June 18th Studio Visit: Jen Liu

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On June 18th, The New York Arts Practicum met with artist Jen Liu at her studio in Bushwick. Prior to the visit, Lui asked that the participants read a fragment of The Wonderful Wonder of Wonders (1720), by Jonathan Swift. The text is a satirical proposal on the production of value that could possibly revolve around the generation of shit by individual Englishmen during 18th century and was discussed as a pretext to Liu’s work. The Practicum was exposed to the cursory research and material that Liu utilizes in the making of her pictures and videos, including photos, barbershop choir recordings, and newspaper clippings of Monsanto employees from the past 50 years.

During the Tuesday visit ended with a discussion on the differences and merits of irony and satire. No consensus could be made but the Practicum and Lui engaged in a dialogue around current trends in current artistic production involving the use of irony and satire by artists like John Miller, and a debate on the work of Thomas Kinkade.

Beacon, NY

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NYAP Visits Steve Lambert in his studio in Beacon, NY. We talked about his creative practice and the pros and cons of not living in New York City.

Kristin Lucas and Joe Mckay took us to their favorite secret waterfall near their home in Beacon, NY. Afterwards they welcomed us to their home and studio for a barbeque.

While we were in Beacon we also saw the Riggio Galleries at Dia:Beacon.

Andrew Norman Wilson

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Andrew Norman Wilson’s work in stock media tends to conflate the lines between subversion and genuine interest to appeal to a more corporate audience. To the New York Arts Practicum participants, these works made sense as a sort of twisted, subliminally charged take on traditional PowerPoint presentations or generic TV ads. Cohorts were exposed to a tense world of women crying during phone surveys, corrupted trails of his former Google job, and anxiety-inducing slides set to drone sounds as a penis pops up in the corner. This was weird stuff, but enticingly so.

With some of the participants working in subverting or recreating these corporate aesthetics as a form of critique, Wilson’s art was a definite inspiration. He tilts back and forth between shaking up this otherwise stale, consumer-hungry media aesthetic, and then actually being a salesman of such stock media. Cohorts had many questions regarding his unsettling sounds, Google background, and how he juggles between giving presentations to a business audience compared to an art audience. It was an overall refreshing talk with an artist who plays and operates within these sorts of conventions.

June 17th Visit: Pablo Helguera

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On June 17, the New York Arts Practicum met with artist Pablo Helguera, at his studio in the Elizabeth Foundation of The Arts. Helguera, who is also an educator at the Museum of Modern Art, interstices his trans-disciplinary practice with his interest in pedagogy. During the Practicum’s visit, the artist shared a keynote presentation on his work and recent projects. These included: The Dead Languages Conservatory (2004–present) —where Helguera travels, finds, records, and presents languages that are currently dying. Further, the artist presented video documentation of Lyra Kilston­–This is Not a Panel Discussion (2009), a subversive performance that occurred at the Kansas City Art Museum. Helguera, camouflaged as a fictional artist (Lyra Kilston), generated both artworks for exhibition, and a panel discussion on Kilston —the discussion eventually broke down into an argument between actors; posing as curators, gallerists, lovers, and historians.

From sculpture to installation, drawing, photography and lecturing, Helguera presented a variety of works, meant to engage the Practicum on a dialogue surrounding current practices of the participants. During this time, the artist continued to share his interests in the merging of language, history and artistic production.

Memefactory

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Memefactory (Mike Rugnetta, Patrick Davison, and Stephen Bruckert) hosted us for a barbeque at the end of a long day of visits. They talked about their work together, and told stories of moving to and surviving in New York.