Following on from a talk given to us on ‘Art In Unusual Spaces’ Yvonne Carmichael; the programmer for the scheme came in to present another lecture. Although this time she spoke more on the artists and art work she likes and dislikes and her own individual interests.
She spoke briefly over quite a few points and her personal opinions on exhibitions she has seen, such as ‘The British art show’ and ‘The Venice Biennial’; which she stated were both a little basic and that nothing much really interested her....saying that the shows were ‘content less’ in importance as to making you get anything from the work to make you think. The intention of what she meant was soon corrected once she was questioned, as she didn’t mean it to sound so offensive to the artist’s objectives. She added that there was nothing much to the shows in her opinion as they seemed too commercially lead; with no actual link between each of the works exhibited.
Yvonne also mentioned an artist named ‘Raphaëlle de Groot’, and a group called ‘01100.org’, who’s projects and intentions behind their works was said to have had an effect on the way she thinks about art in general as she agrees for the most part into their ideas.
Raphaëlle de Groot has engaged herself in work that cannot be described through the artistic mediums she employs. Her practice is similar to investigative procedures and to research and experimentation methods through the artistic mediums she employs, such as drawing, performance, video, installation, edition or curatorial undertakings. Her attention to details to what seems unimportant is one of the main keys to understanding her approach. Her work develops through projects or strategies involving the artist alone or with others, as some projects are conceived for groups of persons with a shared experience. She voluntarily refrains from assigning goals to these strategies (drawing blindfolded, painting while constraints severely restrict her movements or obeying someone else’s instructions), which she uses to experiment with a situation. Whether acting alone or with others, she remains decidedly committed to the process at work and constantly strives to safeguard the utmost sensitivity to what her devices bring about and, above all, to what she does not expect.
I became instantly intrigued from the selection of images of ‘Raphaëlle’s’ works, that Yvonne spoke about in her presentation and so I looked the artist up myself and came across a selection of her works titled ‘Microcosme (2000)’; were she cut out every Chicoutimi resident listing from the 1999-2000 edition of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regional phone book and re-ordered them by street name and address. She then read the names out, following a route one might take on foot through the city. The reading was played back in the exhibition space, where the list of residents was tacked to the wall in the form of small strips alphabetically ordered according to the street names. She also strolled through parts of the city, list in hand, and stopped in front of each building to read the resident’s name and address aloud. This, too, was recorded, along with a description of the house facade.
Without the reasoning behind the doings of this piece, I immediately fell in love with the work. For me, the work itself isn’t what has caught my attention, its how the piece looks as a whole, especially from a distance. The simplicity of the line, order and colour usage reminds me of the installation work I am putting together at the minute; even more so with the addition of text. And so is a relevant artist to look into for that reason alone. For me her work is very influential.
Yvonne also keenly spoke about Wochenklauser, Artwayofthinking, ciudad multiple city festival and some of the artworks in the last two Manisfestas; www.wochenklausur.at/, www.artway.info/, http://manifesta.org/. I found each of these websites really interesting although the work alone didn’t appeal to me as much as others.
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