Dark Matter & Museum Pranks

I have just finished reading "Dark Matter" by Greg Sholette, artist, activist, and collectivist. In this book, he brings attention to cultural workers and enterprise culture, offers a protracted view of artists and collectives in the U.S. and abroad, and articulates the politics of the uncategorized activity that often goes unnoticed by mainstream institutions of culture. This field of production, defined as "dark matter", refers to artistic production made and circulated without the knowledge of, or counter to, an art establishment. Sholette demonstrates how this "invisible" mass of activity and production is made and circulated in the shadows of the formal artworld. While such activity may seem invisible to art historians, critics, and curators, it seeks and attains agency while its presence becomes increasingly visible and apparent in our post-industrial society.

In thinking about this type of interventionist activity, I am reminded of the practice of "museum pranks". I insert below two events that were staged at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the first case, the more recent activity, a group aimed to bring attention to a "regular person's" physical similarity to that of Philip IV and, secondly, to heighten awareness about the newly re-attributed work by Velazaquez. In the second, agit-prop phenomenon Banksy interrupts the installations at the Met by adding his own works to the conversation. In the first example below, the activity was not sanctioned but seems harmless; in the second, there's no sanctioning but it aims at clandestine activity.


Above: An unauthorized autograph signing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with an actor who resembles King Philip IV of Spain. Standing in front of the 400-year-old Velázquez painting, the "King" greeted museum goer, giving them free signed 8x10 photos of himself. See an amazing recap, with photos, here.


Above: British performance artist Banksy, who has been called "the Duchamp of our century."

Question for the readers: do you think that these "museum pranks" qualify as art? If so, are they heirs of a past tradition: Or, do they break with a tradition completely, and, if so, how? Or do they forge a new path entirely? Does anyone (artists or otherwise) have the "right" to do this kind of thing? What do you think?

What do Pictures "Really" Want?

W.J.T. Mitchell knows....or, at least thought he did. Come to the Reading Group to find out more. Thursday 1/27/ @ noon in the art building.

AHRG: Art History Reading Group TODAY at noon!

Students who love art history and like to read are invited to attend the Art History Reading Group's planning meeting TODAY, January 20th at noon in the art building. We will set a regular meeting time (about every two weeks) to discuss an article, a chapter from a book, or other reading. The articles would be chosen by all of us, based upon our interests and could focus on art history or museum and curatorial practices. The reading group is entirely voluntary and optional. The group is not restricted to art history majors, but requires an understanding of art history (generally). If you are interested in participating, please come to the meeting. If you have a book or reading that you'd like us to consider reading, please bring it to the meeting.

Note: Photo by James Rye, see his Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesrye/334980502/

AHRG: Art History Reading Group

Students who love art history....

Critical Issues: Taste Classifies...(part two)

A few weeks ago I made a post that linked Pierre Bourdieu and the permanent collection at Harvard through a discussion of changing the face of the collection by adding portraits to show the complexion of the college community. I posed questions to the blog followers asking who you would like to serve as a representation of our institution and, further, asking what ways do you think that the art on the walls (however narrowly or broadly defined) classifies the institution.

This week, I've been asking students a different kind of question: If the college were to do something together -- as a community -- such as reading a book, what book would you select? Your choice could come from poetry or prose, fiction or non. Might you choose epic? tragedy or comedy for you Shakespeareans among us? novel, short story, or creative non-fiction? Would you select fiction, biography, spiritual, historical?

The choice should not be full of jargon or purely discipline specific and appeal to the widest possible audience -- students, staff, and faculty. Here are some of the responses that students have given (and I've provided links from amazon.com for editions that I've selected for demonstration purposes only):

Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist

Vandana Shiva's Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit

Bill McKibben's Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot

Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

John Gardner's Grendel

What book would you choose? And why? Please post here and let's discuss.

Photo pulled from Black Swan Books. If you've not been, you don't know what you're missing!