First Meeting -- me and Seth at a table...

...with a hairy guy at the computer ignoring us. That's right, rain and wind kept everyone away from the Fusion Museum in the LES this afternoon. It was just me and Seth Weiss of Mayday Books hanging and chatting. Well, me discoursing, since I'd showed up all set to launch into the "modes of practice" session, using examples from the classic avant-gardes, and '60s movements. (See syllabus/plan at http://new-space.mahost.org/alan.html.) This spectacular no-show flameout got me to thinking I should maybe try and do a TV show instead of mucking about with a stale academic format... This is a "free university," right?
One thing I had wanted to talk about with the phantom group was the sheer hopelessness of the "Art Life" project. Why? Well, as I just commented at NewsGrist http://newsgrist.typepad.com/), it's the class nature of the artworld. I replied to their posting of excerpts of Jerry Salz's review of the P.S. 1 show "Greater New York." ("Lesser New York," by J. Saltz, review of "GNY," Mar.13-Sept. 26, 2005, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, N.Y. – full review is posted at http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/jsaltz/saltz3-29-05.asp).
Salz’s text is not really about the art -- it's about the social situation of the institutional artworld's selection process. What struck me was that Salz directly describes the class nature of the art world. He uses the words "coming-out party or cotilion ball" to describe the show, then reveals that 28 of the artists are from the big-ticket school Columbia. Woof! This is not in the least surprising, but it does seem as if the curatorial team landed with a big thump on the side of the status quo. Maybe it's nostalgia for the post-modernist unity of the '60s with guys making single things like Daniel Buren (at the Guggenheim) and Barry Le Va (whose show is still up in Phillly). This uncoded admission in Salz's review struck me forcefully, as I am beginning to do "Art Life.” My idea is to argue that the strategies of elite art -- most unknown even to educated people -- offer a repertory of devices activists can begin to use to promote their issues into public consciousness. This is already happening, of course. I wanna see it happen more. Maybe that too is '70s nostalgia...
See ya next time!