The Art of Participation

While doing research on Audience Participation in Contemporary Art, I found a whole gallery exhibit had been dedicated to this subject back in 2008 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). The exhibit titled "The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now” explored participatory art spanning through six decades. Curated by Rudolf Frieling, the exhibition gathered more than 70 works of art and featured projects on-site as well as online.

“The Art of Participation reflects on the confluence of audience interaction, utopian politics, and mass media, and reclaims the museum as a space for two-way exchange between artists and viewers. The exhibition proposes that participatory art is generally based on a notion of indeterminacy—an openness to chance or change, as introduced by John Cage in the early 1950s—and refers to projects that, while initiated by individual artists, can be realized only through the contribution of others. This artistic approach entices the public to join in; it questions the conventional divide between artists and their audiences, and it challenges assumptions about the symbolic value of art as well as the traditional role of the museum as a container for objects rather than a site for social engagement or art production. The Art of Participation traces the influence and transformation of this concept across various genres, identifying its signal moments and charting a lineage of participatory art across a wide spectrum of media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, performance, film, video, photography, online projects, and interactive media installations.” (e-flux.com)

Frieling wanted to map “the geneology of participation in the museum context” with the intent to establish a lineage from conceptual and performance art of the 1960’s and 1970’s to artists using digital technologies and Web 2.0.  The exhibition is primarily historical but it does hint to the newer generation.

Some pieces in the exhibit make a comeback into the present such as Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece from 1964 as it is shown along side the 2003 remake. In both videos, Ono sits alone and motionless on the stage with only a pair of scissors at her side. The audience is then invited to the stage to cut away at her clothing. The audience cuts away at every bit of her clothing until she is left with nothing but scraps. Without the audience there and willing to participate the work would be nothing.

We go back in time more to what some say is the beginning of participatory art with John Cage’s work, 4’33’ from 1952. This work is all about the concept of interactivity, the score is four minutes and 33 seconds of silence performed on a piano. The piece draws the attention of the listeners to the sounds of their surroundings rather than to Cage’s intentional actions. (artpractical.com)

I have requested the catalog of this show from Interlibrary Loan and am looking forward to reading it when it arrives.

I have found many articles on Audience Participation in Contemporary Art and am in awe of what artists have come up with to engage and include the audience.

Soundsuits

While doing some research for my Far Eastern Art class, I came across this on Oxford Art Online: Craft and Contemporary Art ...

Nick Cave is an american sculptor and multimedia artist. Working across the disciplines of sculpture, textile, dance, and cultural performance, Cave’s art is based on the human figure. He has produced wearable art as sculptures, arrangements of human and animal figurines as installations, and performance works. Cave’s signature works, the multi-sensory ‘Soundsuits’, are full-body costumes consisting of unexpected materials ranging from humble woven rugs, synthetic hair, or buttons to shimmering sequins. Cave’s first Soundsuit was created in 1992 (shortly after the vicious beating in Los Angeles of Rodney King) when the artist, feeling vulnerable, instinctively created an ersatz body armour from tree twigs littering the ground. When worn, the suit made a rustling sound. Since then, the Soundsuits have taken inspiration from references as broad as ecclesiastical mitres, carnival costumes, Dogon masks, fashion, theatre, and Queer ball culture. Each Soundsuit has been designed around and worn by Cave, who has improvised a series of movements for the wearable sculptures, which, in turn, generate sounds such as a swish or percussive rhythm. Soundsuits often appear as Surrealist objects in choreographed performances.

All of Cave’s works take on a performative element, fostering a visual and bodily relationship with the viewer, oftentimes encouraging audience participation (!!). Cave has argued that his approach – using found materials, alluding to the domestic sphere via craft traditions, and borrowing from popular cultural activities – is equally ethical and aesthetic. Utilizing craft in the fine arts elevates culturally devalued objects while also creating works that invite audiences into discourses about the decorative arts and displays of identity and power. Cave’s practice extends a tradition of significant post-World War II movements – such as Gutai, Aktionism, and Arte Povera – which valued audience participation, utilized unconventional art objects, and introduced performing arts, such as music and dance, into the vocabulary of fine art.

Audience Participation: CLOUD

CLOUD is a large-scale interactive installation by Calgary-based artist Caitlind Brown for the arts festival Nuit Blanche in Calgary. Created out of 6,000 donated burnt out light bulbs, CLOUD invites the viewer to wander through a rain of pull strings switching on and off lights. By manipulating the sculpture audiences activate CLOUD’s inner sphere animating light bulbs and creating the illusion of lightning on the cloud’s surface.

Eric Whitacre, Composer

Browsing through Stumbleupon, which has become my newest obsession, I found a TED talk (which is another fantastic obsession of mine) on Eric Whitacre, a composer. I watched this video and thought it was amazing, sound art-esque that includes audience participation?! Yes, please!
This video is a must see!
http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_whitacre_a_virtual_choir_2_000_voices_strong.html

What Interests Me ...

Im really interested in public art that involves the audience. Last year in our Globalization class I covered the 2004 Sydney Biennale. I loved Cecilia Costa's piece called Pli. It was all about audience participation. I also found an great installation audience participation piece on stumbleupon by Yoyoi Kusama. This is something that I would love to explore further.

Another interest of mine is turning everyday items in art, I found these sculptures on stumbleupon as well by Jennifer Maestre.