gablik_92_connective aesthetics.pdf

7/30/2019 Gablik_92_Connective Aesthetics.pdf

1/7

The Smithsonian Institution

Connective AestheticsAuthor(s): Suzi GablikReviewed work(s):Source: American Art, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Spring, 1992), pp. 2-7Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Smithsonian American Art MuseumStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3109088 .

Accessed: 04/11/2012 21:19

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide rancontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpresshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=smithhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3109088?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3109088?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=smithhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress


2/7

Suzi Gablik

CommentaryConnectiveAesthetics

As an art critic in the 1990s, I no longer see my role as defending or promoting the worof individual artists. I am more interested in advancing a profound and necessary para-digm shift that I call connective aesthetics. It involves a shift away from the myth of thehard-edged, autonomous individualist that has formed the artist'sidentity, particularlymodern times. The free and self-sufficient individual has long been the ideal of ourculture. Independent and self-motivated, the highly individualized consciousness seeks impose its own images upon the world. Artists see themselves as quintessential free agenpursuing their own ends. Maintaining a deeply connected relationshipwith society is nhow the modernist vision has conceptualized aesthetic freedom or the principle of indi-vidual selfhood. We live so much in an ethos of competitiveness, which keeps us boundindividualistic modes of thought and directed toward the making of products, that mosof us in the capitalistworld have never had an experience of true community.

Georg Baselitz expressedthe epitome of this detached, isolated, "value-free" onsciouness in the catalogue for his exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1983:The artist is not responsibleo anyone.His socialroleis asocial;his only responsibilityonsisin an attitude to the work he does. There s no communicationwith any public whatsoeverThe artist can ask no question,and he makesno statement;he offersno information,and hiworkcannot be used.It is the endproductwhichcounts, n mycase,thepicture.1

Currently, a new, less specialized, less monocentric mythology of the artist is emergithat affirms our radicalrelatedness. At this point, we need to cultivate the connective,relational self as thoroughly as we have cultivated, in the many yearsof abstractthinkinthe mind gearedto the principle of individual selfhood.Cultural myths, however, do not die easily, especiallywhen our personalcommitmento them is so strong that it is difficult even to entertain different premises. Even for anartist like Christo, whose public projectssuch as the RunningFence(1972-76) or TheUmbrellas 1991) requirethe participation and cooperation of thousands of people, thefeeling of being emotionally independent and inwardlyfree still dominates the psyche.a recent interview, Christo stated:Theworkis irrational andperhaps rresponsible.Nobodyneeds t. The work is a hugeindi-vidualisticgesturethat is entirelydecidedbyme. ... One of thegreatestcontributionsofmodernart is the notion of individualism.... I think the artistcan do anythinghe wants t

2 Winter 1992


3/7

1 Dion Johnson, age 13, CoolingOff1989. Gelatin ilverprint,11x 14 in.ShootingBackEducationand MediaCenter, n collaborationwith theWashingtonProject or theArts

do. This s why wouldneveraccept commission.Independencesmostimportantome.workofart is a screamoffreedom.2Freedommeansindependence nd self-determination. hristo's"scream f freedomcontinues o be the unwavering, biquitousmoral mperativehat is alwaysbrandishepoliticallyas well asphilosophicallyn thetraditionof Westernthought.We seem,however, o havefinallycomeupagainst helimitsof thatparticular aradigm, ndnothere s a realyearning or a senseof communityandintimacy hat hasbeen ost n modculture.LindaFryeBurnham ecently ommented hatgalleryarthas lost its resonancfor her:

There'soo muchgoingon outside.Reallife scalling. can nolonger gnoreheclamorofdisaster-economic,piritual, nvironmentalpoliticaldisaster-in theworld n which mIn thatcontext,mostartjusthasno "oomph,asan artistfriendputs t.3Formanypeople, t's time to move on and revise he culturalmythsthatareguidingusto reassess urrelationshipo thepresent ocial ramework nd its practices. nstitutiomodelsbasedon productdevelopment nd career chievement cho thestereotypicalpatriarchaldeals hathavebeen internalized yso much of ourculture.Art,with its

3 American Art


4/7

subtextof powerandprofit, s heavily mplicatedn this ideology.Individualism ndfreedomwere the greatmodernistbuzzwords, ut theyarehardly he most creativeresponseo ourplanet's mmediateneeds,which nowdemandcomplexandsensitiveformsof interaction ndlinking.Suchrelationships equire consciousnesshat isdifferent rom the structuralsolationandself-referentialityf individualism. n the poCartesian, cologicalworldviewthat is now emerging, he self is no longer solatedandself-contained ut relational ndinterdependent.What are heimplicationsor artbornthesechangesn ournotionsof selfhood?Artthat is rooted n a "listening"elfrather han in a disembodied yechallengeshisolationistthinkingof our culturebecause t focusesnot so muchon individuals ut otheway theyinteract.Such artistsasJudithBaca,JohnMalpede,MierleLadermanUkeles,SuzanneLacy,andTim Rollinsuse art to increase heirsenseof connectionwitthe community.Art that is groundedn the realization f ourinterconnectednessndintersubjectivity-the ntertwining f self andothers-has a qualityof relatednesshatcannot be fullyrealizedthroughmonologue: t canonlycomeinto its own in dialogueopenconversation. ormanyartists hishas meantexpandinghe numberof voices towhichtheyheed or letting groups hathavebeenpreviously xcludedspeakdirectlyoftheir own experience. t can also be understood s a shiftfrom self-assertiono integra

* WhenCalifornia rtistJonathanBorofsky ndhiscollaborator,GaryGlassman,traveledn 1985-86 to threedifferentprisons n Californiao make heirvideo-documtaryPrisoners,heydidmorethansimplyobserve nddescribehe conditions heyfountheylistened o the prisonerso tryandunderstandheirplight.Theywanted o understandforthemselveswhat it means o be a prisonern thissociety-to loseyourfreedoandliveyourlife lockedup in a concretebox.Borofsky nd Glassman nterviewedhirtwo prisonerswho agreed o talkabout their ives-their childhoods, amilies,hopes,awhathadgonewrongfor them.In the film,some of theprisonersharepoems theyhawrittenor show artworksheyhavemade.Theydescribe he oppressivenessf lifeinsidprison,whereeverythings programmedndwherepeoplenever alkspontaneously bthemselves ecauseno one is interested.Beingheard,accordingo Glassman, reatessenseof empowerment.* The ShootingBackEducationand MediaCenter s a photography roject tartedbyphotojournalistimHubbardn 1989. Itspurposes to teachphotography,mediaskilandwriting o homelesschildrenliving n sheltersn theWashington,D.C., area.Therarenow somethirtyprofessional hotographers howork one-on-onewith children nweeklyworkshops t the shelters.Hubbard onceived he ideawhenhe noticed,whilephotographingn Washington'sCapitolCityInn,a two-hundred-roommotelused asshelter,how the childrenalwayswanted o use his cameras.The goalof ShootingBackto let the childrenspeak or themselves bouttheirenvironment,riends,andsocietyato offerthemencouragementndsupport.Photographs y someof the childrenweredisplayedn 1990 at theWashingtonProject orthe Arts(fig. 1). MyraMiller,one of tfree-lancephotographers ho works n theprogram, tated,"Igeta lot from the progrThe satisfaction f givingchildrenwho havenothingsomething o look forward o isincredible."4* On Mother'sDay in 1987, a procession f 430 olderwomen-all dressedn black-entered hehuge, glass-enclosed rystalCourtof the IDS Towerin downtownMinne

4 Winter 1992


5/7

2 The CrystalQuilt, performance bySuzanne Lacy, IDS Crystal Court,Minneapolis, 10 May 1987

apolis.In a ceremonially rchestrated rtwork y SuzanneLacy, hewomensatin grouof four at tablescovered n black.Theyhad cometogether o discusswitheachotherthaccomplishmentsnddisappointments,heirhopesandfearsaboutaging.A prerecorsoundtrackof the voices of seventy-fivewomen at the tablesprojectedheirreflectionloudenoughto be heardby anaudienceookingdownfrom thebalconies.At the tablethewomenrearrangedheirhandsn unisonandslowly oldedback heblack ablecloths,revealingMiriamSchapiro'sedandyellowgeometric atterns eneath.Whentheritualwaover,members f theaudiencewere nvited o presentheperformersithscarvesnd o plthemon thewomen's houlders,s ifcommemoratingkindofpublic nvestiture.LacydedicatedTheCrystalQuilt fig.2) to hermother."Thegoals n mywork," hesays,"aredefinitely .. to empowerparticipants,o raiseconsciousness boutcertainshared onditionsof beingfemale."The messagebeingdisseminateds thatolderwomarecomingof ageandoccupyinga moreprominentplace n theworld."We're o longsittinghomein the rockingchairandknitting, ikeyou thinkof grandmasn the old d... We grandmas ren'tdoingthatanymore," ommentsone of thewomen on theaudiotape."Ithinka lot of senilitycomes fromthe factthatnobodyasksyouanything

5 AmericanArt


6/7

saysSt. PaulwriterMeridelLeSeuer."Nobodyasksyou to speak.Pretty oon,you loseyour memory. suffera lot frompeoplenot listening o me."5These are ustthreeexamples f artistswhosework nvolveswhat OctavioPaz calls"creative articipation."Modernism arriedus away roma senseof communitybyfocusingonly on individual xperience.Ultimately, his individualisticocus narrowedaestheticperspective s well.An isolatedego-subject, enton individuationhroughseparation,s not givento interactions hat areparticipatoryndcommunalandthatinviteempathic nvolvement.AsNancyFraser otesin herbook UnrulyPractices:Themonologiciew s theRomanticndividualist iew n which .. a solitary oice is]cryout into thenightagainst n utterly ndifferentiatedackground.... There s no roomorreplyhatcouldqualify sa different oice.Theresno roomor interaction.6

Inviting in the other makes art more socially responsive. It is Certainly he senseof being solatedanalone with one's creations is a commonnot activism in the senseof the oldparadigm, but an em- experience for artists in our culture, thepathic meansof seeing hrough nother's yes,of stretching result f modernism'sistoricailureoi i w ~~.y~ ,r?~ .~~ .~ ,^ ~connect with the archetypal other."our boundariesbeyond heego-selfo createa widerviewof o our nterdependencendo seeour nterdependencendthe world ... Both arenecessary.WhatI am suggestings interconnectednesss the femininenot to abandononeinfavor of the otherbut to ind a perspectivehathasbeenmissingotoinourscientifichinking ndpolicygreater balance between the two. making,but alsoin ouraestheticphilo

phy,whichhas been basedon traditioof separation nd heroic ndependence,n which otherpeopleand the world areviewedessentially lien forces.The politicsof connectiveaesthetics sverydifferent:t isorienttoward he achievement f sharedunderstandingsnd the essentialntertwining f selfandother,selfandsociety.Inviting n the othermakesartmoresociallyresponsive.t is not activism n the senof the old paradigm, utanempathicmeansof seeing hroughanother's yes,of stretcing our boundaries eyondthe ego-self o createa widerview of theworld.The relatioself knowsthat it is embeddedn larger ystemsandtends toward ntegration.Theindependent elf is invested n self-assertion. oth arenecessary.What I amsuggestingnot to abandonone in favorof the other butto finda greater alancebetween he two.Today,the waron the canon reflects he crisesof Western ndividualism nd themodern raditionof self that derives romconquestand erasure f the other.The newconnectiveaesthetics ecognizeshat we livein a time in whichour need forcommunithas becomecritical.Manyartistsnow fashion heir ndividuality ut of this interconnetion andweave t directly nto theirwork. Overthe nextfewdecades, thinkwe will semoreartthat is essentiallyocial, hatrejects he mythsof neutrality ndautonomy,as notion of atomic ndividuals iscreetly ivided rom eachothergivesway,within anecologicalparadigm,o a differentnotion of the self.

6 Winter 1992


7/7

Notes1 Georg Baselitz, "Four Walls and Top Lighting," in Paintings 1960-83 (London: Whitechapel Art Gal1983), p. 65.2 Christo, quoted by PatriciaC. Phillips, "Christo,"FlashArt 151 (March-April 1990): 135.3 Linda Frye Burnham, "ArtFor All People," Utne Reader(November-December 1991): 64.

4 Myra Miller, quoted in Raine Riggs "Children'sPerspectives:Homeless Youths Document TheirExistence," TheEagle(American University student newspaper), 24-30 September 1990, sec. B, p.1.5 Audiotape by Susan Stone to The CrystalQuilt, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, Calif.6 Nancy Fraser, UnrulyPractices:Power, Discourse,and Gender n Contemporary ocial Theory Minneapo

University of Minnesota Press, 1989), p. 103.

7 AmericanArt

gablik_92_connective aesthetics.pdf

Documents