End of criticism

Famed movie critic Roger Ebert wrote a penetrating analysis of published criticism. Here's an excerpt:
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"Death to film critics! Hail to the CelebCult!"
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"A newspaper film critic is like a canary in a coal mine. When one croaks, get the hell out. The lengthening toll of former film critics acts as a poster child for the self-destruction of American newspapers, which once hoped to be more like the New York Times and now yearn to become more like the National Enquirer. We used to be the town crier. Now we are the neighborhood gossip.
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The crowning blow came this week when the once-magisterial Associated Press imposed a 500-word limit on all of its entertainment writers. The 500-word limit applies to reviews, interviews, news stories, trend pieces and "thinkers." Oh, it can be done. But with 'Synecdoche, New York?'"
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Read the rest of the article here:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/death_to_film_critics_long_liv.html
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This is not only limited to American press and to movie reviews. The same thing can be said about art reviews. Newspapers often get unqualified writers who know nothing about art to write the art reviews which leads to sensationalizing the artist's work or labeling the artist as 'bizarre'. No wonder artists despise journalists!
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In my experience, many editors don't want their writers conducting any deep-thinking analysis or making any controversial points. Instead, they want to keep the art review light-hearted and focused on how much money the work sold for and which celebrities were in attendance. (YAWN) Editors, and by extension, the readers aren't looking for profound ideas to ponder over.
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I have had many situations where I had to dumb down my writing and delete any thought-provoking ideas. Praise the blog.

Economics 101

The recent Flash Art Newsletter contains this funny tidbit:
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"The Gagosian way - A mail from Larry Gagosian to his staff this November:
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'If you would like to continue working for Gagosian I suggest you start to sell some art. Everything is going to be evaluated in this new climate based on performances. I basically put in eighteen hours a day, which any number of people could verify. If you are not willing to make that kind of commitment please let me know. The general economy and also the art economy is clearly headed for some choppy waters; I want to make sure that we are the best swimmers on the block. The luxury of carrying under-performing employees is now a thing of the past.' "
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www.flashartonline.com

A fitting image

In this paradoxical age of gluttony and financial strife, this image seems somehow a propos.

Asian Biennial Forum November 14-18

I will be the online moderator for the Asian Biennial Forum on
http://northeastwestsouth.net/site/node/211. So please join us this weekend!
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This is from their website:
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"Asian Biennials
Start: 2008-11-14 12:00
End: 2008-11-18 23:00
Timezone: Europe/Amsterdam
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Asian Biennial Forum at n.e.w.s. has been postponed until November 14th-18th!
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Asian Biennials this year have reached an all-time high, adding to the growing number of Biennials around the world. While many of the biennials focused on proportionally inviting western and 'non-western' artists, transnational interstitiality or using the respective cities as presentation spaces in a neo-liberalist capitalist economies, others addressed the specific terminology that is central to artistic discourse within a globalised world. Many of the contributors to n.e.w.s. have either visited the recent biennials or are themselves participants. Starting with the premise put forth by the Guangzhou Triennial curatorial team 'Farewell to Postcolonialism’, n.e.w.s. would like to contribute to this forward-looking discussion with an Asian Biennial forum where curators, artists and critics share their experiences of the past two months.
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Going beyond academic, institutionalized discourse, n.e.w.s. will be used as a tool bringing together voices from all over the world, those living in different time zones, but gathering virtually for one weekend around the 2008 phenomena of 9 Asian Biennials! Moderated by Susan Kendzulak, contributors will give brief essays about certain topics they find relevant, concomitantly they will comment on the uploaded essays. Trusted readers and subscribers, along with visitors to the site, are not only invited to sign-up as users but encouraged to join in the discussion with their comments and critiques.
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Invited contributors so far: Lee Weng Choy, Sebastian Lopez, Ingrid Commandeur, Rich Streitmatter-Tran, Phoebe Wong, Chantal Wong, Tiong Ang, Thomas Berghuis, Ruben de la Nuez. "

November 4, 2008

Jacob Lawrence "Play" 1999

Inspiring art quote

I came across this inspiring quote about art and artists that I'd like to share with you.

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Malaysian painter Ahmad Fuad Osman replied to this question:

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"What do you think is the role of a contemporary artist in society?

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My friend once told me that in France, they planted roses outside their grapes farm for wineries to attract insects so that their grapes will be good and healthy for wine making, and I like the idea even though I don’t know if it is true or not.

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To me, in a way, an artists should be ‘that roses’ to his society because they are among others, the one who is really ‘looking and listening’. "

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http://caisproject.blogspot.com/2008/08/artists-corner-ahmad-fuad-osman.html

Cultural Sensitivity: Chen Chieh-jen, AIT & Yu Cheng-ta, Taipei Biennial 2008

Lately Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-jen has been making local headlines due to his recent protest against AIT (American Institute Taiwan), the defacto embassy, whose official insulted Chen as he applied for a visa to attend the New Orleans Biennial in November as participating artist.
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After the incident, he decided to not follow through and get a visa, but rather make an artwork to protest the shabby treatment Taiwanese often receive at AIT.
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Here is Chen Chieh-jen’s blog in Chinese:
http://ccjonstrike.blogspot.com/
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Chen’s complaint is about the lack of cultural sensitivity of a US official towards a Taiwanese citizen.
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Now let’s switch to the north part of the city at the current Taipei Biennial 2008.
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Young Taiwanese artist Yu Cheng-ta is showing a series of several videos titled “Ventriloquist” in which he asks Europeans, North Americans, Filipinas, and Japanese to repeat what he says in Chinese.
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Since Chinese has 4 tones it is often impossible for the novice learner to speak them correctly. So in these videos, the foreigners are mispronouncing the Chinese words, thus creating different meanings. This is extremely hilarious for the Taiwanese audience, and completely meaningless for the non-Chinese audience.
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Personally, the piece offends me. Probably, because that’s my daily experience, getting laughed and mocked constantly (not only from children) when I say my elementary-level Mandarin which prompts me to quickly switch to English.
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Perhaps I am missing the meaning of Yu’s work and would welcome comments explaining it.
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Otherwise, I ‘read’ it as showing a complete lack of cultural sensitivity, something that Chen Chieh-jen is protesting.
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More details here:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/10/01/2003424720

http://english.rti.org.tw/content/fwFContent.aspx?id=news&RealPath=http%3A%2F%2Fenglish.rti.org.tw%2FContent%2FGetSingleNews.aspx%3FContentID%3D65774%26BlockID%3D31