"The Artist Talk to End All Artist Talks - or, the Struggle Session Continues!" (artist talk) Review
5 Sep 2018 | Ashley
Ever wonder what artists do to achieve art? Is art an achievement? What if artists are just as normal as you and me? What if you and me are artists? What if we have made art without noticing it? What if artist talks are artists pretending to be abnormal? What if curators, artwork collectors, and people like me who write about art are the only ones thinking about what art means?
These are the questions you will get an answer to, in a very confusing manner, from a recent talk on 31 August 2018 at the JC Cube Auditorium, Tai Kwun, organized by M+ West Kowloon. The M+ Museum has invited the pioneering Seoul-based digital artist duo YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES to give their first and final talk titled "The Artist Talk to End All Artist Talks - or, the Struggle Session Continues!" It was truly eye-opening. Also, surprisingly enough, I felt extremely drawn to this confusion, and even thought it relatable.
When I sat down at the front role of the stadium, I did not know what to expect. The artists came on eventually, without saying a word. I remember us audience being told, before the talk began, that no photography was allowed during the talk. No applause was needed as well. So it was a bit strange, but I liked it. Their slides then came on. One after another, in a pace that would almost dizzy my head, but manageable. Then it was the words on plain white backgrounds, big, digital robotic-looking font. They read them one after another like a conversation, and sometimes would let them play like a video.
I soon realized from their performance that the reason for not allowing photography was because they would like to congratulate us on being the important audience that made the time to watch their first and final talk and should therefore not share this moment with anybody else. There was evidently humor in between their very well-designed lines, such as playing on "art" being "the greatest manifestation of the human species" (or something along those lines), which seems to criticize the egoistic notion of art as a higher form, thus artists as higher intellectual beings. They soon revealed the "climax" of the talk which they claimed would change our lives and stop us from going to any artist talks. They said that artists do not know what they are talking about. It is impossible to trace back and say exactly what inspired them, what they meant when they did this, they just did it.
In fact, this might be in itself a groundbreaking message, as shocking as the title which they have chosen for their talk, but this is not a new concept to me. As a spontaneous person who experiments with media art, I find myself being less and less capable of analyzing my final products for my audience. I find people whom I have shown my works to ask me what I meant, thinking that I am a great deep thinker, therefore utilizing each and every snippet of my work to tell something important. Yet in reality, my most honest answer would be this: I made it because I felt like it. Therefore, as confusing as their performance might be for some people, their statement was strangely relatable to a person such as myself.
The Q&A session was equally interesting. We have found out from Ulanda Blair, curator of Moving Image at M+, that they are starting an acquisition of the complete body of work by the two artists that compose YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES for as long as they make art. This is wonderful news that Hong Kong has a base for media art such as theirs. (This was when they made a comment about themselves being "lucky dogs" in opposition to artistic "geniuses" such as Van Gogh and Michelangelo.) I am very sure that their works can inspire some people amongst us, such as myself, to believe in ourselves, as what they have said, so to achieve what is to be considered -- art, because art is indeed an ego.
Ever wonder what artists do to achieve art? Is art an achievement? What if artists are just as normal as you and me? What if you and me are artists? What if we have made art without noticing it? What if artist talks are artists pretending to be abnormal? What if curators, artwork collectors, and people like me who write about art are the only ones thinking about what art means?
These are the questions you will get an answer to, in a very confusing manner, from a recent talk on 31 August 2018 at the JC Cube Auditorium, Tai Kwun, organized by M+ West Kowloon. The M+ Museum has invited the pioneering Seoul-based digital artist duo YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES to give their first and final talk titled "The Artist Talk to End All Artist Talks - or, the Struggle Session Continues!" It was truly eye-opening. Also, surprisingly enough, I felt extremely drawn to this confusion, and even thought it relatable.
When I sat down at the front role of the stadium, I did not know what to expect. The artists came on eventually, without saying a word. I remember us audience being told, before the talk began, that no photography was allowed during the talk. No applause was needed as well. So it was a bit strange, but I liked it. Their slides then came on. One after another, in a pace that would almost dizzy my head, but manageable. Then it was the words on plain white backgrounds, big, digital robotic-looking font. They read them one after another like a conversation, and sometimes would let them play like a video.
I soon realized from their performance that the reason for not allowing photography was because they would like to congratulate us on being the important audience that made the time to watch their first and final talk and should therefore not share this moment with anybody else. There was evidently humor in between their very well-designed lines, such as playing on "art" being "the greatest manifestation of the human species" (or something along those lines), which seems to criticize the egoistic notion of art as a higher form, thus artists as higher intellectual beings. They soon revealed the "climax" of the talk which they claimed would change our lives and stop us from going to any artist talks. They said that artists do not know what they are talking about. It is impossible to trace back and say exactly what inspired them, what they meant when they did this, they just did it.
In fact, this might be in itself a groundbreaking message, as shocking as the title which they have chosen for their talk, but this is not a new concept to me. As a spontaneous person who experiments with media art, I find myself being less and less capable of analyzing my final products for my audience. I find people whom I have shown my works to ask me what I meant, thinking that I am a great deep thinker, therefore utilizing each and every snippet of my work to tell something important. Yet in reality, my most honest answer would be this: I made it because I felt like it. Therefore, as confusing as their performance might be for some people, their statement was strangely relatable to a person such as myself.
The Q&A session was equally interesting. We have found out from Ulanda Blair, curator of Moving Image at M+, that they are starting an acquisition of the complete body of work by the two artists that compose YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES for as long as they make art. This is wonderful news that Hong Kong has a base for media art such as theirs. (This was when they made a comment about themselves being "lucky dogs" in opposition to artistic "geniuses" such as Van Gogh and Michelangelo.) I am very sure that their works can inspire some people amongst us, such as myself, to believe in ourselves, as what they have said, so to achieve what is to be considered -- art, because art is indeed an ego.
Comments
Post a Comment