Narcisissim and Team Spirit

My friend Dwight, a writer in Montreal, wrote:

“Wish I’d been there. Particularly like your rectifying the Narcissus myth. In our current post-modern narcissistically driven world and the obsession with fame and celebrity, this puts a particularly poignant spin on it all. Wonder where & when we began seeing Narcissus as a youth egoically fixated? Is it perhaps our knee-jerk tendency to see the worst in the other, so Narcissus is selfishly self-loving instead of suffering the agonies of being inconsequential – perhaps even non-existent? Thanks for that Mo.”

The inadvertent scheduling of the reception on Super Bowl Sunday is interesting. In sports it is often said, “It’s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game.” The players work as team – the team wins, not the individual players. When players fail to work as a team the commentators seem quick to point this out. I know this because I watched a game once. Team spirit is key, the goal is singular and achieved by a team effort. Go Team Everyone.

WHAT WOULD BENIGNGIRL DO ABOUT ARTS COVERAGE?

The name of this blog came from a toy I found at the dollar store on High Street in Holyoke last summer. The story of that lucky find is on a page link to the right in my nav bar –>, or you can click here.

As the show, Cover Me, (posted about below) nears its opening reception tomorrow and I have more and more conversations with people about the issue and how I (and the voices in my head) feel about arts coverage and the local media, I wonder what Benigngirl would have done. I think she’d have smiled benignly and made her shy Barbie face. This blog is ironically named perhaps. I should change the name to Unfilteredgirl, or, UnfilteredCrazyLady.

I spent the day Thursday with Geoff Edgers of The Boston Globe who is writing an article about this exhibit. As I find myself more and more debating and discussing the issue of arts coverage (with real people and not just my other selves), I find that I keep coming back to the point that I tried to make so carefully in my curatorial statement (below), which is that this show is not an attack or even a strong criticism of local writers and/or papers but a respectful pondering of the issue and that as an artist I wish the arts coverage were more proportionate to the arts and artists needing coverage. I also wish the free listings sections were sufficient to accommodate all arts events rather than the arbitrary lottery system seemingly in place to fit space constraints. That way every event would at least get a listing.

I am not necessarily speaking for myself. I have had pretty good coverage, actually. And I am not a martyr either–I wouldn’t mind if all of my shows were covered, certainly. I took up this issue in a blog post because of all the comments I kept hearing from fellow artists and because I was the one with the arts blog at The Valley Advocate (advocate, advocacy, conjunction junction, blah blah BLAH). This is not a narcissistic show in which I enlisted the aid of a dozen fellow artists to help me complain about my own coverage. Although I am as narcissistic as your average person in the truest sense of the word which is to mean that I often fear that I don’t exist, rather than being in love with myself, which is the common misperception of the meaning behind the myth of Narcissus. Narcissus could not stop looking at his reflection because he was so aware of his insignificance and when he looked away from his reflection, he doubted his very existence. Perhaps arts coverage assuages our literal narcissistic tendencies rather than feed our egos? But this show about the lack of arts coverage is more of an all-for-one and one-for-all thing. It is not solely about my possibly non-existent self. It’s not about me, it’s about us.

Ha! The part above in blue made me laugh aloud because the other day a friend asked my advice as to how to tell a lunch date that he didn’t want to have a second date. He was going to use the old, “It’s not you, it’s me” line but I suggested he take a more dignified and less transparently cliche approach and go on a second date but talk the whole time with food in his mouth, wiiiide open.

Anyway-I don’t think my efforts will change anything and am not delusional that change can be effected (yet am admittedly delusional in general), but because this was an issue I kept hearing people discuss, I made a post in another blog about it and when dared to do so, I took on the task of putting on this show. I understand budgets and that news is all that a paper is obligated to cover and that there is too much going on to cover etc. But putting on a show in which artists use their art to address the issue of arts coverage is as valid as putting on a show of still life or extreme ironing (which I’d like to do, actually). And the subsequent discussions and opinions about the issue have all been enlighteningly philosophical and varied and all have validity.

If nothing else, it has stirred up interest and seems to merit an article by The Boston Globe. And so it goes. Of all the pieces I have sold, I miss Narcissivision the most.

Cover Me: The Reception – Sunday, February 3, 3-5 PM

(Image clicks through to larger image) I made a blog post last Spring because I kept hearing the same conversations about arts coverage. And because I have a big mouth, I wrote about it in my blog and it turned into a show. I invited several artists to be in the show and almost all accepted. Some declined because of the topic, a valid reason and I respect that. I may have shot myself in the foot in putting on this show and I may never get coverage around here again. But I have lately been thinking that I should live in Australia anyway. And it is a valid opinion shared by a lot of artists and so someone has to have a big mouth perhaps. And then move somewhere else.

Below is the press release for the show which was sent to a very long list of publications. As it turns out, the date we chose for the reception is Super Bowl Sunday which is something of an intriguing coincidence because sports is one area of the paper that will never suffer for lack of interest and/or coverage and this timing might well impact attendance at the reception. This actually makes me think of the new trend of, “Art Face-Offs”, which I wrote about previously. Even Saatchi Gallery is utilizing this phenomenon which seems to make art more competitive but also, as it is based on random voting, something of a popularity contest. I suppose it’s harmless but I wonder if it does have an ability affect the way people that visit such sites will judge art as in, this piece got the most votes therefor it is the best. So this reception is an attendance face-off with the Super Bowl. The Women’s Times listed the reception in their Arts Listings section. I did not see it listed elsewhere but truthfully did not pick up either of our two local papers but only checked the Valley Advocate because it is free.

Anyway, the game will be on in the lounge downstairs from the gallery and I think it doesn’t start till 6 PM anyway and the reception is 3 – 5 PM. I posted below all images from the show that I have thus far.

Cover me: Artists Address The Lack of Arts Coverage
February 3 – 26, 2008
Reception: Sunday, February 3, 3-5 PM
Hampden Gallery at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Cover Me is an exhibition born of a post on my old blog, “Art & About with Mo”, published on the Valley Advocate website. The post, “Wednesday, April 04, 2007. ARTS COVERAGE & SOME GUY I DATED IN HIGH SCHOOL”, commented on oft-heard artists’ laments regarding the dwindling coverage of arts in the news and suggested a call to action; a show of artists addressing the issue of arts coverage. As a result of the post, Anne LaPrade, Director of Hampden Gallery at UMASS, offered (it was rather more of a dare) me the gallery for the month of February of 2008 to host the exhibition.

The show does not necessarily purport to create coverage or affect change in arts coverage but rather to give voice to work created by a variety of artists and mediums to address, satirize or otherwise highlight this concern. It will be interesting, however, to see if a show speaking to non-coverage, or the larger issue of mass appeal, will actually be covered. Arts writers I have spoken to about this issue express sympathy and a similar desire for expanded coverage for their own reasons.

I chose artists to cover a broad range with the common denominator being that all create work which I find to exhibit soul, search and wit. This range includes: the underexposed; the overexposed; gallery directors who have a decades-long relationship with, and seasoned opinion about, arts coverage; instructors of art; internationally exhibited/exhibiting artists; New York City artists; an artist who recently opened a gallery; the recent MFA grad; and, sheepishly, me. Sheepishly because I didn’t necessarily choose me for this show but agreed to be part of it at Anne Laprade’s urging.

Artists were invited to create 2D or 3D work to address or respond to the topic in some manner. I chose the artists, and the resulting work was not curated. I chose voices, and let the show unfold of its own accord.

As artists we all have had experience with arts coverage, lack of coverage, positive, neutral and perhaps negative coverage. We include press clippings in grant applications and promotional packages. Press can help to validate our work and ourselves as individual artists.

The work for this show is meant to be an opportunity to act as a voice to express thoughts on this topic. I humbly hypothesize that the lack of arts coverage is not necessarily an indication of the preferences of an editorial staff or a publication’s reporting ideologies, but rather, seems a response to mass appeal in an attempt to sell papers. The larger issue is that of mass appeal. Mass appeal called for the weekly arts column in one local paper to be replaced with coverage of American Idol. Reality television is perhaps of broader interest than the reality of the artistic accomplishments of the members of a community.

The premise of this exhibition is not assumed to be novel, nor does it address a new concern. Rather it addresses an ongoing concern of importance to all artists. It is somewhat risky in that it begs a response from those in a position to affect response and who are gently chided by the premise. And, to quote the blog post that started it, “It beats bitching next to the brie”.

In conclusion, there is no attack meant by this show and most of the local arts writers with whom I have contact express a desire to have more time (and budget) to cover arts events. They write about art because it is topically appealing to them but they are under pressure to cover things people will actually read. I often ponder why art in our backyard is of seemingly little interest to readers of the local papers. Not in my backyard is of more interest and gets more press. But that’s an old question with implications across topics. And there is no missive aimed at the masses or those that read American idol coverage over local arts. We are included in the masses.
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About some of the artists and their work for the show, in their own words:

CAREY ASCENZO graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000 and, after moving to New York, worked as Operations Coordinator for the following seven years at SculptureCenter, a nonprofit contemporary art organization dedicated to experimental and innovative developments in contemporary sculpture. Since summer 2007 she has held a position as Studio Manager for renowned artist partnership Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Recent exhibitions include Smack Mellon Studios (Brooklyn, NY), and the New York Design Center. Her work was included in the most recent of the “Tragic Book” series published by Brooklyn (Brooklyn, NY).

Carey writes of her piece for this show–”it is a bit more generally about the implied/perceived power of the newspaper, and relates to a particular newsroom fantasy I’ve had since childhood.

Specifically, I am shooting video of a bunch of people in a row stating “LET’S PUT THIS BABY TO BED!!!” a la Perry White in Superman, which I find myself screaming from out of car windows whenever we go by a newspaper building. “The Daily Hampshire Gazette” is a frequent recipient.”

Watch Carey’s piece on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxc51NM22r4

 

IAN BURNS on his piece:

The piece I would like to put in the show is a sound piece which is a comment on what makes “news” these days and who are the respected voices.

I have lifted the voice of Harrison Ford speaking the words I needed from his various films and collaged them together to have him speak about 13 of Jenny Holzer’s fantastic “Truisms”.

MAGGIE NOWINSKI

These portraits represent the juxtaposition and collapse of external and internal processes. The subjects are encompassed, inside and out, by the sensation of potential disaster and lack of control. They are consumed and at the same time are totally exposed. They are trapped in the moment, seeking coverage, but unable to achieve even the coverage of their own whole skin.

These drawings are part of a multi-media work in progress entitled Unnatural Disaster. However, the portraits themselves were inspired by the concept for the Cover Me group exhibition. If we deny arts recognition, we are in danger of destroying our cultural and human vitality. Within a contemporary context, the arts promote an interrelational understanding of social processes. The more we are lacking in arts coverage, the more we are lacking in true nourishment and will not only develop an unbalanced and inaccurate perspective of the world, but we will further become disempowered and dull.

 

ANILA ZAIDI:

Left Panel
New York Times, Arts: Black, White, Read
Acrylic on MDF
13” x 22”

Right Panel
Hampshire Gazette, Arts (Draft): Black and White
Acrylic on MDF
12” x 22”

The New York Times is one of the few newspapers that devote an entire section to the arts, more impressively, an entire page to fine arts.

For “New York Times, Arts: Black, White, Read”, I combined the layout of an actual arts page with the riddle “What’s black and white, and red all over?”. The solid black rectangles comprise the page header; the article is presented as red rectangles, for it is, read by many. Of course newsprint is not white, this is why I chose the gray background, and to fully mimic the page I dented the wood in place of a print roller.

You might wonder, “Why not a local paper like The Hampshire Gazette or The Republican?” Shamefully, an “Arts” page does not exist. They do contain a “Living” section, which encompasses articles on food, travel, weather, and Bridge. Apparently a community can live without art.

However, I do imagine such a page on some desktop publisher’s hard drive, with this in mind, I fashioned “Hampshire Gazette, Arts (Draft): Black and White”.

The white background represents his computer screen. The outlined black rectangles as the page header, they are not solid as with the New York Times panel, for a page number nor the date of publication currently exists. The page is empty, he wonders:

“Who is going to read about art?”

He draws two black rectangles and prints the page. On the top box he paints a strip of correction fluid, symbolizing the “CORRECTIONS” column heading of his local newspaper. Red he decided, for the print in the box below. A cryptic red read answer to his question; one is impelled to decipher, to care: 1111111<3 111<31111<31<31 = “No one cares.”

 

LARRY SLEZAK:

As the soul of the arts goes, so goes the soul of the community.

Residing in Springfield for twenty-seven years I’ve seen a systematic reduction in community arts coverage by the Springfield Newspapers. This position has manifested itself in the lack of recognition of our numerous visual arts venues, often leading to their demise. Artists, gallery directors, curators and the public at large are notoriously under served. The public is kept out, and the arts do not flourish. As a result artists migrate to other more welcoming areas. In a community that sorely needs the arts, our newspaper chooses to highlight events at The Quadrangle, while neglecting the vital smaller venues and their contributions.

My piece is a symbolic representation of how the newspapers are quick to cover News, Weather and Sports, and neglect the visual arts. The window exterior is covered with clippings of these events with a little leisure thrown in. The interior is less accessible. The barbed wire represents the Springfield Newspaper’s attitude and how it affects both the community and the artists.

When the soul of the arts is tortured – we all suffer.

Larry Slezak
January, 2008

LISA SCOLLAN

Self-Coverage

As I think back on how much I would draw as a child, I realize how important creating art has always been to me.

Loss has been and continues to be a central theme in my work. My many drawings as a child often expressed happy moments in my life. My sense now is that these drawings were an attempt to preserve happiness and to protect myself from its loss.

My work also is an expression of the struggles I see in life. It portrays the opposing forces of good, evil, purity, negativity, vulnerability, determination, despair, and hope.

To fully express the joys in life assumes responsibility. The rose, often depicted in my work as a symbol, gives meaning to my core thoughts on life. Wherever there is beauty or happiness there can also be pain.

My work has its roots in symbolism and spirituality. It incorporates the fundamental elements of life: fire, water, earth, and air.

My paintings and drawings flow from mind to hand with an unconscious spontaneity. As elements of the painting or drawing reveal themselves to me, I am constantly analyzing the composition for balance, rhythm, and motion.

Through my art I hope that people can identify and confront their own struggles.

MIKE KARMODY

Mike has made a Cheese Ball Machine (not pictured: In its place I have inserted an image of the Sea Monkey Pocket Pen, “Port-a-Pet”, which goes with his bio which I wrote for him in lieu of the bio he never wrote and never sent to me. ;-))

Bio: Mike Karmody has been fascinated by many things since he was a young seahorse (the one with the nice smile and polka dotted tie) including Swingline staplers, scented candles, quantum physics, concrete and art. Mike has studied. At places. Mike loves sushi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Danish artist, LINE BRUNTSE, is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, she currently lives and works in Lancaster, PA. Line primarily does large scale installation based work. She has shown widely in the northeastern region of the states as well as in Denmark and Austria. Her most recent exhibitions include In Between the Lines, at Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD; Gloucester New Arts Festival, and Hotel Pupik 2007, Austria.

 

GREGORY S. KLINE received his B.F.A. in Sculpture from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a M.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has taught various sculpture courses at the
University of Massachusetts including Bronze Casting. In addition, he has been the Sculpture Technician and an instructor at Hampshire College for the past eight years. His primary interests include metal casting and steel fabrication and assemblage sculpture. Professor Kline has exhibited his work nationally and is in numerous private and public collections.

 

HOLLY S. MURRAY grew up amidst the wild beauty of rural New England. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, with a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking. She holds a M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts, where she studied ceramics and photography.

Throughout Murray’s career, her art process has traversed the terrain between the studio and interactive public collaboration. The content of her art is concerned with cultural and social issues. During the mid nineties, Murray’s nationally traveling show “On the Home Front”, an installation documenting family violence, garnered wide acclaim. An outgrowth of that work explored issues of aging within American popular culture. The result was a series of paintings called “Death, Desire and Ecstasy”. These themes evolved into body of work, called “Good Breeding”; examining the intersection between bio-technology and mega-agricultural practices. Presently, she is continuing her investigation of biogenetics and its effects on our world with her painting and works on paper.

 

JON WHITNEY

I’ve always found the world an incomplete place.

Just when I feel I have a grasp on things some new sight or wonder unfolds before me revealing the full glory of my ignorance.

Photography provides a window into this incomplete world; a world I shall never truly know or fully understand.

How we do what we do, why we do what we do are questions ever unanswered and always intriguing.

In photography I see mirrored the unknowable nature of the world.

 

MO RINGEY

This is the piece I am struggling to finish. To make the deadline I did actually deliver the chair but am working on the pieces that go with it.

HANDLING REJECTION

As I handle my latest rejection it feels cold and heavy, yet it burns. I guess you can get burned by dry ice so that makes sense. As I pass it back and forth from hand to hand to hand (I have three: the left hand, the right hand, and the “on the other hand” hand), it feels oddly familiar, like so many other rejections. The pain is familiar. The color is bleak. No Titanium (smiley face) Yellow for rejection. I guess rejection, no matter the source, feels cold and heavy. And pouty. I am totally pouting and I am really good at it. It’s a talent I suppose. I have so many, it almost seems unfair. I am writing country songs in my head about, “Your rejecting heart”, and, “My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I got rejected” and I could reword the whole list of the worst country song titles to fit my descent into reject despair. Although my feet don’t really stink. Although my head does hurt and I did get rejected.

Speaking of songs, as I write this, that Amy Winehouse song, “Rehab” is playing in the background but in my head the lyrics sound like, “They tried to make me go to rejecthab but I said, No, no, no…” and so I resolve to pout for 15 more minutes and then get back on the grant wagon.

My next grant rejection isn’t due till May 15 and the rejection after that is due June 15 so there are gaps in between scheduled rejections to be all happy and smiley, only to be filled with country songs and pouting on all the 15ths. See how the number 15 keeps coming up? I guess that’s my unlucky number. I will wallow in 15 foot limpid pools of wallowing. Then, rather than go to rejecthab, I will climb out, tired, poor, yearning to be awarded.

Meanwhile, in order to have more rejections to put on my calendar, and to make me feel all lofty and anticipatory, I will send out more grant applications. I will try to find only ones that notify you on the 15th of some month. Today is the 10th and I got this rejection letter today but on some Mayan or Maori or other calendar somewhere I just know it is the 15th. And it is an M calendar because Mo starts with M.

Thinking of grant winners and losers makes me inevitably think, let’s have a show of rejected artists! Like, how the MCC sponsors a show of grant winners, let’s have a show of grant losers!

Funny, I should mention that: in my last post I said, “Let’s have a show about non-coverage of the arts!” and my big mouth got me put in charge of that show. Secretly I am thrilled to be organizing that show, but it is not cool to be so openly thrilled about such things. It is far cooler to pretend to be blase. How do I balance faux blaseity with my inherent neurosity? Who do I talk to about this? Shit. Life is hard.

ARTS COVERAGE & SOME GUY I DATED IN HIGH SCHOOL

Wednesday, April 04, 2007
ARTS COVERAGE & SOME GUY I DATED IN HIGH SCHOOL

comments (5)

Back when I worked in the corporate world in Boston we would all destress (drink) after work at our local bistro, “Les Zygomates”, which is french for the muscles in the face which make you smile. Mostly we’d compare the size of the bloody stains on the back of our shirts and ask one another, “Aren’t we all on the SAME team?”. My life is easier now, yet poorer, yet richer, yet scarier, yet nicer. But sometimes conversation around the food table at receptions can turn to little art disgruntlements. No world is fully gruntled. The topic Monday around the stuffed grape leaves (Hampden Gallery at UMASS has the best food) turned to arts coverage.

Support for the arts is becoming more and more scant in this community. Like the moon, it is waning quickly. This publication excepted, (and I am not saying that in an attempt to brown-nose the Valley Advocate folks just because I want a “subscribe to this blog” button on this page. Although, I do, and I am neither above or below that sort of wheedling and cajoling, but that’s next to and alongside the point) arts coverage is becoming endangered. One paper recently replaced their one day a week arts coverage with American Idol coverage. What does this say about what is newsworthy? Where did they put all the arts writers? To quote John Waters, “Who do I talk to about this?”

Other publications seem to be cutting back on their arts coverage as well, and it’s becoming hard to even get text listings for events. I think this is why my newsletter is growing so fast, even though it has been slightly covert and in promoting it, I have pretty much been inert. (Yesterday in my newsletter I resorted to Seussian prose to make a point and now it happens randomly). This area is so rich with art and talent yet it can be hard to tell that by picking up a newspaper.

Arts coverage is important for a million reasons. Art is a large part of what this community smells like and press coverage is useful in getting grants and other shows for artists, all necessary things to accessorize an artist’s resume, and it’s good for the community to know what’s going on in their backyard. So how did it get trumped by American Idol? Public consumption. And, evidently, participation. I hear that there is a movement afoot, via radio and internet, to get the public to keep voting for the Sangria guy to remain on American Idol, regardless of his talent. And I am not knocking that. I am all for movements. Are Idols necessarily the most worthy of idolatry? Idolatry, the concept, does not insinuate superlative talent but mainly is a measurement of mass appeal. (<–That part is NOT a parallel to my arts coverage rant, BTW. The art in this valley is superlative, in my opinion). So, rock on, Sangria, but why does mass local appeal not call for arts coverage?

And, why can’t we get together as well and weight the “voting” with our weightiness to get arts coverage back in the papers? Let’s have a movement. Jim Morrisson (of The Doors) once wrote a compelling college psychology paper about collective psyche and crowd manipulation in which he posited that crowds are susceptible to suggestion and their numbers can be used to create a movement in an infinite number of suggested directions. That’s kinda relevant to what I am saying but maybe not so much. Never mind that.

Anyway-what if we all tried really hard to convince the local papers to cover art again? We could have an arty protest or make t-shirts that read, “Have a heart, cover the Arts”. We could have a big group show about the lack of arts coverage. And we could make the inevitable non-coverage of the show what the show and the art was actually about. If we had a movement of sorts, or out of sorts, could we then get coverage for our protest over non-coverage? Or maybe we could just beg them, or call them every day, sobbing. Seems more productive than bitching next to the brie. Like the end of the movie, “Animal House”, when John Belushi tries to rally the frat house with the call, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”, let’s get going.

Speaking of the end of that movie, I loved the “Where are they now?” bit during the credits when they show the really obnoxious, preppy, frat guy and the subtitle below reads something like: “Now a gynecologist in Beverly Hills” and the whole theater laughs. I recently read that a guy I dated briefly in high school, who was quite predatory in his female pursuits, is now a breast reconstruction specialist on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Comments (5)

Hey Mo,
Great idea – a show about the lack of arts coverage – we could call it “Cover Me” – that’s the phrase we used back in basic training when we were maneuvering through the woods with M16’s – somehow that phrase was meant to assist us in our quest to stay alive – hmmm I think I’m seeing a parallel here to the artist’s quest to stayin’ alive.

All I can say is – if the interest is there – we’ve got the venue.

By the way, there’s an interesting new read on this topic (The Happy Valley is not alone in lack of coverage) called
Critical Mess: Art Critics on the State of Their Practice.

Cheers,
Anne Laprade

Posted by Anne LaPrade on 4.5.07 at 3.40

you are doing a great job mo, if only there were mo people like you!

Posted by derek on 4.10.07 at 5.39

YES!!! I second and third your points, including the “subscribe to this blog” button. More art coverage means more art, in a way. I mean it is happening, but coverage is like sustainability, and creates a sense of movement and community and inspiration. I am all for the conversation being louder. Cover Me!
Thanks, Mo.

Posted by maggie on 5.16.07 at 19.15

Love your blog Mo!

Diane ;)

Posted by Diane on 5.16.07 at 19.30

Whole heartedly agree…and yes, in the face of mass consumerism, obesity, war, iraq, environment, health, apocalypse …blah blah etc etc

I do believe little things make the biggest difference…

If you don’t believe me read the ‘Tipping Point’ ..yes it is a marketing book of all things…but has some valid points.

Posted by Anila on 5.18.07 at 15.15