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seminar 28/5/2008

In this seminar I will present my thought process as to put emphasis on the areas of critical theory and painting in which my interests lie:
1. Karl Popper
First I will start with Karl Popper's theory of knowledge, and how I have used it as a methodology to progress my practice.
2. My approach to this methodology
Relating my practice to this methodology, I will show how in the process I have gained knowledge in my field of research.
3. Knowledge and Communication
Then I will look at different systems of communication used in images and in language, and how the two systems operate differently to fabricate our understanding and ways of communication.
4. Knowledge and Meaning
In knowledge and meaning I will slightly touch on Lacan's use of language. And will also give examples of sentences that lose their meaning when linguistics comes into play.
5. The Stranger
Lastly, I will introduce the significance of 'the stranger', and discuss whether or not knowledge is universally good and powerful.


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1//////// Karl Popper
My research this year is largely drawn from a continuation started last year, where I looked at painting and its limitations, ways to negotiate within these limits, and the problematic of the ways to go around them. My investigation into painting's capacity to reconsider its own structure last year, I thought, indicated a relationship between critical theory and the practice of painting. The exploration which I took on last year to negotiate painting's limits required a series of trials and experiments.

We may refer to philosopher Karl Popper's theory of knowledge to see how this methodology can be established. Under Popper's schema we start from a problem and try to solve it by producing a tentative theory as our tentative solution. We then put our theory to the test, trying to fail it: this is the critical method of error elimination. As a result of all this a new problem arises (or perhaps several new problems).

As the equation shown:
P1 + TT + EE = P2
Where P1 is the initial problem from which we start. It may be a practical or theoretical problem, TT is the Tentative Theory which we offer in order to solve that problem. EE means a process of error elimination, by way of critical tests or of critical discussions. P2 means the problem with which we end -- problems which emerge from the discussions and tests.


2//////// My Approach

(left) Sylvie Huang -1. "100% Wool – Brighton," 2008, yarn on wall.
(right) Sylvie Huang -2. "100% Wool – Lilac Mist," 2008, yarn on canvas, 80x100cm.

Should I apply this approach to my studio practice, here I have chosen a few examples to illustrate my progress:
At the beginning of the year I wanted to use a material that was different from what I used last year, as to leave my obsession of the paint medium. This can be viewed as P1, where I see paint as a problem to progress my investigation in the practice.

In both (1) and (2) I started from a point in the plane, working subconsciously with the string until it meets the boundary of the given architectural element, or edge of the canvas. It was a conversation between shapes and surface. This process made obvious that the string as a material had its existing dimensionality that was different from that of paint, and by sticking it to a surface forfeited its flexibility as a soft material. This was more evident in the detached areas (figure 1.2, 2.2), showing the material’s three-dimensional nature.

(left) Sylvie Huang -1.2 detail
(right) Sylvie Huang -2.2 detail

In order to faithfully explore this material, various techniques are used to negotiate the confines of image-making, such as cutting, gluing, folding, and twisting of materials, etc. I believe this process of 'drawing in space' speaks of painterly concerns that envision an interdisciplinary terrain between painting, sculpture, and architecture. These works as examples of my learning process this year to date, from which I have acquired knowledge in this specific interdisciplinary field.

(left) Sylvie Huang -3. "100% Wool – Hero Tones", 2008
(right) Sylvie Huang -4. "100% Wool – Rose Cream," 2008

Referring back to Popper Using Popper's methodology, we may sum up these particular works as follows:

P1 (initial problem) = material
Paint was restricting me, because it is associated too much with painting. Even though I was treating it in a different way, it restricted my ability to explore other materials and their intrinsic qualities. I have decided to explore the possibilities with wool yarn. Problem is, what is the materiality of wool? How can I treat a material as an object in its own right? In my case, how can I treat wool as an object?

TT (tentative theory)
My tentative theory here is by succeeding in my exploration of wool yarn, I should be able to treat any material as an object. This material has different possibilities to create different combinations. It won't be made into anything use-able, but manipulations of the material can change our perception of the material - By treating it as an object in its own right, you can disassociate it from prior notions of its destined usage (e.g. to knit a scarf)

EE (error elimination) = surfaces and dimension
By sticking this material to either a formal or informal surface, I have not allowed all its dimensions to come through. We still associate it with paint on a surface. It is merely replacing paint as a material, and not bringing the properties of the wool yarn to the surface. Therefore, I have eliminated this technique of sticking the wool to a flat surface.

P2 (problem with which we end) = colour
Amongst other techniques used I discovered how colour as a fluid medium could be a distraction to looking at materiality, for that it brings in psychological associations. Thus 'colour' brought to my awareness as P2 here in my investigation of materiality as one of the results of my experiments.

The quest into this specific genre of 'image making' abandons the depiction of subject, making painting the subject of painting. As one of the pioneers working in this field, Donald Judd believes that materials vary greatly and are simply materials (Judd, 1997). His 'specific objects' are purged of any traces of illusionism, metaphor, gesture of anthropomorphic references. Yet without these references, do we need to turn to areas outside of art and aesthetics -- disciplines such as linguistics and ideologies to interpret art?


3//////// Knowledge and Communication
It has long been my belief that art is about communication, regardless of the medium or discipline an artist works with. Yet there are different means of communication and often visual communication works on a different system from that of verbal communication.

René Magritte. "The Treachery of Images (This is not a pipe)," 1929.

To illustrate my point, here we have a René Magritte’s painting "The Treachery of Images," 1929. In this painting we see a truthful representation of a pipe, and an inscription underneath it saying "Ceci n’est pas une pipe (It is not a pipe)." Magritte knits verbal signs and plastic elements together, and brings pure similitudes and nonaffirmative verbal statements into play within the instability of a disoriented volume and an unmapped space. We may argue that the title of this painting could also have been "A pipe is a pipe." (Žižek, 1968:104).

This is an example that brings about discussions on separation between linguistic signs and plastic elements, and equivalence of resemblance and affirmation. These two principles constituted the tension in classical painting, because the second reintroduced discourse into an art from which the linguistic element was excluded, since affirmation exists only where there is speech. Hence the fact that classical painting spoke while constituting itself entirely outside language. (Foucault)

My intention here is to present an entry point to see how linguistic and visual communications operate in their own systems, and how confusing it could be when we combine the two. Each instance successfully communicates something (the visual shows a pipe, and the written is a statement that makes sense). However, each instance also contradicts the other. For an in-depth discussion or an interpretation to take place, it is preferable that one should have knowledge in, for example, the Real, the Thing-in-itself.


4//////// Knowledge and Meaning
In today's society, each discipline is more and more specialised in its own development: I would not be surprised to find myself completely alienated in the department of engineering. The acquisition of knowledge, as we have seen in Popper's theory and my application of this methodology, can be a very personal development, thus it may also be exclusive. Which makes me wonder, with the development in visual art and the interpretation of art, whether or not do we have to rely on both to make successful works of art?

Contemporary curatorial practice usually offers accompanying texts to exhibitions either as parallel writing or interpretation of the works. In a recent article responding to the Whitney Museum's Biennale exhibition of contemporary art in The Wall Street Journal Online (18 April 2008), journalist Eric Gibson writes: 'Texts written by the Whitney's curators and outside contributors are being widely (and accurately) dismissed as unalloyed gibberish.' This complaint is made significant by the fact that it comes also from artists and critics who are knowledgeable and well-disposed toward the museum and its efforts. He explains that when the writer no longer had to base his critical observations on a close scrutiny of the work of art after Duchamp -- 'He could simply riff.' This gave birth to the phenomenon in art criticism of inaccessible writing. Indeed, popular verbs with critics such as 'resuscitates,' 'references' and 'activates' may nonetheless say just about nothing. As we can see from one of the 'random quotes' from the exhibition:

... Bove's 'settings' draw on the style, and substance, of certain time-specific materials to resuscitate their referential possibilities, to pull them out of historical stasis and return them to active symbolic duty, where new adjacencies might reactivate latent meanings.

The crypticness of this passage brings to mind the discussions of French psychiatrist Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) and his use of language, also known as Lacanese, that du Lacan (of Lacan) has been used in colloquial French with reference to an incomprehensible phrase or an exceedingly awkward formulation. This is because Lacan is known for his use of puns and play with words in his seminars. Therefore, it makes Lacanese nearly impossible to be translated into another language; and as a result, if I may add, makes this knowledge more difficult to be accessed by others.


Examples given by Corinne Maier may help us see the complexity in speaking Lacanese, in her 'travel guide' to 'Lacania.' A proper way of saying 'I am ill' in Lacanese is: 'My symptom does no longer succeed in quilting my lack of being' (Maier, 2003: 52). And a woman who wants to speak to her friend because her husband has just left her, in Lacanese, she says: 'For the subject who is now confronted with its lack of being, the hole of the loss in the real mobilises the signifier' (ibid.: 62). Here we see that Lacanese seems to be a sophisticated designer idiom for the improved description and communication of a new set of meanings.


In the course of my research, this book Knowing Nothing, Staying Stupid by Dany Nobus and Malcolm Quinn has been recommended by my critical studies supervisor. In which I find the notion of the knowledge economy extremely insightful as to grasp the ideas I have been pondering for sometime:

A form of dependency in which we are all potential knowledge specialists, and therefore perpetually in debt to someone else's knowledge. Rather than establishing a commonality of understanding, this situation consolidates the rule of the individual knowledge ego. (Nobus, 2005: 1)
With the knowledge economy we have today, it has drawn to my attention whether the fabrication of knowledge can be standardised. In the case of an educational institution, such as the university, where admittedly the individual knowledge ego thrives, understanding others becomes potentially more and more difficult. In order to gain access to another person’s knowledge, we may constantly find ourselves in a repeating process of studying and trying to interpret.


5//////// the Stranger
Or, we may go even further to suppose that we may be ceaselessly in the pursuit of the knowledge of others' without formulating our own's, simply because we want to be able to understand others, and we do not want to appear not as knowledgeable, or 'stupid.' It may be useful at this point, to introduce 'the stranger' which I find helpful:

Derrida[1] has reminded us, from Plato’s dialogues it can already be seen that it is often the stranger who formulates 'the intolerable question', who unwittingly challenges the authority of the master, who is not scared to jeopardize the hospitality he has received. [...] The stranger speaks from ignorance and thus forces his interlocutors to break the silence that governs mutual understanding within his presence, as Simmel[2] put it, physical proximity and social remoteness, geographical nearness and mental distance, the person of alien origin occupies a privileged position, which gives him the opportunity to cross boundaries and somehow be exonerated by reason of ignorance, and which can make him privy to secrets that will never be revealed to any 'regular' inhabitant of the community. (Nobus, 2005: 67)

1. Derrida, Jacques. Of Hospitality: Anne Dufourmantelle Invites Jacques Derrida to Respond, trans. Rachel Bowlby, Standford, CA: Standford University Press, 2000.
2. Simmel, Georg. “The Stranger,” trans. Donald N. Levine, in Donald N. Levine (ed.) On Individuality and Social Forms, Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press, 1971. 143-9

This suggests that ignorance may be as powerful as knowledge in effective communication and understanding. It is a concept I still find puzzling and difficult to realise, but nevertheless a concept I feel that I could relate to. In my interpretation, if we could apply this in the case of visual art, perhaps it is worth approaching the work without an overload of context, and allowing our visual sensory to explore, relate and connect.


(left) Wassily Kandinsky. "Farbstudie Quadrate," 1913. Image source: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/goto/prints-329769
(right) Sylvie Huang. "Untitled." 2008.

Here we have two works that have perceptible similarities, such as in colour, saturation, and use of geometric forms. While Kandinsky (1866-1944) links colour to musical harmony, Huang's choice of colour refers to commodity objects. Putting these two works of different contexts side by side, we may be able to see them from a stranger's point of view for at least a brief of a moment, that regardless of the contexts these works set within, they communicate directly and instantly of a combination of colours and forms that stimulates our instinct response.


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References
　　　　 Judd, Donald. "Selected Writings." Donald Judd Sculpture, Prints, Furniture. Centro Cultural de Belém, 1997. 11-21
　　　　 Judd, Donald. "Specific Objects," Arts yearbook 8. New York, 1965: 74-82; reprinted in Judd, Complete Writings 1959-1975. Halifax Nova Scotia, 1975.
　　　　Foucault, Michel. "This is Not a Pipe (1968)." Retrieved 13 May 2008.
　　　　Gibson, Eric. "The Lost Art of Writing About Art." The Wall Street Journal Online: 18 April 2008.
　　　　Maier, Corinne. Le Lacan dira-t-on: Guide français-lacanien. Paris: Mots & Cie. 2003
　　　　Nobus, Danny and Malcolm Quinn. Knowing Nothing Staying Stupid: Elements for a psychoanalytic epistemology. New York: Routledge, 2005.
　　　　Liddle, Rod. "The Countdown of the World's 'Public Intellectuals'." Times Online: 4 May 2008. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
　　　　 Rose-Carol Washton Long. "Review: Kandinsky, the Language of the Eye by Paul Overy." The Art Bulletin, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Jun., 1971): 273 (review consists of 1 page). Published by: College Art Association.
　　　　Popper, Karl R. "Knowledge: Objective and Subjective." Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem: In defence of interaction. Routledge, 1994: 1-23.
　　　　 Žižek, Slavoj. "On Radical Evil and Related Matters." Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993: 100-5.

CS Statement

In the beginning of the year, my interest in painting relied solely on looking at and referencing to the practices of artists who had worked with the concept of painting and integrated it with the use of space. Starting off with the "limits of painting," such as its structure, dimension, technique, and the problematic of its ambivalent nature, I had found it difficult to locate painting's position in the contemporary art world, not to mention clarifying its definition.

It is widely accepted that painting was originated from the illusionary, be it the traces of shadow or the pure imagination of men; that is to say, painting as a physical object is regarded as the connection between the imaginary and the real – it is representational. We see numerous examples in the history of painting: from the Renaissance period when painters had to acquire realistic techniques to portray the holy, to the capturing of light of the Impressionists, or the recreation of dreams of the Surrealists. All of these periods and movements in the history of painting are distinct from one another not only because the historians say so, but the different treatments and techniques involved in the making of the images, and, more importantly, may I suggest, the treatments and techniques in practising painting.

There are many purposes of paintings: they can be depictions of the physical world, reflections of the beautiful, praising of the spiritual, metaphors of the other, or expressions of thoughts. It almost goes without saying that painting as a medium of artistic expression is inclusive of relating to its point in time and referencing to its cultural trends. Before modern times, the practice of painting was largely judged by the level of craftsmanship, i.e. the ability to imitate or portray. The appearance of abstract painting in the early twentieth century comprised the crucial step in the recognition of painting's demise as craft and its instant rebirth as idea.

Paul Cézanne reinvented painting by giving it a new meaning, not by the advance of craft. His use of twisted perspective (or non-perspective), bold black outlines and brushstrokes, and an expressive colour palette confronted with the tradition of painting. Taken as a central reference by many artists, among others Daniel Buren wrote in "Standpoint," a text of 1971:

One of the questions posed by Cézanne's work was: is it possible to eliminate the subject in painting and to manifest only painting as painted – or paint itself – that is, to show a painting without a history other than its own, without illusion, without representation of the beyond, without perspective, without a framework other than the one on which this painting is inscribed – its support? (qtd. in Armstrong 86)

These questions point out some of the foremost features one would use to identify a painting: the subject matter, and the framework. To interpret this clearer, we may regard what Cézanne calls "the subject in painting" as what I have explained earlier one of the purposes of painting; without this purpose, what we are left with painting is what Cézanne suggests "painting as painted – or paint itself." Therefore the tasks here are how to see painting as painted, and how does painting function without a framework other than its physical support.

Before going any further, I would like to clarify that the type of painting in discussion in this essay should not fall into the categorisation of being either representational or abstract, for that I see the representation of the mind in the paintings of Abstract Expressionism; the sort of painting I would like to discuss is the ones that consider painting as the subject of its practice, and therefore pose important questions about this particular practice. Numerous takes and attempts in the modernist era tried to reinvent painting, practitioners created paintings for the purpose of creating "painting as painted." To achieve this goal, many had largely abandoned traditional illusionism and developed other systems of communication in painting. For example, the use of collage replacing tones of colour and use of perspective; Piet Mondrian's attempts at establishing the universal linguistic value of his vertical/horizontal symbolism; Wassily Kandinsky's paradigmatic and syntagmatic conditions of pure colour as a language; and the list goes on. The craft reduced painting as painted resulted in the mere coating of a surface, yet redeemed when proved meaningful. In other words, the various founders of abstract painting hoped that through seriating or systematicising the practice, the idea would eventually be evident and then evaluated. Today, painting is discussed most often as an artefact of modernism – it remains as a hung picture on the wall – and therefore an object of dismissal rather than a medium of promise for speaking to contemporary issues. It seems that modernist paintings had failed to escape from the frameworks that they were set within. The frameworks that painting is based on are ironically also the limits set forth for painting.

What frameworks are painting dependent on and limited by? Is there any other way to see "painting as painted" without reducing to the purity and simplicity as merely a covered surface? The culmination of this practice is most apparent in the minimalist approach, such as monochrome and use of geometry. Earlier this year in the seminar presentation I introduced three major limits of painting and by ways of contrast to the minimalist explorations, gave examples of what seemed already exhausted could still be negotiated within: Jackson Pollock's action painting, whose part-to-whole relationship and unity suggests a new kind of autonomy, provokes painting with questions of its structure rather of its reduction. Daniel Dezeuze's cutting technique as opposed to the generalised industrial methods used by the minimalists demonstrates that painting as a discipline remains capable of sustaining technique as a measure of its thought and invention. Polly Apfelbaum's serial practices elaborate decisive ways of thinking through the work’s exposure, and thus open further questions of the relation of the work to its structure. It is through such articulations of seriate dispersion, not reduction, that the implications for painting as a medium are placed in question.

Now that we have ventured further into the realms of painting in the late twentieth century and contemporary times, one may be intrigued by the various forms and styles that painting takes, and be even more confused of what painting is. Within my research, I have encountered the difficulty in embracing the ideology of painting, for that the obsession surrounding it often results in a neglect of studio practice. Perhaps it would be easier to define what is not in order to get to the core of the ideology of painting. The artist group BMPT made a bold statement in the showing at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture in January 1967 by declaring "WE ARE NOT PAINTERS." This statement showed the artists' refusal of the terms of making, exhibition, and criticism through which the statement defines painting. The four members of BMPT – Daniel Buren, Olivier Mosset, Michel Parmentier, and Niele Toroni – each practises a repetitive gesture deprived of any artistic base and wants to supply only what the work presents. Buren specifically makes the distinction between the practice of peinture (painting, act of painting) and that of the tableau (a covered surface, any pictorial dimension whatsoever). The emphasis on the departure of his practice – a concern for peinture – opens his work to its various adventures beyond the stretcher. When painting is free of the particular containment of the tableau, it becomes free to carry its problematic of masking and framing more directly into the world. Insofar most of the practices of painting I have mentioned in this essay, despite their contribution in the reinvention of painting, still set within the masking and the framing of a tableau. Buren's opposition to minimalist painting is that everything hung on the walls is dead; and if space (wall) in between works is to be considered, it should be considered as a work of art too. The history of painting which Buren's travails undertakes is a history of the real distances between the artworks hung on the line in museums. Buren's practice has put forth is the social and institutional framework of painting which we have not disused.

Being heavily influenced by the writings of Louis Althusser, Buren believes that every act is political. As an artist, he also advocates his works in the form of writing. In an accompanying essay to an exhibition of his painting at Yvon Lambert Gallery in early 1971 titled "Critical Limits," Buren's interest in the Althusserian notion of a "theoretical practice" could be found evident[1]; yet for him the act of painting precedes writings and goes beyond them. It is not surprising that I find similarities in the treatment of Buren's peinture and Althusser's ideology. In "On Ideology" (1971) Althusser gives at least three definitions of ideology: 1) it is a system of representation that has no history of its own; 2) it is a matter of the lived relation between men and their world, it is imaginary; 3) it has a material existence in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices. It is to my belief that Buren refers "the act of painting" to a practice of art, not a medium of art. Therefore, while the modernists try to analyse the formal properties of painting, Buren refuses to clearly define painting by suggesting that it should only be observed without a reference to any metaphysical scheme; he believes that each work is an instance and this instance is the presence of an historical fact, though it does not have history on its own. This notion seems to suggest painting as an interchanging term for ideology which draws my attention to look at the more generic term – art.

I feel obliged to go back to my statement that "painting as a medium of artistic expression is inclusive of relating to its point in time and referencing to its cultural trends," what I would like to stress is this crucial yet often overlooked framework in the practice of painting/art – the cultural and institutional framework. As my assertion goes, I hold the opinion that this framework has always existed since the creation of art. However, this art, as we know it, only came into being in the bourgeoisie in the late eighteenth century, with the establishment of museums and gallery spaces. Art was then able to have a wider public audience and works of art may be conserved and exhibited. This social shift had a great significance in art; artists celebrated the liberation from working solely for the private and the accessibility to a public audience. But something else had also happened that accelerated the rebirth of painting – the naissance of the mechanical age.

Before the invention of photography and cinema, image-making had been dependent on the manual skills of men. However, with the introduction of these new media as a result of modernisation, much labour had been replaced by machines, hence painter by camera. This threat to painting as the dominant form of representation forced painters to focus more on the artistic/cultural values that painting inherited rather than the technical elements in representation. The awareness of the cultural challenge of industrialisation prompted a re-composite of the ideas of painting. Different from the artists I have discussed above, Marcel Duchamp's adaptation was to abandon painting altogether by appropriating readymades as works of art. He believes what is shown on a canvas will always be an illusion. The only way is to show the object itself. This "reinvention" is not appreciated by Buren. In "Standpoints" (1971) Buren argues that the influence Duchamp's readymades have on a number of artistic attempts makes the art sterile and regressive. I couldn't agree more when I first read this, for that any suggestion of moving away from the exhausted limits of painting into another space is a denial of painting's capacity to reconsider its own structure. However, Thierry de Duve in "Readymade and the Tube of Paint" (1986) argues that the readymades belong to the history of painting despite their three-dimensional appearance and qualities. Firstly, he proposes that the idea of abstract art came from painting, because "it was in painting that this self-referential striving for purity became both the exclusive object of esthetic theory and the all-encompassing subject matter of practice" (111). Then he references Duchamp's statement at the Symposium on the Art of Assemblage (1961): "Since the tubes of paint used by the artists are manufactured and ready-made products we must conclude that all paintings in the world are 'readymades aided' and also works of assemblage" (Duchamp 142). Finally, he suggests that it is either parody or irony that occupies the author and spectator, yet both would take the society at large into account.

Indeed, looking at the development of painting from this perspective – as ideology – it seems inevitable that it should evolve into readymade, or appropriation art. According to Althusser that "ideology is a 'representation' of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real condition of existence" (152); therefore, to my understanding, appropriation connects each individual to the society by dint of awareness. A bottle-stand exhibited signifies the industrialisation of art, this ideology brings about the awareness in the way we respond to art in relation to the world we live in. It appears to me as though that the visible formal elements of a work have been taken for granted, and what stimulates more seems to be the invisible impact in the psychic. Though I do not disagree with the idea that an object has its own history, I am not convinced that appropriation is the most powerful method. To my opinion, the readymades still remain in an institutional setting, comfortably protected by the gallery walls – isolated and occult.

If art should relate to its cultural setting, it shall be able to relate to a wider public outside of the confines of museum walls. Mechanical revolution not only influenced the practice of art, it also blurred the boundaries of private/public spaces. Explications in "The City in Pieces" (1996) by Victor Burgin serve as good references to the psychological analyses of space. Our perception of space changes constantly depending on the situations we are put in, resulting in a change of the concept of space. For example, the division between inside and outside becomes less definite when we are in a building made of steel and glass. In a world where such divisions are obscure, how to connect oneself to the society and how to make this ideology possible has become considerably important.

In the course of the Reading Group meetings, I was introduced to Jane Rendell's Art and Architecture (2006), in which she discusses a specific kind of practice that operates outside of the galleries' physical limits. Rendell locates this specific kind of practice in the ambiguous place between art and architecture – in spatial, temporal, and social terms. She explains that art and architecture are often differentiated in terms of their relationship to "function" – while architecture responds to social needs in giving shelter, "art is 'functional' in providing certain kinds of tools for self-reflection, critical thinking and social change" (4). This kind of public art that makes art functional is termed by Rendell as "critical spatial practice." I have found it very helpful in contextualising the artists I have been looking at, whose works comprised of visual components as well as social significance – Buren's in situ works on historic sites that challenge the conventional reluctance to the integration of "contemporary" and "traditional;" Katharina Grosse's explorations of painting dimension in relation to architectural space that transfigure our everyday experience; Michael Lin Min-Hong's floral installations that act as vernacular interactions where the hierarchical structures of painting, culture, museum practice, and social exchange are momentarily subverted... – all of these practices demonstrate the enormous freedom in addressing social issues from a painting visual perspective.

It has been a journey through the history of painting, the concepts of space, ideology and art, to the discovery of a specific practice. The goal is to acknowledge what has happened to painting and its relation to the society, and to hope to develop the scope for contextualising my own practice. It has strengthened my personal understanding of the creative dimension of an art that is responsive to a multicultural and ever-changing society.

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Note
[1] Buren's statement in the essay: "The following text results from a specific practice or work which is meant TO BE SEEN. This text is only the demonstration, presentation of this work, and not its theory. It could be considered as an illustration of the work in question. It is dictated by the work itself and is not an abstract and purified image of some future project." (Armstrong 87)





Bibliography
　　　　Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation)." Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. Trans. Ben Brewster. London: Unwin Brothers Limited, 1971. 123-73.
　　　　Armstrong, Philip and Laura Lisbon. "As Painting: Problematics." Armstrong, Lisbon and Melville. 27-54.
　　　　Armstrong, Philip, Laura Lisbon, and Stephen Melville, eds. As Painting: Division and Displacement. Columbus: Wexner Center for the Arts, 2001.
　　　　Buren, Daniel. Five Texts. The John Weber Gallery & The Jack Wendler Gallery, 1973.
　　　　Burgin, Victor. "The City in Pieces." In/Different Spaces – Places and Memory in Visual Culture. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996.
　　　　"Daniel Buren." Armstrong, Lisbon and Melville. 85-9.
　　　　De Duve, Thierry. "The Readymade and the Tube of Paint." Artforum: May, 1986. 110-21.
　　　　Duchamp, Marcel. "A propos of Readymades." Salt Seller; The Writings of Marcel Duchamp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973.
　　　　Michael Lin. Ed. Ivy Cooper. Contermorary Art Museum St. Louis, 2004.
　　　　Rendell, Jane. Art and Architecture A Place Between. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006.
　　　　Ricoeur, Paul. "Althusser’s Theory of Ideology." Althusser A Critical Reader. Ed. Gregory Elliott. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. 44-72.
　　　　Rosand, David. The invention of Painting in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

chocolat

21h38, 29/08/2007. Chocolat
400g Cadbury Drinking Chocolate
400g Exotic cocoa powder
150g sugar
20g butter
1t milk powder

Red Bucket

On the road

This land so flat and empty, roll me over and no one would care.

7h17: Dizzy Lizzy™ falls on Paris Daisy™.

21h39: Dizzy Lizzy™ continues to fall.

ColourShop

Yet I insist Auckland being a dull town

Packed, this student town towers up apartment buildings that divide the remaining sky. Through my paces the hostile hilly roads reveal the natural colours that've been overlooked. .. yea, as if I cared at all.

at work at last

I think of the typical scene as a middle-aged woman kneeing down on the floor working on a bucket of kimchi, or moi-chi, or just any kind of food...

The new term has started and I for some reason feel much revived at the beginning of this 2nd semester, perhaps the holiday has served me well. Yet this does not mean I am in any way happier about my my/research/project (if there is one). "Just have fun" and "Relax" are the 2 phrases that have come up again and again i conversations i have within peers. "How can i not?!" is usually the initiate o.s., now that i've thought about it again, i think what they are referring to is not my attitude, but my mind-set.

"從前有個人叫小蔡, 後來就被端走了.." - Is there anything wrong if you find this funny? I don't think so, it would only show what sort of age group and culture you belong to (vaguely). Then why can't people see it the same way with the so-called "pessimism" (that which i would rather refer to as "optimism"). Do you see the glass half-full or half-empty? Do you eat your favourite dish first or you leave it to finish last? How about, are you left- or right-hander? Most conventions based on statistics may demonstrate certain traces of tendency; they are, however, not crucial in general application. Someone who is never content is a pessimist because s/he does not realise what good s/he's already had? I say that s/he is an optimist because s/he sees the world as a better place to be and complains because s/he would like to change the dissatisfying situation.

"Well, Sylvie, you see that's how a creative person works.. Sometimes the work doesn't come out the way you'd like it to be, yet you just have to keep working..." Very encouraging though there's basically no logic in there. I guess the secret behind my mysterious motivation is that i've found people that i can actually talk to, and a more comfortable/suitable living environment -- though flashes of some good horoscope forecast has also come into mind -- LOL. My research 'for' the critical studies has helped me gain a better ground on understanding the ideology of theory and practice, though i still can't really get my head around practice. I don't deny that reading and analysing (and perhaps my inevitable generalising) have produced me such pleasure that somehow makes me believe that by doing all these, I could become a better being...

I have also developed some level of interest in looking at traditional paintings -- here i mean the representational oil paintings in Taiwan in the 40s-50s -- the sort of painting that I consider ugly and even phony depictions of taiwan. Yet looking back from now, I cannot ignore its historical and social significance. What I'd really like to find out more about is the post-war western art developments in taiwan (yea thanks for all the invasions), and perhaps its absence during that 3o years of martial law. There's so much material that's been dismissed within my personal research, and i've never thought this could have been of any interest cos "it's not me. "

You don't hear me, but you see me. Yes, I'll be around.

Reading Group Report: Painting's Critical Force in Our Times

In the reading group meetings for Critical Studies each person contributed a reading of his/her own interest to be read and discussed by group members during the four meeting sessions. For the interdisciplinary nature of the course, we encountered a variety of subjects of the readings submitted[1] – subjects ranged almost arbitrarily that would have had seem like a jumble of titles and compositions. Some interesting conversations took place during the discussion; yet generating in-depth debates within the given timeframe requires a thorough comprehension of most fields in the arts. After a sound investigation and re-reading of the articles submitted by members of the group, I have come to realise that despite the range of topics, there are fundamental issues in the practice of art that concern us all.

In this report I will first give an overall look of my interest in the works of Daniel Buren and his dedication to theorising the practice of art through his bands. Buren's surprising long career working in situ is not a success by luck; I will shed light on how he has contextualised the bands, and from there relate to other practice of similar nature. One of the readings in the group I find most relevant to Buren's practice is Jane Rendell's Art and Architecture. In her book Rendell introduces the term "Critical Spatial Practice" to title the specific kind of practice that operates outside of the galleries' physical limits. Much like Buren's work, such practices often have strong attachment/reference to social reality. Also, from Victor Burgin's The City in Pieces, we get a better understanding of the developments of the concept of space – focused on the psychological approach, exposing the intervening relationship between physical and virtual spaces. Relating it to art-making, many artists have looked at the ambiguous in-between areas and incorporated new technology that encourages the participation in the process. The analogy made between film and painting by Walter Benjamin (Harrison, 513-4) gives a good comparison between the so-called "new" and "old". I would, to end this report, argue that painting as one of the primarily art forms has the ability to accept, adopt, and transform.

During shift in social structure as a result of urbanisation in the 1960s, many social movements took place including the student revolution in Paris in May 1968. Buren as an active artist in Paris at that time decided to make only works in situ, always using 8.7 centimetre-wide vertical stripes, alternating coloured with white or transparent. This format had not been assimilable to the codes of art. The anonymity of the bands suggests that the creator is no longer the owner of his/her work, and it is not his/her work, but a work. The bands have a consistency that ensures the exposure to be viewed in different places and at different times; and the repetition of the bands shows that there is no perfectibility.

The system that Buren employs does not direct attention to the bands; rather, the bands are produced, placed/displaced to be looked at. In an accompanying essay to an exhibition of his painting at Yvon Lambert in early 1971 titled Critical Limits, Buren's interest in the Althusserian notion of a "theoretical practice" could be found evident [2]; yet for him, the act of painting precedes writings and goes beyond them. It is an act of a political one: when he pastes fabric or paper stripes in public places, paints bands in the wall space between art works in a gallery, raises flags outside of a museum on the streets, he is referencing the act of painting to its historical context. He believes that every artist is obliged to pass over the sociological aspect of the proposition before him/her due to lack of space and considerations of priority among the questions to be analysed.

When we look at how Buren's bands came about, we might be intrigued in what may have seemed to be a purely conceptual and minimal practice to be deeply rooted in the significance of painting. Cézanne has been a central reference to Buren whose revolutionary contribution to painting in abandoning illusionism and representation. He poses questions on the possibility of treating painting as painting – that is, as painted, or as paint itself. This concern for painting is an acknowledgement of painting's physical limits, namely, its subject matter, support, frame, dimension, etc. What Buren has done with the creation of his signature stripes is to explore how peinture (art of painting) as opposed to tableau (covered pictorial dimension) opens beyond itself by virtue of the limits that define it and onto a field that exposes the institutional and cultural frameworks that it takes its presence.

One of the foremost limits of painting is dimension, i.e. space. Buren's in situ works incorporate the stripes as a visual tool with architectural structures that extend both painting and architectural spaces. Yet it is not only a visual attempt to work on sites – often, site-specific works focus more on reformulating the ways in which space is understood and practiced. There is a branch of practice that is set in an interdisciplinary terrain that deals with urban condition, both critically and spatially. Jane Rendell presents the term "Critical Spatial Practice" (2006) to name this branch. She points out that in the 1960s and 1970s numerous social and art movements were informed by an interest in architecture and public space. Since then, the discussion on the urban condition within different academic disciplines has created an in-between place for art and architecture for the aspects of the spatial, the temporal, and the social. Exhaustive background of the developments of the concept of space can be found in Victor Burgin's The City in Pieces. In this essay Burgins analyses on urbanisation in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Henri Lefebvre are elaborated. He notes that major changes in representations of space and space of representations that took place in the early twentieth century shattered a certain space, a space which Lefebvre describes as a psychological one [3]. From an architectural perspective, one of the most visible changes of style is the walls made of steel and glass. Lefebvre supplies the concept of the membrane (Lefebvre, 175-6) which suggests a possibility of coexistence – the coexistence of inside and outside, of private and public – in other words, urban modernisation blurs the distinction between such boundaries. As for Benjamin, walls of steel and glass construct the image of the modern, and that porosity, transparency, light, and free air are the essential components that represent the twentieth century (Benjamin, 292).

Buren's in situ installations in historical sites offer a genuine insight into engaging and contextualising the spatial and social functions of painting as a practice of art. These functions, explains Rendell, are different from the architectural functions of sheltering or responding to social needs. "Art offers a place and occasion for new kinds of relationship 'to function' between people. (Rendell, 4)" Les Deux Plateaux installation in the courtyard of Palais Royal in Paris is a good example. This work completed in 1986 provoked an intense debate over the integration of contemporary art and historic buildings during that time. This work, then, has become a platform for conversations between the conventional and the contemporary, the authoritative and the questionable, as well as between art and architecture. From a conventional painting point of view, the stripes in its two-dimensional form are capable of conveying the three-dimensionality of the given space.

Buren's increasing use of transparency in recent years has consolidated the function of the membrane. The installation Plus grand ou plus petit que ?(Bigger or Smaller?) in the Castle of Tours, France (see images) harmonises the confines of art space and public space on such a scale that once approaches the work, one begins to wonder whether it is the castle that exposes the work, or the work that exposes the castle; and which has more influence over the other. This relationship people create in the production and occupation of art and architecture makes it not only a work made to be seen but to be experienced. The application of painting (including also the stripes and transparencies) has permeated the physical architectural configuration through the castle's historical bourgeois significance into a change of ownership from that of the private to the public; hence to a state that seeks active social engagements.


1.
Daniel Buren.
Plus grand ou plus petit que ? 2006.
Château de Tours, France
Photograph : hsiaohui, 2006.
Glass windows on each level are tinted in red, yellow, and green consequently from top to ground floor.



2.
Daniel Buren.
Plus grand ou plus petit que ? 2006.
Château de Tours, France
Photograph : hsiaohui, 2006.
Floor and walls are fully painted in the colour themed on the entire level. Occasional stripes appear around edge of the windowsill



3.
Daniel Buren.
Plus grand ou plus petit que ? 2006.
Château de Tours, France
Photograph : hsiaohui, 2006.
Public occupation has given a dynamic aspect to this work.

Since the age of modernisation, the advance in technology has had the most remarkable development. Today, our conception of space has gone beyond what our eyes can ascribe – such as the invention of fast-speed vehicles that distort our concept of distance; radio and internet that alter our ways of communication; television and cinema that confuse our perception of reality. As a result, one can no longer find balance between physical and psychological space. Benjamin's analogy comparing the cameraman and the painter[4] concludes that film offers a more significant reality through permeation with mechanical equipment. Mechanical reproduction of art has made it accessible to a wider audience, yet art that is meant for the masses loses its critical force, for that the masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the spectator. While celebrating the expansion of perception of space brought by modernisation, what we cannot ignore is the danger of getting lost in interface due to the excess of information. How, then, should the practice of art in our times function its critical apparatus?

Compared to the mass media, for Benjamin, a painting has always had an excellent chance to be viewed by one person or by a few. However, from what I have presented with examples of Buren's works and introduction on Rendell's Critical Spatial Practice, painting as a practice of art is apt at public engagement as well as maintaining its critical force. Although in the current atmosphere of critical theory, painting seems to be an ambivalent subject, for that it is set within its own physical frames and limits. I would argue that critical theories based on language and semantics cannot be the sole determinant of a work’s meaning and significance. I identify with Rendell's view on critical theory, that it is reflective rather than objectifying. Thus the critical force is the level of ability to transform rather than describe the work/practice. Apart from Buren, there are other animated artists who exercise similar practices – practices that arise from issues in painting and extend to embrace collaboration. For example, Sarah Hughes' largely ephemeral installations that explore space through pattern, combining the traditional motif of the paisley and the formal devices of Op Art, recent installations trace sources high and low, the overlapping and intersecting conditions of production and of use. Michael Lin Min-Hong borrows flower patterns from traditional Taiwanese fabrics to make large-scale installations that invite the viewer to share the space of art and architecture in socially contemplative ways. Lin's installations act as vernacular interactions where the hierarchical structures of painting, culture, museum practice, and social exchange are mentarily subverted. Polly Apfelbaum wanders through the ambivalent space between painting, sculpture, and installation by creating dyed fabric laid on the floor that deals with the relativity of time, feminist issues, and complexity in what appears to be simplicity. Katharina Grosse's combination of painting with architecture and sculpture produces an immersive experience, in which her work physically encompasses us rather than solely hanging on a wall. All of these examples show that the perception of space can be critically provoked by certain practices of art. I believe in what Rendell defines as the function of art [5], and painting as one of the primarily art form/practice is still capable of sustaining it.



Notes
[1] The group I was assigned to consists of the following members and the readings from each individual are indicated below:
N.C.
"Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1936." Art in Theory 1900-1990. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Blackwell, 1995. 512-9
A.D.
Heiser, Jörg. "Emotional Rescue." Frieze. Issue 71: 70-5
B.D.
von Drathen, Doris. "Private Crossing." Vortex of Silence – Proposition for an Art Criticism Beyond Aesthetic Categories. Milano, Italy, 2004. 83-92
F.G.
Krauss, Rosalind E. "The Destiny of the Formless." Formless – A User's Guide. New York: Zone Books NY, 1997. 235-55
S.H.
Rendell, Jane. "A Place Between." Art and Architecture: A Place Between. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. 1-12Ibid. “Collaboration.” 153-61
H.H.
"Daniel Buren." As Painting: Division and Displacement. Ed. Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon, and Stephen Melville. Columbus: Wexner Center for the Arts, the Ohio State University, 2001. 86-9
A.S.
Burgin, Victor. "The City in Pieces." In/Different Spaces – Places and Memory in Visual Culture. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996.
[2] Buren's statement in the essay: "The following text results from a specific practice or work which is meant TO BE SEEN. This text is only the demonstration, presentation of this work, and not its theory. It could be considered as an illustraction of the work in question. It is dictated by the work itself and it not an abstract and purified image of some future project." (Armstrong, 87)
[3] Lefebvre: "Around 1910 a certain space was shattered. It was the space of common sense, of knowledge [savoir], of social practice, of political power… the space, too, of classical perspective and geometry […] bodied forth in Western art and philosophy, as in the form of the city and town." (Lefebvre, 25-26)
[4] Walter Benjamin in his essay of 1936 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction makes an analogy with a surgical operation to compare the different approaches to healing a sickness between the surgeon (hence, the cameraman) and that of the magician (hence, the painter) to which he infers that while the magician maintains a natural distance between the patient and himself, the surgeon penetrates into the patient's body.
[5] "… art is functional in providing certain kinds of tools for self-reflection, critical thinking and social" (Rendell, 4)



Bibliography
Brennan, Stella Brennan. "Pattern Recognition: The Art of Sara Hughes." Art New Zealand. Issue 112, Spring 2004.
Benjamin, Walter. Gesammelte Schriften vol.5. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1772; quoted in Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing, 303
Burgin, Victor. "The City in Pieces." In/Different Spaces – Places and Memory in Visual Culture. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996.
Crimp, Douglas. "The End of Painting." October vol.16, 1981. 69-86
"Daniel Buren." As Painting: Division and Displacement. Ed. Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon, and Stephen Melville. Columbus: Wexner Center for the Arts, the Ohio State University, 2001. 86-9
von Drathen, Doris. "Private Crossing." Vortex of Silence – Proposition for an Art Criticism Beyond Aesthetic Categories. Milano/Italy, 2004. 83-92
Heiser, Jörg. "Emotional Rescue." Frieze. Issue 71: 70-5
Krauss, Rosalind E. "The Destiny of the Formless." Formless – A User's Guide. New York: Zone Books NY, 1997. 235-55
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Blackwell Publishing Limited, September 1, 1991
Michael Lin. Ed. Ivy Cooper. Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 2004.
Nadaner, Dan. "Painting in an Era of Critical Theory". Studies in Art Education vol.39 No.2 winter, 1998. 168-82
Rendell, Jane. "A Place Between." Art and Architecture: A Place Between. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. 1-12
Ibid. "Collaboration." 153-61
"Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1936." Art in Theory 1900-1990. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Blackwell, 1995. 512-9

the Late paintings 5/06/2007

Nothing stimulates anymore -- what you see is ONLY what you see. No comment is made, no reaction is provoked, no intelligence is evident, thus no progress is presented. Be it a phrase that shall replace the over-loaded boredom I have been feeling..

Yet boredom seems to be only replaceable by even heavier boredom. A passionless heart conveys nothing but the mundane; and it's only to be accused of being heartless.

Bombyniciously I try to lighten up, for that it is in my blood as well as in my name... But it does not run in the family. Elaborating on the excessive nuisance, however, does.

Abandoned and impotent. My ignorance says it's fine.

Seminar 30/05/2007

I have not been to many of the masters' seminars, but I've benefited a lot from the ones that I've been to. I think it's a really good opportunity to get to know other's projects and interests, and also their styles, since I do not talk much to them personally. Having said so, I feel I am a completely different person when doing a public speech/performance. I guess the bottom line is my self-consciousness in fear of being unable getting the attention; and when on the stage where I am granted such focused attention, I do enjoy it -- though, only after a certain time of preparation.

Most people do have a lot to say and do have a body of research there, yet some do not realise the fact that it's only a 20-minute seminar, and only so much can be put in it. The only way is to work on the structure and practice before actually giving the seminar -- for that I am grateful of the help from Liyen, and the discussion we had helped to get my head around the whole research process too. So I guess it's true, as what Liyen's suggested, it's just telling stories and giving introductions. And I do agree, for that it helps the audience's understanding of your work and generate discussion. Often people are so immersed in their own research and put on this full-on in-depth lecture which is a good learning experience too, but hard for those who have not been researching in the same field to digest all information in 20 minutes.

So, here is the complete content of my seminar. I will have to look back to it and further my research soon. My apologies for not fully referencing the whole writing, etc.

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Greetings.
Today, I am going to give a general outlook of my interests in some specific areas of painting and the developments of which. Emphasis will be put on the development of abstract painting after the influence of minimalism.

Coming from a painting background, I am also aware that we live in an era of critical theory. As we know that the different aspects of painting have been looked at again and again closely; as a result, some artists tend to be more excited about using new media nowadays. In an art world dominated by critical theory and new forms that speak to that theory, what are the values of painting for the contemporary visual arts curriculum?

My research this year is based on a concern for painting. In this seminar I propose to give an introduction on some of the difficulties that painters have been dealing with, also, I will give a more in-depth overview of the works of Daniel Buren, to show how he carries his practices throughout the years.

Firstly, I would like to start with a quote by Donald Judd taken from the book "Specific Objects." He says that:

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Three dimensions are real space. That gets rid of the problem of illusionism and of literal space, space in and around marks and colours - which is riddance of one of the salient and most objectionable relics of European art. The several limits of painting are no longer present.

Donald Judd
"Specific Objects," reprinted in Complete Writings: 1969-1975. Halifax: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. New York: New York University Press, 1975. 184

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What I find interesting is that Judd started his career as a painter, yet he points out one of the foremost limitations of painting – space; and suggests that sculpture (or other 3 dimensional art forms) conveys better. Surly anyone working within the field would have been aware of painting's limits; for example, its dimension, space, colour and representation. But is Judd's suggestion of moving away from painting the only way to progress a practice? Many artists who are aware of the limits of painting still work within the domain to try to push the boundaries. My interest is to take on the limitations and explore them in my way.

In the next slide, I will give some examples of works that work toward the same goal. To show that if Judd was right, or that he simply shows ignorance that there are also several limits to negotiate within painting.

- - - - - - - - - - Slide2 : Limits to Negotiate Within Painting- - - - - - - - - -

Here I have chosen 3 major limits of painting as I've found them to be within my research, though they might need some refining later on; and for each I have selected an example that negotiate with such limit.

1) Structure: (& Reduction. Surface, support, framing, dimension, space)
When we speak of the formal properties of a painting we think of a covered surface on a support that set within a frame. And what is set within the frame concerns perspectives, composition, thus dimension and space. The minimalist's approach to reduce these elements culminates in various endpoints, including monochrome and geometry.

-Jackson Pollock, Lavender Mist: Number 1, 1950-

This Jackson Pollock's action painting constructs a new kind of autonomy. The part-to-whole relationship and unity suggest a re-articulation of painting. The elements and aspects of Pollock's paintings are polarised rather than amalgamated. This construction of a new kind of autonomy provokes painting with questions less of its reduction than of its structure.

2) Technique: (Variation; use of different formal elements and tools)
In the history of painting, various techniques have been created to perfect representation (e.g. perspectives), or to introduce a different way of seeing (e.g. cubism). According to Hubert Damisch*1, technique is to be understood as both 'thought and invention.' The different strategies taken by various painters to explore the limits of painting contribute to the invention of numerous techniques.

-Claude Viallat and Daniel Dezeuze-
Here we have the knotting of Claude Viallat and the cutting of Daniel Dezeuze to show their different approaches to construct painting. As opposed to minimalist's industrial methods (which represent a counterimpulse toward the generalising of technique, and this counterimpulse coincides with a displacement away from the privilege of painting as a medium into an array of other spaces and mediums), the works here demonstrate that painting as a discipline remains capable of sustaining technique as a measure of its thought and invention.

3) Series: (Extension; Repetition; Fragmentation)
Serial practices elaborate decisive ways of thinking through the work's exposure. (If we look at each work in the series as an "instance" and it shows that anything we term a work has an identity that is already displace to, and by, the "instance" of the work’s exteriority in and as its essentially seriate dispersion, a dispersion that places its "medium" in question. and their implications for painting.)

-Polly Apfelbaum, Eclipse, velvet and dye, dimensions vary with installation, 1996-

There are a number of different ways to seriate a practice, here I have chosen a work by Polly Apfelbaum. It represents one piece in a series of variations in the display of the work or its architectural context. This implication of serial practices open further questions of the relation of the work to its structure, and thus ways of inquiring how, in light of its structural articulations, a work can be dispersed and not "reduced."

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Next I will present a movement that took place in the late 60s. Based on a concern for art, and painting being its primarily form, Buren teamed up with 3 of his contemporaries and formed the group BMPT.

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+ 1966 – 1967
+ Initiated by 4 artistes: Daniel Buren, Olivier Mosset, Michel Parmentier, Niele Toroni.

Group BMPT tries to make "paintings as paintings" on the concepts of creation and painting. Each of the group member practices a repetitive gesture deprived of any artistic base and wants to supply only what the work presents.

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Example of the members' works:

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-Olivier Mosset. Untitled, 1966. Acrylic on canvas. Carré d'Art – Museé d'art contemporain de Nîmes-

Mosset repeats identical black circles on white surfaces.

Parmentier paints large horizontal bands delimited with the adhesive tape in order to remove any overflow of the brush.

Both Mosset and Parmentier practice a repetitive gesture with a simple form that is void of any subjectivity.


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-Niele Toroni at work. Les murs, un autre regard, installation Nice, 2005-

Toroni uses the mark made by a brush of a particular width as the motif on the canvas with regular interval.
I would like to point out that each and every mark made by the same brush is unique. If we could refer this back to the point made on Serial Practice earlier, each and every mark thus presents an instance. And it's by repetition and through the display of the context that the whole practice is complete.

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(left image)
-Daniel Buren. The Rotating Square In and Out of the Frame, 1989-

(right image)

-Daniel Buren. The Missing Square, 1989-

Buren uses vertical stripes in a uniform and repetitive way while leaving the same interval between the lines so as to create a perfect legibility.

In this slide we have 2 stripe paintings by Buren. On the left "The Rotating Square In and Out of the Frame" we see that he uses the simplest form of strips to create movements within frames. In the piece on the right "The Missing Square", Buren has taken his strips in frames to create a puzzle-like effect, and the way I see it, he also seeks an active involvement from the viewer.

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One might argue the legitimacy of painting being the medium to question the making of art. Here I would like to put the emphasis on seeing how painting opens beyond itself by virtue of the limits that define it and onto a field it reveals as both relational and contingent, exposed to, and so capable of exposing, the institutional and cultural limits within which it claims its presence.

- - - - - - - - Slide7 Wall of Paintings by Buren - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-Daniel Buren. Murs de peintures, 1966–1977. Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris -
(Flikr: Beair)
Buren's idea that "every act is a political one*2" applies here as a response to the minimalist’s requirement of maximum space in between the works. Here the paintings are hung in the style as if they were in the 19th century, and each work requires equal attention.

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- - - - - - - - Slide8: Accidental Buren - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Flickr: Beathe)
Buren's interest in the physical components of the work, such as its surface and support, lead to the exploration of material and ideological aspects of artworks that are usually not visible, revealing what conventional paintings tend to hide. He treats painting itself as the subject of painting, and what he's done here is taking his stripes and displacing them in a non-art context.

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-Daniel Buren, Les Deux Plateaux , 1986. Palais Royal, Paris-
(Flickr: robert_562)
This in situ work was done in 1986 in the great courtyard of the Palais Royal, in Paris: "Les Deux Plateaux", more commonly referred to as the "Columns of Buren". This work provoked an intense debate over the integration of contemporary art and historic buildings during that time.

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-Daniel Buren. in situ Place des Terreaux (1992, Christian Dreve). Lyon, France-
(photo: hsiaohui)
He is known best for using regular, contrasting maxi stripes to integrate the visual surface and architectural space, notably historical, landmark architecture.
(Christain Dreve is the architect)

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(photo: hsiaohui)
His signature stripes of 8.7cm in width coloured and alternative white work as an expansion of the act of looking. The stripes ultimately did not reduce the meaning of the work, instead led to an expansion of the ability to see within the field of the visible. In this sense, Buren's practice has always involved a particular approach to the physical environment and context.

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- - - - - - - - - - - - Slide12 Time of a Work, Lyon - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-Daniel Buren. Le Temps D'une Oeuvre , 2005. Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Biennale de Lyon d'Art Contemporain-
(Flikr: dalbera)
This piece explores the collaboration with light, thus space and time. Each day the gallery attendant would take off random coloured pixaglas to reveal the original lighting of the exhibition space. This may seem like a work done by a different artist, yet we can still see that he's incorporated his stripes in this work.

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-Daniel Buren. Plus grand ou plus petit que ? 2006. Château de Tours, France-
(Flickr: zokapi)
Here that's another example of an exhibition that I've been to. In this slide we see the exterior of a castle in the city of Tours.

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-Daniel Buren. Plus grand ou plus petit que ? 2006. Château de Tours, France-
(photo: hsiaohui)
The interior, ground, first, and second floor.

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We see with the later works that Buren has incorporated the idea of inside-outside into his practice. Yet all his works, from his unauthorised paper stripes glued on Parisian billboard in the late 60s to his more recent in situ interventions in the public space, discard conventional assumptions about the formal qualities of artworks, and present visual elements that alert the viewer to the characteristics and function of the space.

- - - - - - - - - - - Slide17 Buren's Statement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
la pratique est tout processus de transformation d'une matière première et la théorie lui est essentielle; la théorie est une forme spécifique de la pratique, s'en distinguant par son caractère scientifique.

Louis Althusser, « Pour Marx »

It must be clearly understood that when theory is considered as producer/creator, the only theory or theoretic practice is the result presented/the painting or, according to Althusser’s definition "Theory: a specific form of practice."

Daniel Buren

5 Texts. New York: John Weber Gallery, 1973

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There is freedom in what Buren has done, and that enormous freedom comes from an utter understanding of the limits of painting. I see imposing limitations as a method of working, as opposed to not knowing them, and thus not dealing with them. For that the limitation is the condition for painting's connection with the world, so also for its critical force. (As Painting, 87)

The reason why I want to explore the genre of painting is that I see a positive relationship between critical theory and the practice of painting, and have witnessed painting's capacity to reconsider its own structure. Many artists like Buren have experimented painting within their own institutional and cultural contexts; and I believe within the contemporary context, there are issues to be explored.

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Notes

1. Huber Damisch writes Pollock (1959): "The invention takes place, at the decisive moment when the painter raised this process, dripping - which after all had been only a means of 'padding' (remplissage) - to the dignity of an original principle for the organisation of surfaces."
   Damisch, Hubert. "La figure et l'entrelacs," Fenêtre jaune cadmium, ou les dessous de la peinture. Paris:Editions du Seuil, 1984. 76
2. "All acts are political, and whether one is conscious or not, the presentation of one's work/production does not escape this rule"
   Buren, Daniel. "En Regard," Les Ecrits, Tome3. Bordeaux: CAPC, 1991. 208-9

Super Readings That Have Helped Me Greatly in Constructing This Seminar:

• As Painting: Division and Displacement. Ed. Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon, and Stephen Melville. Columbus: Wexner Center for the Arts, the Ohio State University, 2001.
• Melville, Stephen. "Counting/As/Painting." Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon, and Stephen Melville. 1-26
• Philip Armstrong and Laura Lisbon. "As Painting: Problematics." Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon, and Stephen Melville. 27-54
• "Daniel Buren." Philip Armstrong, Laura Lisbon, and Stephen Melville. 86-9
• Nadaner, Dan. "Painting in an Era of Critical Theory." Studies in Art Education vol.39 no.2 (Winter 1998): 168-82
• Crimp, Douglas. "The End of Painting." October vol.16. 1981: 69-86
  

Further Readings:

• Buren, Daniel. 5 texts. New York: John Weber Gallery, 1973. (FA 759 B952)
• ---. Reboundings: An Essay by Daniel Buren, Followed by 7 Plates and & Diagrams. Brussels: Daled & Gevaert, 1977. (FA 759 B952r)

Online Readings:

• DANIEL BUREN, Plus grand ou plus petit que ?, travail in situ, au château de Tours pour le 25 ème anniversaire du CCC.
• Le musée qui n'existait pas, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 2002
• Rencontre à l'atelier, FIAC 2000

What say you?

The latest installation piece, piece of shit that is

Crit Session 4/05/2007

An installation consisting of 2 horizontal lines of 6cm-square painted surfaces in the Elam Mt St Foyer that suggests the merging of 2D and 3D experience of space.

Is it site-specific?

From the first glance one may relate this work to the conceptual and minimalist explorations of space in the 70's, yet there is little evidence that this work is made specifically for the installation space. Rather, it seems more space-specific than in situ -- the squares are places where they are as a result of a brief investigation of the site, and they can be placed anywhere else in the same fashion. It is only when viewing the work from a distance one sees an effect of the line defining the space or setting a boundary. In this case the use of colour seems totally arbitrary and thus shows a lack of conscious artistic decision-making process.

How important is colour in this work?

The use of vivid colours in the work does attract the audience's attention and stimulate visual sensation to the experience of viewing. However, when one comes closer to the work and try to read into each square surfaces, one often feels confused or distracted -- for that each painted surface has no specified content, thus they appear to be hard to focus. The squares seem more like off-cuts of big paintings rather than carefully composed by the artist, which again shows a lack of artistic consciousness. Colour in this work, as a result, appears to be a fetishism of paint and has little effect on the exploration of painting/sculptural space in this work. It is totally unnecessary.

What can improve the work?

Though the squares may act as signatures of the artist, the whole work is void of personal engagement except the labouring from the artist. This can be dangerous if the artist relies on the physical input of the work but not the critical. Many aspects of this work seem ambiguous as to the presentation and what issues it provokes. The most interesting moment of this installation is when the line of squares goes over the surfaces of objects in the given space, i.e. a table. The line somehow dematerialises the surrounding objects and creates an illusion in the three-dimensional space. This would be a plausible direction for the artist to work toward to.

Contemporary artists that can be of reference are Matthew Ritchie, Jessica Stockholder, and Frank Stella.

Many thanks to Peter, Lisa, Fiona, Akiko, Trenton, Ben, Karena, and Kah-Bee

5th week

In this ridiculous weather I travelled
To and for the booth and my cubical
Behind the mask I breathed faintly
Let the poisonous fluids corrode my fingertips
FOK
I needed more room

more time

and more cash

4th week

So I have finally started painting -- priming, to be exact.

And they look rather nice. I quite like them.

Imagine if they were metres high,

walking amongest the panels would have been a thrill.

But be aware

that art works kill!!