ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER - Monoskop

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lows: “Often artist and community are linked through an identitarian reduction of both, the apparent authenticity of the one invoked to guarantee that of the other, in a way that threatens to collapse new site-specific work into identity politics tout court. As the artist stands in the identity of a sited community, he or she may be asked to stand for this identity, to represent it institutionally. In this case the artist is primitivized, indeed anthropologized, in turn: here is your community, the institution says in effect, embodied in your artist, now on display.” Foster, The Return of the Real, 198. 18 Early in his essay, Kester does mention the extent to which community-based artists today collaborate with a more complex network of “professional institutions and ideologies that the artist . . . , in some cases, seeks to radicalize or challenge.” (Kester, “Aesthetic Evangelists,” 5.) But the role of these institutions and ideologies in determining the nature of the collaborations themselves seems to drop out in his subsequent discussion. This is one of the few shortcomings of Kester’s text: he describes the relationship between artist and community group as immediate and direct, which is usually not the case. 19 Ibid., 7. According to Kester, the conservative arguments that define the current political climate in the United States have “successfully repudiated the ‘excesses’ of state intervention during the New Deal and the Great Society, portraying any attempt by the government to intervene into the ‘natural’ play of market forces as precipitating a moral crisis in capitalist culture in which the poor will refuse to work and will make unreasonable claims for unearned ‘entitlements.’” He goes on to say: The cause of poverty in this scenario is not the systematic structure of capitalist labor markets and investment decisions within the context of the global economy but, rather, the moral inferiority of the individual subject (which is in turn the partial product of a polluted culture). ... Conservatives argue that the real problem in the U.S. today is a lack of moral character among individuals, and that existing social problems can best be solved not by the state, but by the efforts of private individuals and organizations that develop programs focused on building the character of the poor. Thus we have moral pedagogy (designed to counter the “bad” moral pedagogy of the state) rather than any real attempt to alleviate the actual conditions of poverty and joblessness, much less any attempt to address their root causes. 20 This evangelical sensibility was explicit in curator Mary Jane Jacob’s legitimating description of the premise of “Culture in Action”: “In the 1990s the role of public art has shifted from that of renewing the physical environment to that of improving society, from promoting aesthetic quality to contributing to the quality of life, from enriching lives to saving lives.” See her essay 203 NOTES TO PAGES 139–142
204 “Outside the Loop,” in Culture in Action, exh. cat. (Seattle: Bay Press, 1995). 21 From the Artist and Homeless Collaborative statement of purpose as cited by Kester. Kester cites another statement, by a member of John Malpede’s performance group Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD), to exemplify the extent to which community-based art valorizes individual transformation in preference to analysis of social conditions: “I was a drunken sot living under a bush in Santa Monica, stealing beer. Now I live in a great apartment and I just directed a show. It was a great experience. I never thought I ever had a chance to do anything in the art world and I had very low self-esteem about being successful in any way. Now, after five years of being an actor in LAPD I feel really confident.” Kester, “Aesthetic Evangelists,” 8. 22 Martha Fleming, letter to the editor, Afterimage (June 1995): 3. While almost all artists involved in community-based art would deny (as Fleming does in her letter) that they ever speak for a community or have a privileged relationship to it, very few can articulate their position or process with as much critical self-reflection and fullness of feeling as Fleming. In this sense Fleming is one of the exceptional voices in the field. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Kester, “Aesthetic Evangelists,” 6. 26 See chapters 1 and 2. 27 Kester, “Aesthetic Evangelists,” 6. 28 Ibid. 29 One such example is the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh. In the summer of 1996, the organizers of this annual event, originally designed to draw people to the city’s downtown, initiated a community-based public art program called “Points of Entry” following the model of “Culture in Action.” Mary Jane Jacob was called in as a consultant on the project but withdrew halfway through the process. In an interview with the author (March 12, 1996), Jacob remarked of “Points of Entry”: “All of [the] projects can be summarized as (A) artist, (B) group, on (C) issues. And that’s neat. But I almost see a parody of myself here. It’s so much ‘Culture in Action’ turned into a formula and not problematizing it.” See also my review of “Points of Entry,” “Three Rivers Arts Festival: Pittsburgh, PA,” Documents 7(Fall 1996): 30–32.
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MIWON KWON ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER
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MIWON KWON ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER
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For Umma and Appa
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The first incarnati
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ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER
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2 become insignificant or innocuous
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4 no discrete separations or neat p
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6 for the consideration of another
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8 In the final chapter, the dissipa
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10 Robert Smithson, Partially Burie
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12 establishing an inextricable, in
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14 itself, falls into the illusion
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Daniel Buren, photo-souvenir: Withi
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from the physical condition of the
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Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Hartford Wa
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Group Material, DaZiBaos, poster pr
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Mark Dion, New York State Bureau of
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tion), a neighborhood or seasonal e
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cal determinants, which are not exa
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� UNHINGING OF SITE SPECIFICITY M
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Richard Serra, Splash Piece: Castin
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adamant their critique of dominant
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42 the point of (re)production. Tha
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Faith Wilding, Womb Room (Crocheted
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now by which the artist comes to ap
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49 UNHINGING OF SITE SPECIFICITY
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Thus, if Richard Serra could once d
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establishment, the exhibition wante
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of various cities a matter of produ
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composition in green, with yards of
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60 decades. Our story will concentr
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62 Isamu Noguchi, Red Cube, Marine
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64 examples of it in public places,
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66 come. 18 Thus, despite the numer
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68 Nancy Holt, Dark Star Park, Ross
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70 < Lobby of the Wiesner Arts and
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specificity, quite explicitly oppos
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such cases it is necessary to work
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78 artistic practice). In fact, the
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80 than promotes the fantasies of p
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82 logue between the artist and his
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84 of the community within which th
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John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres, c
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In many street casting sessions, he
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Department of General Services who
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homes—the execution may be shoddy
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could not be imagined belonging any
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though the issue cannot be pursued
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larly illuminates the conflicted na
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Suzanne Lacy and A Coalition of Chi
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Sculpture Chicago were shocked to b
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Dealing with some of the most profo
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galleries. They choose instead the
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ound to a geographical region. 33 I
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tend to speak in terms of community
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munity” is repeatedly conjured in
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give voice to underrepresented and
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munity in an exhibition program, as
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seemed to connect them was service
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such specific community groups. 56
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certain community group by the spon
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a local facilitator (Carol Becker o
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Mark Dion and the Chicago Urban Eco
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Daniel J. Martinez, VinZula Kara, a
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Haha and Flood: A Volunteer Network
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Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and Street-L
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video production studio. With the n
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fact, the uncertainty of identity e
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contemporary lust for authentic his
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quickly that her interest in pursui
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character flaw (lack of initiative,
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nity groups. It is perhaps not surp
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the neighborhood, from the city: th
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presumption of community-based art
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in a particular social issue, such
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Page 174 and 175: The play begins with Majeski recent
Page 176 and 177: systems. The enormous sense of powe
Page 178 and 179: eactive, cultivating what is presum
Page 180 and 181: Gabriel Orozco, Isla dentro de la i
Page 182 and 183: 7 The term is borrowed from Hal Fos
Page 184 and 185: 10 Daniel Buren, “The Function of
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Page 188 and 189: mal art colleagues, he used fabrica
Page 190 and 191: 18 See J. I. Gershuny and I. D. Mil
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Page 198 and 199: 39 On this point, see Hal Foster,
Page 200 and 201: 61 Ibid. 62 Others not necessarily
Page 202 and 203: tures were painted. Perhaps for thi
Page 204 and 205: 5 The change in exhibition title si
Page 206 and 207: Issues Are Focus of New Public Art
Page 208 and 209: 28 See Jeff Kelley, “Common Work,
Page 210 and 211: Sculpture Chicago staff. One part o
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Page 218 and 219: 30 Kester, “Aesthetic Evangelists
Page 220 and 221: constitution of the public sphere a
Page 222 and 223: Press, 1997), 7. Much of Lippard’
Page 224 and 225: INDEX Page numbers in italics indic
Page 226 and 227: Democracy, 80, 107, 116 Democratiza
Page 228 and 229: Lindell, John, 28 Linker, Kate, 66-
Page 230 and 231: Shamash, Diane, 103 Site discursive
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