Monday, March 5, 2012

Contemporary vs. Tension


"...contemporary art’s ethical imperative is to deal with the ambivalence of the experience of emancipation."
- Cuauhtémoc Medina
 © Kat Amchentseva
   Tension between the viewer and the work is something that happens among art institutions indiscriminately, but perhaps is more apparent in contemporary art. This is still true holding the assumption that it is not the artist's intention to create distance between viewer and object.
   Art institutions, auction houses and the like should be held responsible for this since they are often exclusive and removed environments, thus validating pieces that might otherwise not have been looked upon as art, unless housed in these controlled and immaculate spaces. Since it lacks a single historical narrative, a quality of incompleteness permeates all levels of contemporary art, however institutionalized they may be. Although contemporary art is not part of any distinct movement, we can see it's evolution in terms of it's accessibility. Museums traditionally divide the public when dealing with accessibility. The reason works don't become more accessible is because even when the work travels, it goes to other certified, tight-security, insured institutions. So although the work moves, the setting it finds itself in does not really change. It is behind glass, or perhaps has a sensor that goes off when you get too close; either way, it does not invite the viewer to do much of anything, except feel disconnected while viewing the artwork. The reason this is worse with contemporary art is because it is the least likely to be traditionally viewed as art in the first place. When the public's reason for seeing something as a piece of art is mostly due to where it is housed rather than what it is, you reveal a very apparent rift between art that looks like art, and art that is only seen as art because of it's immediate setting. It is however the curator's and not the artist's responsibility to present the art to the public so perhaps we should begin there. *

* Follow up post about the relationship between the curator, the artist, and the exhibition is next.

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