art is fear

#OccupyBubble (Image by Joe Flood)

Recontextualizing the bubble? It was once an art object. Now it’s become a symbol of the “counterculture demonstration” and being occupied by one Jordan Brinkman at OccupyDC, according to Arin Greenwood’s report in the HuffPo.

I was hoping that after the bubble exhibit ended at Project 4 Gallery, I’d finally be able to tell you what I thought about the whole project. But seems that the bubble is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

City Paper also reported on #OccupyBubble.

Michael O’Sullivan says: “If this all sounds incredibly stupid, you should probably stop reading here. Nothing I can say is likely to change your mind.”

Read his review here.

The time has finally come. Agnes’ exhibit opens at Project 4 Gallery next week:

Agnes Bolt: Dealing

Exhibition: October 22 - November 26, 2011
Opening Reception: Saturday October 22, 6:00-8:30 pm

1353 U Street NW, 3rd floor

Project 4 is proud to present “Dealing,” a solo exhibition featuring new work by Agnes Bolt. Bolt is an interdisciplinary artist who uses photography, video, installation, and intervention in her art practice.

Bolt’s most recent project playfully investigates complex relationships, as artist and art collector are contractually obliged to intervene in each other’s lives for one week. A series of rules, exercises, and communication systems dictated the physical and virtual interactions between the two strangers with the intention of examining the consequences of the artists’ undeniable presence in the collector’s life. “Dealing,” features the works created for, during, and in response to these experiences.

For the first interaction, Bolt imposed herself along with her temporary plastic living structure in the home of art collector, Philippa Hughes, becoming dependent on Hughes for nourishment, affection, and intellectual discourse. Performance became real life and real life became performance as multifaceted interpersonal and power dynamics played out. The artist became a witness, fetish object, captive, intruder, spectacle, mirror, insider, outsider, friend, and yoga instructor.

In the second interaction, Bolt constructed a series of virtual exchanges between herself and art collector, Philip Barlow. This experience borrows from online fantasy and constructed identities, while considering the power plays and seduction of producing and consuming art. One exercise connected the pair through a live audio feed, which allowed artist and collector to hear each other’s heartbeats during the course of an entire night, exploring distance, vulnerability, and simultaneity.

Agnes Bolt was born in Poland and is currently living and working both in Brooklyn, NY and Pittsburgh, PA. Bolt is presently a MFA candidate at Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA. Recently, Bolt’s work was projected at the Internet Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale and shown at Microscope Gallery in New York. She is a recent recipient of the Heinz Foundation Artist Grant, the AW Mellon Grant, and a Fine Foundation Grant.

Website: http://www.project4gallery.com/

An entire edition of this magazine devoted to the changing role of the “collector” in the art world.

Issue No. 83 of “Texte zur Kunst” which will be released at the start of the art fair season, addresses the collector. In the past three decades, discernible changes in the manner and actions of a certain group of collectors have emerged. What characterizes this development foremost is the strong focus placed on the collector’s personality. This appears to be a phenomenon where merely the function of collecting as good publicity is at the fore. While collecting art was once a philanthrophic venture of the upper class, a new generation of male and female collectors—as well as couples—uses their art collection to gain political and economic power. While collectors were previously hardly known to a broader public, today some of them actively stage their activities in the media and seek to attain the status of a celebrity. The massive accumulation of private money as a result of financial speculation is accompanied by budget cuts in the cultural sector. For many museums, cooperative projects with private collections often appear to be the only possibility to present contemporary art that they can no longer afford. Yet for many collectors today, the model of permanently tying their acquisitions to a public institution in the form of loans, gifts, or endowments seems to have lost its relevance. Instead, they prefer to self-confidently found their own, often architecturally striking exhibition venues. With issue No. 83 “Texte zur Kunst” critically reflects on the altered role of the collector in the way it relates to society.

A few weeks ago, artist Reuben Breslar led a social art project for Salon Contra called “Touch” in my living room. Salon Contrarians were asked to attend “bearing skin.” When they arrived, Reuben asked them to paint each other. The experience required participants to get right into each others personal spaces and push each other into really uncomfortable places. However, all were happily chatting and covered with paint by the end of the evening. How different this was from the “bubble” project in which the participants were kept very separated from each other not only by a physical structure but also by rules that inhibited discussion and interaction (except for the morning kiss). Both situations created discomfort and resulted in personal growth. I think the one that created the most discomfort resulted in the most personal growth.

Harper’s magazine published the text of the Agreement that Agnes and I signed before we commenced the “bubble” project. The Agreement outlined the parameters of our relationship. If this were a legally binding agreement, Agnes could have brought legal action against me for noncompliance. And possibly negligence.

I moderated a panel discussion earlier this week at the Greater Reston Arts Center with many of the artists from “BITE,” an exhibit curated by Jefferson Pinder. The underlying premise of the exhibit: to use humor to “shed light on issues of personal struggle in mainstream society” and to challenge “cultural norms that dictate expectations of who we are supposed to be.” The conversation touched on many broad themes such as racial identity, youthful angst, the feeling of powerlessness, feelings of inferiority about your place in the world, standards of beauty, and living within the boxes that society has created for us. To me, all of these artistic explorations have one thing in common: they are all fear-based emotions. Art is a way to grapple with these emotions, and adding humor to the art makes navigating those emotions a little less frightening. 

Some good thoughts from Katlin Chadwick HERE.

The painting is “Careless” by Ed Bisese.

My intern Kelsey King got some good resumé experience with Agnes!

WORK EXPERIENCE

Agnes Bolt 

Washington, DC           

Interior Decorator  

May 2011

·       Worked with artist in rearranging and redecorating the space of her “intrusion” project, promoting mobility, space efficiency and the attractiveness of the environment within.

·       Cordially and professionally coordinated between the client and team members, facilitating universal satisfaction and a positive work environment.

Imagine my surprise when I came upon this piece in the “Untitled” art exhibit curated by Mike Maizels and Brittany Strupp. The work is called “Blastwave” and was created by Adam Nelson. The description of the work says that it “visualizes fantasized underwater explosions” that confront the viewer with a “potential threat”.

Even though Agnes moved out six weeks ago, so many people still ask me about the project as if she were still living with me. It’s interesting how each person involved with it, or who knew anything about it, has a different perception of what was going on and what it was about.  For example, a couple days ago, someone pointed me to this tbd.com article (I hadn’t seen it until now) that mentions the project in the context of a recent play produced by Factory 449 that had an eerily prescient subject matter.

According to the article:

The artist struggled with Hughes’ lack of ownership over the experiment. “[It’s as if] we’ve broken into her house … she’s choosing to pretend it’s an embarrassment,” Bolt told me. In relational aesthetics, the medium with which Bolt says she has a complicated relationship, interactions and relationships make the art, so Hughes, and anyone else who interacted with Bolt became a part of her artistic process.

Yep, I’d say I had a very much different interpretation of the project. In a way, I ruined it for Agnes. She had a clear idea of what should happen and I derailed everything. The project became something much different from the original rules she laid out and the expectations she set for us. Would the project have been “better” if I’d followed the rules? I don’t think so but I suspect Agnes would disagree. In any case, I found the project to be extraordinarily meaningful.

*Photo credit: Arden, Lizzie and the young man in Magnificent Waste. (Photo: Photo by Stan Barouh)