(Procjsmetady) International Fine Art Workshop and Exhibition
The Gallery at Norwich University College of The Arts
22 April - 23rd May 2009
‘Invasion Occupation Transformation’ project is a continuation of an International project ‘Why Are We Here – ‘Procjsmetady’ led by Jan Mladovsky and involving FA NUCA and the three other European art schools, Munich Art Academy, Prague Art Academy, Liberec University, Fine Art Faculty. The project began in November 2007 by a two week workshop in Liberec Fine Art Faculty, followed by an exhibition at The Skolska 28 Gallery in Prague and in February 2008 by a workshop in Munich followed by a four week exhibition at The Pasinger Fabrik Gallery in Munich.
“The ways in which social agency can be invested in art, or can emanate from art, are exceedingly diverse...”
Exploring the proposition that art can be transformation and transformation can be art, an idea taken from Alfred Gell's text, 'Art and Agency', this project will become a vehicle for action, ready to take on the opportunity to challenge our preconceptions about the shape of art. Gell suggests that we should let visual art objects retain their value by speaking without the need for symbol or meaning, and that agency, intention, causation, result and transformation are where the emphasis should be placed in art making.
“Using language, we can talk about objects and attribute 'meaning's' to them in the sense of 'find something alternative to say about them' but visual art objects are not part of language for this reason, nor do they constitute an alternative language.”
More details coming soon...
For more information or to make a proposal to be included in the programme contact:
Stacey Smith stacey.smith@student.nuca.ac.uk
Sophia Firman sophia.firman@student.nuca.ac.uk
There has been some concerns about what image the IOT show creates for the newly reconstituted Gallery. The show attempts to examine Alfred Gell's 'Art and Agency' 1998. Gell suggests that viewers should allow the objects of art to retain their ontological value without the need for symbolic or signified meaning, and that agency, intention, cause, result and transformation are where emphasis should lie in the making of art.
ReplyDeleteGell says…Consider a little girl with her doll. She loves her doll. Her doll is her best friend. Would she toss her doll overboard from a lifeboat in order to save her elder brother from drowning? No way. This may seem a trivial example... But in fact it is not a trivial example at all...We only think it is because it is an affront to our dignity to make comparisons between small girls showering affection on their dolls and us, mature souls, admiring Michelangelo's David. But what is David if it is not a big doll for grown-up?
Will the institutional, image conscious response be the girl's response, preferring the doll, object of desire, or David, the mute ikon of art, or will it save the irritating brother from drowning, who creates problems and only deserves to be thrown overboard, but talks back, offering the potential for a live dialog?