Saturday, October 25, 2008

Shattering the Glass Myth: Art or Craft?

That is the title of a discussion panel on that subject to be held at VisArts at Rockville (155 Gibbs Street, Rockville, MD 20850, 301-315-8200) on Thursday, October 30, 2008 6:30pm-8:30pm.

Discussions with Jackie Braitman, Elizabeth Mears, Lindsey Scott, Tim Tate and Erwin Timmers. To register, please call 301-315-8200 or email awhitford@visartscenter.org.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't attend the panel discussion so can I pose my comment/question here and invite others to discuss?...

I think the term "art" can be used very broadly. That said, some glass pieces can certainly be in the realm of art not always craft. But, when it comes to, for example, Mr Tate's recent work, I'm a bit befuddled as to how to label it. He is dubbed "a glass artist" yet his video pieces have so little to do with the glass itself. Yes, there are small artistic glass elements perched on top of the glass dome but even some of those decorative toppers strike me as not made by him. His pieces are 99% video and 1% glass. So this is not 'glass as art' in my opinion. It's a video installation that happens to be housed under a glass cake dome.

And, about the videos....does each piece contain a different video? Because, if the same video is repeated in more than one piece, then it's the equivalent of a 2-D artist selling prints. That takes it out of the realm of 'fine art'.

On to my biggest nagging questions about the videos. What happens when/if something stops working? I mean, video screens and other technology components don't last forever. In fact, they are known to go kaput in a matter of years and sometimes sooner. Are these multi-thousand dollar pieces under some sort of warranty? Because people will not be too happy to own a glass dome with a blank video screen underneath when that day comes. The secondary part of the question is whether or not Mr Tate does all of the filming of the video, wiring of the parts and all the other required skills to assemble his pieces from beginning to end? Of course there have been artists throughout history with apprentices etc who've had a hand in their work but it should be admitted if that's going on. Because seriously - he's certainly not some modern-day Dali or Warhol that's so famous that he can justify not doing his own 'art'.

Lenny said...

Dear Anon,

Mostly interesting questions, you should email them to the moderator or awhitford@visartscenter.org and why the anonimity?

But I'll try to answer them to the best of my subjective knowledge here.

First of all, most of the questions could technically apply to most contemporary art in general, and I'll try to give you some examples as I go along.

How to "label" the work: You're not the only one who is beffudled as to how to label this work; our love for labels in this society requires that we "label" the work into some genre. The label that seems to stick the most is "self contained video installation artist."

Glass is still a struggle for many in the art world. I see your points, but you show these video pieces to most dealers and collectors and critics, and the word "glass" pops out in there somewhere. It's somewhat unfair, but a reality.

You declare that there are "small artistic glass elements" in the pieces. Having almost flunked the various glass classes that I had to take in art school many years ago, I can guarantee you that in glass, nothing is easy, even what you think of as small, and blown glass and cast glass (which is mostly what the Tate video pieces have) are certainly not an easy element of the work. You assign a negative artsy term (decorative) to the finials (you call them toppers), which are perhaps the most important glass element of the work. The finials are made by Tate and they are the unifying element between the glass and the video, as they are a direct glass incarnation of the titles of the pieces, which like Barnett Newman titles, are very important to the total understanding of the particular work. They are not "decorative" - they are the individual conceptual keys to each work.

You step again into negative land (and maybe a little too subjective thus) when you describe the other main glass component as a "glass cake dome." If you go back a few years to Tate's early work, you will discover that these blown glass reliquiaries have been developing for many years in his work, first as reliquiaries of his obsessive biographical elements in his work, and now as reliquiaries of his video work. In his newest work they morph into the actual screens for the videos, which are projected from inside the piece onto the inner reliquiary walls.

Each video is an edition of five videos. You are incorrect in stating that editioning a video takes it out of the realm of fine art. In fact, it is the accepted practice for video artists to edition their videos, usually in small editions such as this one. It's no different from a photographer editioning a photograph or a printmaker editioning a woodcut or an etching. However, each of Tate's videos are self contained inside an individual, unique reliquiary, so each is different in that important part.

Your "nagging" video question applies to all video artists doesn't it? Or all modern technology artists? It's a good question for many genres of art, not just video. What happens when the Janine Antoni's chocolate sculptures finally decay? or when the Dan Flavin's lights burn out (the estate has stocked up on them and they are replaced - but what happens when the estate runs out); or when Hirst's shark goes bad (it went bad and he had a back-up; no back ups left); or when any video artist's technology bypasses their circa 2008 technology in the future? That question exists for a lot of art, even an expensive watercolor done with student grade watercolors on acidic paper that will fall apart in 20 years, or a David Hockney painting done with house paint (instead of artist oils) in the 1960s.

In Tate's case, the electronic components used are the best that can be purchased today, and the only component that could "break" is the video screen itself as everything else is solid state, which are rated for 60,000 hours. And yes, they do have a warranty. I suppose that it could all die if we're hit with an EMP blast which would fry all electronics, but then we'd be fucked anyway.

So far I'm answering all your questions, and because I am by far not objective on Tate's work, I recognize that in the tone and focus of the work, neither are you (I think), because by now I detect questions from a certain challenging negative perspective, but more importantly questions that can be applied to any artist and any genre of art, not just Tim Tate. I suppose that's OK, as long as you recognize it as well.

Last issue: "question is whether or not Mr Tate does all of the filming of the video, wiring of the parts and all the other required skills to assemble his pieces from beginning to end?"

That question ceased to have a certain degree of relevance years ago when postmodernism began to rule the art world, but here's the answers: Except for a couple of appropiated videos (a beating heart and a falling building as I recall), Tate does all the scripting, directing and filming of his own videos.

The wiring of the pieces has been learned from a very skilled electronics engineer, as it is a very complex process by the way, and taught to not just Tate, but other members of the Wash Glass School. It is its complexity that has so far prevented copy cats from copying the concept that marries video, motion detectors, sound, etc.

Assembled from beginning to end, although that concept has little importance these days when anything is art. Fame is not the only excuse to participate by the way.

And finally, there are no apprentices, nothing is being hid, and there are no black helicopters flying overhead.

Thank you for the questions... hope my answers helped.

Warm regards,

LC

Anonymous said...

Re:annon's question - as one of Tim's studio mates - I can confirm that Mr Tate does make the glass elements and makes the vids(i.e. develops story, stages, films, edits, loads onto flash cards).

The design of the electronics for his work relied on consultation with one of the DC Dorkbots to get state-of-the-art design.

Looking at Mr Tate's body of work one can see how this video series continues his integration of narrative content into his glass art.

Anonymous said...

I bet anon is an artist.

I bet either a painter or a sculptor, but not a photographer, or printmaker or and definitely not a video artist.

I bet anon has never been to art school or studied art history.

The reason that crab baskets have no lids, is that when they are filled with crabs, everytime that a crab tries to get out, the others pull him back.

Martin Brothers

Anonymous said...

I just saw this posting... I guess I should speak for myself. Thank you folks for defending me, but I totally understand the first anonymous comments... I truly do. Let me try to respond one point at a time.

Point #1 ) I, too, am "befuddled" on how to label my work. It makes things very hard on me in the artworld as I am not easy to label. There are some galleries who believe me to be a glass artist. Other galleries show only my videos, no glass. Many galleries think of them as self contained video installation pieces.... so you are right about that. My answer would be that the label I wear depends on the gallery and the client base they represent.

Point #2) While I reserve the right to utilize a video up to 5 times (4 for private owners, one for museums) I have almost never done this. There are two videos I have used 3 times, and 2 videos I have used twice. I always make the containers different. But honestly, I have so many ideas for video pieces, this is getting less and less likely. This multiple format was decided by a gallery. I have been told this is the way of video in galleries, though I cannot tell you how widespread it is. I'm learning by the seat of my pants myself.

Point #3) What happens if something goes wrong? well... I will fix them... it's that simple. Right now the electronics were designed to have no moving parts whatsoever... to minimize just that possibility. So far none has ever failed. I kept one on in my studio for 2 months once just to see what would happen... nothing did. These things go into people's homes, and they have an on/off switch. People don't leave them on all the time, just when friends are over. Museums usually buy back-up electronics.

Point #4 ) I do have an assistant, who helps me boil wax molds, pack, etc. But everything you see is definitely made by me there... even the videos, though some like the atomic bomb I got from public domain.

I know that my work seems incredibly pricey, especially for DC. The reason for those prices isn't arbitrary, it's been established through a history of selling dozens of pieces at large art fairs and galleries outside of DC. There is no way an artist can lower his prices from one city to another.

I hope that answers a few of those questions... thanks for writing, and to all those that defended me :)

Tim Tate