1.) The first question posed at the beginning is what is the Contemporary? The term contemporary has been discussed in great lengths; What is your personal definition of Contemporary Art? Does it line up with Groys' definitions? Relate your definition your personal work.
2.) While reading, a passage that stuck out to me the most was: "The present is a moment in time when we decide to lower our expectations of the future or to abandon some of the dear traditions of the past in order to pass through the narrow gate of the here-and-now" What is your response to this statement? Do you agree? Can you relate it to how you approach your body of work?
3.) Groys speaks in depth about art evolving and time. Where do you see art in the next 10 years? 15?
1. I like Groy's definition on page 26 that says "contemporary is- a prolonged, even potentially infinite period of delay." Contemporary art to me has to be relevant here in the now but it may take time to figure out that it belongs and is contemporary. My work is influenced by the past but is about what is happening in my life right now. I believe as long as my work keeps evolving and being pushed to the limit it is considered contemporary.
ReplyDelete2. I underlined the same passage! I think that you do not have to necessarily lower your expectations but instead get rid of the extra baggage and trim it down to just the important stuff like Groy's idea in another part of the article. When I first started Advanced Studio Steve kept saying to me that I was giving too much information in my work. I struggled with this for awhile but then I started sketching regularly and when I would come up with an idea I would eventually pare it down to just the "bones" of it.
3. I don't think there is any clear picture as to where art is going to be in 10 or 15 years. If we as artists stop bringing the past forward with us we will possibly have something new but if we continue letting the past influence our art we will not progress much further than where we are right now.
3. Groy says on page 26 "One can argue that we are at this historical moment in precisely such a situation, because ours is a time in which we reconsider-not abandon, not reject, but analyze and reconsider." He is talking at this point of "the modern projects" and how in the contemporary we can reconsider them, but i think it works for this, and what Megan has said. Although I don't think we must abandon the past, but let go of it and move forward. It is hard to say where art is going to go, but I believe if artist can learn from the past, but look to the future, the possibilities go on forever.
ReplyDelete2. (I answered 3 first!) I think this question and the last I answered can go hand and hand. And again I agree with Meg!! I think Groy was saying you have to basically learn as much as you can, but trim all the fat off that isn't what you want. You just use the pieces of the past, and future to create your present.... If that makes sense.
2) I think Gorys deliberately disregards that the present can be a time in which we realize more is attainable than previously conceived or more was in fact attained. The idea that at ever juncture of past and future we but reevaluate to lower scale is absurd, even on an anecdotal level. Sometimes, it simply must be better than before, or seems still to be better later.
ReplyDeleteI think Gorys later discussion of the present being a constant weeding out of the unnecessarily details of the past a more likely but still unlikely concept. I still find it unlikely every step is a simplifying one. For that to be true art must have been a horrid complicated mess in the beginning and well, this I again doubt. (See Venus of Willendorf). But perhaps I am missing the point.
2) I can understand how one must lower expectations for the future and abandon the past, but I do not entirely agree with this. Now true, eliminating future expectations can elevate the pressure of creating the next thing, but it can also destroy the drive to create something new and instead create something that is plastic and fake. My style of work is spawned from past art history so it's hard to trough away old traditions, but maybe put a spin on it.
ReplyDelete3) I agree with Megan that we bring the past with us. If anyone has studied history - since we're college students, we have - is that events repeat themselves. Dr. Losch in 20th Cent. Art brings up that art movements alternate between Classical and Romantic (mind and emotions). So most likely, there will be one of those themes in art in 10 years, followed by the other in 15.