it to finish reading. The materials were a textile rubber band with white silk screened text but it was reminiscent of old typewriter ribbon.

Hans Peter Feldmann's Lovers is another work devoted to absence - there was also a Felix Gonzalez Torres installation of white candies on display. I enjoyed the presentation of this found image with the wood grain activating the cavities where faces once were.

My favorite work in the exhibition was Francis Alÿs's Watercolor, 2010. It is an inspiration for contemplating what to do with my clear water samples. The video comprises collecting water, traveling with water, unceremoniously dumping water, and the interplay between the color of the water and the name of the location. It reminded me of taking a rock from each earthwork visited in 2009, bringing it to the next location and throwing it into the artwork. My actions remain open as the rock from Amarillo Ramp has yet to be deposited into Spiral Jetty. Alÿs closes the loop however in under two minutes.


I wish I was able to see Part 2 but the coming months will be filled with pilgrimages to the Wexner to see Christian Marclay's The Clock, Chicago for the Society for Photographic Education's 50th anniversary conference, and Photolucida in Portland, Oregon.

Jason Polan's "The Color I See When I Close My Eyes"

One of my favorites... Jason Polan.


The color I'd prefer to see when I close my eyes (via the color of).

RIP Dennis Oppenheim

Sad news discovered this evening. Dennis Oppenheim died last Friday at the age of 72. From the New York Times:

"He first became known for works in which, like an environmentally inclined Marcel Duchamp, using engineers’ stakes and photographs, he simply designated parts of the urban landscape as artworks. Then, in step with artists like Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria and Lawrence Weiner, he began making temporary outdoor sculptures, soon to be known as land art or earthworks. “Landslide,” from 1968, for example, was an immense bank of loose dirt near Exit 52 of the Long Island Expressway in central Long Island that he punctuated with rows of steplike right angles made of painted wood. In other earthworks he cut abstract configurations in fields of wheat; traced the rings of a tree’s growth, much enlarged, in snow; and created a sprawling white square (one of Modernism’s basic motifs) with salt in downtown Manhattan."

I have been thinking about Oppenheim's Annual Rings seen recently in a previous post. While perusing his website I found One Hour Run also featuring snow. Like much of his earlier work, it is a duration piece. I've always been drawn to his ephemeral approach to earthworks and body art.


One Hour Run, 1968 (six mile continuous track)

Here are four of my favorite Oppenheim works of art:


Rocked Hand, 1970



Parallel Stress, 1970


Reading Position for Second Degree Burn, 1970




Annual Rings, 1968 (a better version)

Douglas Huebler is the Man

"By late 1967, I was looking for an alternative to object-making and found it in the idea of the map; the perfect conceptual model, with its reduced visual signs juxtaposed with descriptive language. I created a new body of work which added photographic “documentation” to the implications of mapping." Douglas Huebler