As an artist whose practice depends as much on philosophy as materials, I arrived into this program feeling the need to unpack the direction of my art practice contextually. By this I mean, to delve more deeply into the theory and logic of art today. So when it was suggested that I spend this first semester focused on reading classical and contemporary critical theory, I was quick to agree. It became a bit like trying to load programs into a machine, a la the Matrix:

This direction, I feel, was a logical and immensely helpful way to build a working foundation for my time in an MFA program. It also turned out to be a sympathetic means through which I could feel a sense of growth in my practice, given my COVID world (no access to a studio, and limited access to materials) through its densely saturated focus on development rather than output. My mentor, Juan Obando-Echeverry, and I worked out a reading list, which led me deeper into classical critical theory, as well as into some contemporary texts specific to current areas of artistic interest. I spent most of the semester focused on these readings and connecting them to my practice.

You can access a casual annotated bibliography of the texts read this semester. This bibliography is organized chronologically because, as there was no syllabus or pre-determined order for reading, the importance of the reading journey––its map––emerged as an interesting narrative; how one text led me to the next text, in a conversation of sorts. On some pages of this site (as this one), you will find the sidebar widgets of these entries arranged categorically. [#practice (categories)] I also made connections between the texts and my practice, and through this exercise, refined the clarification and organization of my central artistic themes.

Why was this reading important ?

We live in a world of shortened attention spans and an image saturated consumer culture. My art is usually time-based, often spatially constructed. Consequently, my demand on an audience, is to ‘pay’ their time and attention to interact with my art. Time is the most valuable currency of all. So what these readings brought to the fore for me, is how to think more critically about how I enter this dialogue, how I demand people’s time, how might I captivate their attention. There are many other lines of connections many of which can be seen on my website. If you have a few hours, I also recommend the Spotify playlist I curated. This playlist has many excellent podcasts that summarize a few of the texts or authors whose work I was captivated by. I have also interwoven numerous interventions as a playful response.

While the readings were the emphasis rather than supplement of my semester, I did devote time to writing and thinking about new and continuing work. I also made a few experiments and had a bit of fun.

 

For this review, I am happy for a cold read and again emphasize that my focus was on reading critical theory, as a means for developing context in my (future) work. That said, I am interested in continuing the sound installation direction of CITY, though it will need to be started anew. I am working on a series of videos that extend on my 2019 installation, Stuhlstück through a lens of Phenomenology and with consideration of several texts this semester by authors such as Adorno and Horkheimer, Debord, Manovich, Berardi. Related to this upcoming video series, and tying back into my work observing breath, I have been making video sketches of the body breathing. Recently I began filming my back while trying to manipulate the breath. You can see the recent sketches here  The room was 40 degrees(F), which inhibited my usual capacity for breath, so I will re-film these.