It was really great to see so many important and interesting works in one building, the fact that there are institutions as large as Dia that are dedicated solely to art of the last 50 years really gives you the impression that the present matters, and current works will eventually have a place to exist. So many galleries dedicate vast halls and astronomical amounts of money to art of the distant past that it is often difficult to see a way forward through the fog of preservation. It was very cool to see some Robert Smithson works IRL; although one may have seen these works a thousand times in photographs the pilgrimage to the real object is a rewarding one, and one that will linger in memory longer than a poorly photocopied image on an essay hand out. We certainly felt that we were ticking works off the list of ‘art you should see’. Its always wonderful encountering large scale Serra work, we had a great surprise when we walked down a short flight of stairs, through an unassuming door and into a gigantic room with four of these last pieces in a row. The sculptures, from the Torqued Ellipse series, are magnificent; confronted with such large objects one traces the boundary of their perimeter sizing the object up against oneself. The rusted iron slab leers over you with a peculiar combination of sincerity and safety; entering the ellipse one is offered a private space where the leering slabs of iron become graceful arcs that gesture towards the space above the sculpture. After encountering the work in two different ways you start to develop an odd relationship with the sculpture; leaving the ellipse the scale still causes it to be oppressive, one is unable to encounter both of these experiences at once, you’re either in, or you’re out. They’re two faced.
One of our favourite pieces was a Louise Lawler piece called ‘Birdcalls’, situated in the Dia garden ‘Birdcalls’ is an audio piece in which Lawler, frustrated at the number of male artists getting recognition on a name-basis, stretches and squawks the names of these artists as bird calls. In doing so she mocks the herd like mentality of name/brand chasing. It got us thinking about producing an interactive piece in the form of a childish ‘can you spot the animal?’ activity sheet, where the participants would be asked to tick off any names that they hear in Lawler’s ‘Birdcalls’.
In terms of new work there have been many developments very quickly, in fact we struggle to remember a time that we have been so productive in terms of ideas and even installing work. After going to see lots of shows we made loose plans to open up different avenues to work within; these could range from an alter ego who makes different art, to a fictional band, to a designer. These personas could just act as a motivational tool for us, or they can make their way into the work depending on how relevant it is to the ideas we’re presenting. The first (very much in development) plan of this is to be called the ‘Operation Series’; a year long performance where we designate different personas to ourselves and attempt to work with a mind-set that is specific to the persona. These personas could last a month, or just a few weeks, but there would be a distinct variation between each character. Some of our ideas so far have been to operate as: a company, an unsigned band, a sports fan, a promoter, an MP, and a designer. Works will then be developed within the environment of our characteristic, meaning that the stereotype of the persona will act as a brief to start the work. Hopefully it is a project that can allow us to make work that is beyond our current practice while not feeling too constrained by the parameters of the project. Consider it a fancy dress of ideas – you can wear a different outfit but it is still you who is in control, you control what you say, you control what you do etc. The work came from our investigations into games, in the game Operation the participants use tweezers to remove objects from a patients body, if they touch the patient with the tweezers an alarm sounds and their go finishes. In this game even a real surgeon is an amateur surgeon; the game mimics real life but fails to mirror it perfectly, much like art. Even an ‘artist’ is an amateur ‘artist’.
