2012 | VIDEOEXHIBITIONS
September 1 | December 31 | 2012
Sean Miller
Ben Patterson
Connie Hwang
Museum Grounds
BIOGRAPHY
Sean Miller joined the UF faculty in the fall of 1999. Miller has exhibited internationally at venues such as: ACC Galerie (Weimar, Germany), Deitch Projects Art Parade (New York), National Museum of Ireland (Dublin), Schalter Gallery (Berlin), Spazio Utopia (Campagna, Italy), Indianapolis Museum of Art, Contemporary Museum (Baltimore), Aqua Art Fair (Miami Beach), Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast, N. Ireland), Catalyst Arts (Belfast, N. Ireland), UICA (Michigan), CoCA (Seattle), COCA (St. Louis), Post Gallery (Los Angeles), Howard House Gallery (Seattle), Saltworks (Atlanta), Roq La Rue Gallery (Seattle), Limerick City Gallery (Limerick, Ireland), Museo Raccolte Frugone (Genoa, Italy), UnimediaModern Contemporary Art (Genoa, Italy), Villa Croce Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Genoa, Italy), and HorseHead Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in (Seattle and Belfast, N. Ireland). Miller was a co-founder of SOIL Gallery/Collective (Seattle, Washington), a prominent fifteen year-old Seattle gallery. In addition, Miller was a contributing writer for the book SOIL: Seattle's Artist-Run Gallery 1995 > 2005. This book commemorates, documents, and explores 10 years of activity, thought, and collaboration by prominent artists of the Northwest.
Sean Miller’s six year project is the John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA). Miller, JEMA’s Director/Founder, operates this location variable museum and features exhibiting artists as exhibitors/collaborators. JEMA has exhibited and collaborated with artists such as Yoko Ono, Ben Patterson, John Feodorov, Gregory Green, Kristin Lucas, Arnold Mesches, Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, Bethany Taylor, Sean Taylor, Sergio Vega, and more. JEMA’s mission is to display and collect innovative and provocative contemporary art and/or offer exhibitions that allow people to think differently about the nature of art and art practice. JEMA’s design allows it to perform and embody numerous aspects of art and art practice in a simultaneous manner. JEMA is a museum, display case, crate, exhibition space, sculpture, photographic series, performance, installation, site-specific project, collaboration and web-based project. It involves nearly all the realms of art practice and the business of art, revitalizing the roles of curator, artist, and viewer.??Miller’s work explores situations, practices, and information that sustain and define existing power structures in contemporary art and politics. His art employs obsessive activities, absurd scenarios, humor, and extreme aesthetics in order to introduce objects and events that question existing categorical and organizational methods within these hierarchal structures. Miller has produced major works and solo exhibitions utilizing photography, painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and web-based work. He values collaboration, collective action, multi-media art, relational aesthetics, and alternative art venues.??Sean Miller's work has been reviewed, published, or broadcast in: New Art Examiner, Sculpture Magazine, Art Papers, New York Times, The Nation, Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, Baltimore Sun, LA Weekly, Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miami New Times, Daytona Beach News-Journal, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, ArtStar “Six in the City” Reality Television, Gallery HD, Dish Network (2008), NVTV Interview, “In Conversation With” Katie Larmour, Northern Visions Media Centre, April 21, 2008. “How to Start Your Own Country” (2009) Documentary by Jodi Shapiro.
STATEMENT
Sean Miller’s work explores situations, practices, and information that sustain and define existing power structures in contemporary art and politics. Miller employs obsessive activities, absurd scenarios, humor, and extreme aesthetics, in order to introduce objects and events that question existing categorical and organizational methods within these hierarchal structures. Miller has produced major works and solo exhibitions utilizing photography, painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and web-based work. Miller’s processes involve the utilization of collaboration, collective action, multi-media art, relational aesthetics, and alternative art venues. Miller is a Florida-based artist, curator, and an Assistant Professor at University of Florida where he teaches sculpture and the Workshop for Art Research and Practice. Prior to moving to Florida, Miller lived in Seattle, Washington where he co-founded Soil Collective and Gallery and worked at the Seattle Art Museum and King County Art Commission.
Miller’s current work involves The John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA), a six-year old museum and a conceptual, generative, art project. As a location variable museum, JEMA regularly works with international artists to realize projects that require mobility, multi-destinational site-specificity. By moving with stealth and agility, JEMA offers a vital, yet affordable, museum space and supports the quick, decisive, and efficient delivery of art to the viewing public. JEMA’s galleries are traditionally housed in a series of 16"x12"x9" aluminum carrying cases however recent museum initiatives have provided several other unconventional spaces (in proposal). The museum’s mission is to display and collect innovative and provocative contemporary art and/or offer exhibitions that destabilize traditional notions about the nature of art and art practice. JEMA’s design allows it to perform and embody numerous aspects of art and art practice in a simultaneous manner. JEMA is a museum, display case, crate, exhibition space, sculpture, photographic series, performance, installation, site-specific project, collaboration and web-based project. It involves nearly all the realms of art practice and seeks to revitalize the roles of curator, artist, and viewer. JEMA has exhibited and collaborated with artists such as Yoko Ono, Ben Patterson, John Feodorov, Gregory Green, Kristin Lucas, Arnold Mesches, Andrea Robbins/Max Becher, Sergio Vega, and more.
Sean Miller has exhibited internationally at venues such as: ACC Galerie (Weimar, Germany), Deitch Projects Art Parade (New York), National Museum of Ireland (Dublin), Schalter Gallery (Berlin), Spazio Utopia (Campagna, Italy), Indianapolis Museum of Art, Contemporary Museum (Baltimore), Aqua Art Fair (Miami Beach), Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast, N. Ireland), Catalyst Arts (Belfast, N. Ireland), UICA (Michigan), CoCA (Seattle), COCA (St. Louis), Post Gallery (Los Angeles), Howard House Gallery (Seattle), SOIL (Seattle), Saltworks (Atlanta), Roq La Rue Gallery (Seattle), Limerick City Gallery (Limerick, Ireland), Museo Raccolte Frugone (Genoa, Italy), UnimediaModern Contemporary Art (Genoa, Italy), Villa Croce Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Genoa, Italy), and HorseHead Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in (Seattle and Belfast, N. Ireland). My work has been reviewed, published, or broadcast in: New Art Examiner, Sculpture Magazine, Art Papers, New York Times, The Nation, Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, Baltimore Sun, LA Weekly, Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miami New Times, Daytona Beach News-Journal, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, ArtStar “Six in the City” Reality Television, Gallery HD, Dish Network (2008), NVTV Interview, “In Conversation With” Katie Larmour, Northern Visions Media Centre, April 21, 2008, Belfast, Northern Ireland, “How to Start Your Own Country” (2009) Documentary Film by Jodi Shapiro.
EDUCATION
1994 University of Colorado at Boulder, M.F.A.
1991 Iowa State University, Ames, IA, B.F.A.
EMPLOYMENT
1999-09 University of Florida, Assistant Professor, Courses Taught:
• Workshop on Art Research and Practice (WARP), Lecture & Studio.
• Graduate Sculpture Seminar
• Interdisciplinary Studio, Site-Specificity, Performance, and Installation.
• Drawing: Movement and Motion & Form and Space.
• UF Summer Study Abroad in Ireland, Burren College.
1998-99 King County Arts Commission, Gallery & Portable Works Coordinator, Seattle, WA.
1995-99 Soil Collective/Gallery, Founding Member/Co-Curator.
EXHIBITIONS (SOLO)
2006 John Erickson Museum of Art, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Portal Space, Grand Rapids, MI.
2004 A Charge to Keep, Hardman Hall Gallery, Mercer University, Macon, GA.
2002 Clean Break, Roq La Rue, Seattle, WA.
1998 The Show, Soil, Seattle, WA.
1996 Soil Juice Love Network, King County Gallery, Seattle, WA.
1994 Stick 'em Up, University of Colorado Galleries, Boulder, CO.
EXHIBITIONS (TWO-PERSON)
2004 John Erickson Museum of Art, Lander Art Center, Curator: Lorre Hoffman, Lander, WY.
2000 Miller’s Crossing, (with Jesse Miller), Howard House, Seattle, WA.
1997 Wild Kingdom, (with Blair Wilson) Soil, Seattle. WA.
1994 Recent Works Coleman/Miller, (with Craig Coleman) Edge Gallery, Denver, CO.
2010 City Reliquary Museum at the Knitting Factory, Collector’s Night, Performance: Art Museum Dust Acquisitions: Points of Access and Departure, Brooklyn, New York, 2010.
Museum All-Over/Museo Ovunque, Raccolte Frugone Museum, Nervi, Italy, June 5th- August 26th,
2010.
Art Museum Dust Multiples, Printed Matter, juried into the products sold at Printed Matter and featured
on website, NY, NY, Juried in Oct. 2010-ongoing.
Small Wonder, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland, June 3-17, 2010.
Group Show, UnimediaModern, Genoa, Italy, June 5th- June 30th, 2010.
2009 More Than, Key Tower Gallery, Curator: Blake Haygood, June-0ct. 2009, Seattle, WA.
Art Museum Dust Collection, UnimediaModern Gallery, (Museum Performance Interventions w/LuLu LoLo), Curator: Caterina Gualco, intervention at Villa Croce Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Museo di Strada Nuova, Museo di Nervi, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Genoa, and Unimedia Modern Gallery, Genoa, Italy, March 11-15, 2009.
JEMA Annex Belfast: Performance/Intervention (with members of Flax Art Studios and students from Ulster University), Ulster University, Belfast, N. Ireland, March 9th, 2009.
2008 Merge Visual (Catalogue), Museum of Arts and Sciences, Curator: Craig Coleman, JEMA with Connie Hwang and Kelly Cobb, Art Museum Dust Collection Montage, Kristin Lucas, Outside, Macon, GA, September, 2008.
Online Exhibition @ C-MT.tv http://www.c-m.tv/, Curator by Jack Stenner, JEMA included for website, website by Marcia Lyons, Nov. 2008. Marcia Lyons, Director Digital Media Design, Victoria University of Wellington, (New Zealand).
RASSEGNA DELL'ACQUA-La Chiena, 2008, Spazio Utopia Contemporary Art, JEMA with LuLu LoLo, Sculpting and Collecting Campagna Connie Hwang, Art Museum Dust Collection Montage,
Campagna, Italy, July 15–August 16, 2008.
Cottage Industry, (Catalogue), Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, curated by Kristin Chambers and Irene Hofman, Baltimore, MD., May 31 - August 24th, 2008.
On Procession (Catalogue), Indianapolis Museum of Art, curated by Deitch Projects/Rebecca Uchill, Indianapolis, May 2nd-August 10, 2008.
44th Annual University of Florida Faculty Exhibition, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL., August, 2006.
JEMA Public Forum Project with Gregory Green and Yoko Ono, Golden Thread Gallery and Flax Art Studios, Belfast N. Ireland, April 2008.
Stammtisch. Suchtrupp. Gartenarbeit., ACC Galerie, (Letters to the Outside), JEMA Archive, and JEMA Mailroom for Kristin Lucas's Outside public forum project, Weimar, Germany, March 29–May 18, 2008.
Packed, University Gallery, Stetson University, Stetson Deland, Florida, February-March, 2008.
2007 Deitch Projects Art Parade, Deitch Projects, JEMA in collaboration with Arnold Mesches, John Kieltyka, Saya Moriyasu, and Sean Taylor, New York, NY, Sept. 8, 2007.
Guest Curator, Schalter Gallery, with John Feodorov, dead houses,? Berlin, Germany, July 13-August 11,
2007 On the Outside, ACC Galerie, JEMA Letters to the Outside and Outside Accession Kits, in collaboration with Kristin Lucas, an exhibition and public forum project, for the ACC Galerie Weimar/the City of Weimar, Germany, April - June, 2007.
Das Kleinkunstlabyrinth,? ACC Galerie, Outside: Public Forum Discussion and Performance, collaboration w/Kristin Lucas,? Weimar, Germany, May 20, 2007.
Outside, Fotothek (Art Space), Photos and Letters to the Outside: Interactive Public Performance, Collaboration with Kristin Lucas, Weimar, Germany, May 18, 2007.
100 Paces, National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, performance and exhibition in collaboration with Sean Taylor’s 100 Paces. site-specific performance event, Dublin, Ireland, February 24, 2007.
Annual University of Florida Faculty Exhibition, University Gallery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. August, 2007.
2006 John Erickson Museum of Art (collaboration with Saya Moriyasu’s audience), Aqua Art Fair, SOIL Gallery, curator Jess Van Nostrand, Miami, FL, Dec., 2006.
John Erickson Museum of Art (collaboration with Bethany Taylor’s “Emissions & Remissions”), Ice Box Gallery, Tacoma, WA, curator Eugene Parnell, October, 2006.
Undercover: An Exhibition of Artists Books, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI., Dec. 2005-Feb. 2006.
42nd Annual University of Florida Faculty Exhibition, University Gallery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. August, 2006.
2005 Mercer University Faculty Exhibition, Hardman Hall Gallery, In collaboration with Craig Coleman, Mercer University, Macon, GA.
SOIL Turns 10, SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA. Oct. 2005.
Evicted, Howard House, (in collaboration with Mark T. Miller), Seattle, WA, Oct. 2005.
2004 Sites, Investigations, and Re-enactments, Limerick City Gallery, Limerick, Ireland. Cultural Exchange with Ireland, Curators Matthew Lennon, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor.
Forth Ward: Alternative Display Exhibition, Saltworks Gallery, Curated by Brian Holcombe, Atlanta, GA.
Synthesis: Experiments In Collaboration, Axel Raben Gallery (The Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Gallery, Lafayette College (2003), and, Curators: Merijn van der Heijden and Ron Janowich.
2003 9th Annual Gulf Coast Exhibition, Texas Artists Museum, Port Arthur, Texas.
Will’s Creek Survey 2003, Saville Gallery, Curator: Julie Ann Cavnor, Cumberland MD.
39th Annual Faculty Exhibition, Madonna Building, Curated by Bernice Steinbaum, Miami, FL.
2002 Current Work 2002, The Rosenthal Gallery, Fayetteville State University, Juror: Ralph Steeds, S. Carolina.
38th Annual Faculty Exhibition, University Gallery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
2001 No Nukes, One station Plaza Performance Space and Gallery, Peekskill, NY.
Exhibicion International de Estampillas De Artistas, Vortice Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2000 36th Annual Faculty Exhibition, Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
1999 Horsehead Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Curator Matthew Lennon, Belfast, N. Ireland.
1998 Goods, Arts Edge/Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA.
Well Being and Major Disorders, Ilk Gallery, Denver, CO.
1997 Northwest Annual, Center on Contemporary Art, Curator Alex Melamid, Seattle, WA.
See Thru, Post Gallery, Curator Marilu Knode, Los Angeles, CA.
SELECTED ARTICLES, REVIEWS, and PUBLISHED MATERIAL
2010 Art Museum Dust Collection (photo/multiples), Printed Matter, juried into stock into Printed Matter products/materials, published on Printed Matter website, Printed Matter, NY, NY, Oct. 2010.
Art Museum Dust Collection: Wearing Away Museum Grounds—Dust Bunnies, White Lies, and New Measures, Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, co-authored by Kelly Cobb and Sean Miller, Volume 8, Number 3, November 2010, pp. 286-303(18).
“Alle Raccolte Frugone “Museum: all-over” con Sean Miller ed il progetto Jema, Cultura & Spettaculo, Citta di Genova, Genova online city paper, July 7, 2010.
“Museum: all-over”/ Sean Miller e JEMA”, Citta di Genova, Genova Online City Paper, Genova, Italy, July 6, 2010.
“Florida installation makes huge presence at Appleton”, Gainesville Sun, by Dave Schlenker, June
10, 2010.
2009 “How to Start Your Own Country” (2009) filmed art and interview for documentary film by Jodi Shapiro.
La Performance: Polvere da museo nell’arte minima (photo), Il Secolo XIX, Genoa, Italy, Pg. 34 March 12th, 2009.
Chewed, Digested, Shat, Flushed: Bush, USA Today Blog, 01/20/2009 11:51 PM, & The Stranger SLOG (Seattle Weekly Paper/Blog), Seattle, WA., posted by JEN GRAVES (Art Writer/The Stranger) JAN 20, 2009 at 4:51 PM. http://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/Sean+Miller/0c8J1T063qaxS/0
2008 Northern Visions Television (NVTV), Televised Interview, In Conversation with Sean Miller and Gregory Green (20 minutes), Northern Ireland, May 22nd, 2008.
ArtStar Reality Television Series, Episode“Six in the City”, Dish Network Reality Television, Gallery
HD, Dish Network (2008).
"Cottage Industry: John Erickson Museum of Art", Modern Art Notes, Art Journal Blog, by Tyler Green, July 21, 2008. http://www.artsjournal.com/man/2008/07/for_decades_artists_have_had.html
Sales Figures, City Paper, (photo), Baltimore, MD., by Martin L. Johnson, Page 1C, July 2, 2008.
Big Girls..., Baltimore Sun, by Laura Vozella, July 1, 2008.
Artists Taking Care of Business, Baltimore Sun, by Alex Plimack, Saturday, May 31, 2008.
Critic’s Pick, City Paper, Baltimore, MD. by Lee Gardener, May 28th, 2008.
Art In Motion, Indianapolis Star, by Conrad Marshall, Arts and Entertainment, Pg. 11, April 27th, 2008.
Sean Miller: Director of JEMA, Guest Blogger for Indianapolis Museum of Art IMA Blog, Entry written in collaboration with IMA Curator Rebecca Uchill, May 18th, 2008.
http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/tag/art-parade/
JEMA on Yoko Ono’s Website IMAGINE PEACE, May 2008,
http://www.imaginepeace.com/JEMA08.html
Art 'packs' heat in Stetson gallery show, Daytona Beach News-Journal, by Laura Stewart, February 15, 2008.
2007 American Corporate Identity 2008, Art Museum Dust Collection Dust Button Packaging, Design by Connie Hwang, by David E. Carter, published by Harper Design International, Nov., 2007.
The Creative Spirit, Strolls Through SoHo With Its Fringe Flying, The New York Times, Art Review/Art Parade, by Holland Carter, New York, NY, Sept. 10, 2007.
Irish Public Art Practice, Public Art Review, Issue 37, by Annette Moloney, pg. 39, fall/winter, 2007.
Gainesville Sun, Sept. 9, 2007.
2006 Two Things on Ice, The Volcano, (Tacoma Weekly), article w/ photo, by Alec Clayton, Tacoma, WA, Nov. 2,2006.
Art Studios, Art Access, by Alec Clayton, Oct. , 2006.
WARPED Perspective, Florida, News for Alumni and Friends of the University of Florida, by J. Feingold and H. Cristensen. pp. 10-13, Fall 2006.
Slop Art Catalog, Museum Dust Collection text/images, 2006.
Hot Pick, Seattle Times, By Sheila Farr, February 17, 2006.
Obras de John Erickson Museum of Art se exhiben en la gallería de UICA, El Vocero, by Martin Felizardo, 1-20-2006.
2005 Soil Seattle’s Artist-Run Gallery 1995-2005, Particles of Soil, contributing writer, essay, exhibition descriptions, numerous photo-credits, and documentation of curation and artworks, 2005.
2004 The Nation, Image, Portrait “George W. Bush”, (made of voting chads), 2004.
This Weekend Art Belongs to Melrose, Gainesville Sun, by Michelle Benatti, August 6th, 2004.
Seeking the City’s Soul, Gainesville Sun, by Greg Bruno, April 1, 2004.
ATLART Goes Alt-Art, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, by Catherine Fox, January 23, 2004.
2003 Art During Basel, Miami New Times, by Alfredo Triff, Dec. 4, 2003.
38th Annual UF Art faculty Exhibit Shines, Gainesville Sun, by Michelle Benatti, Jan. 24, 2003.
2000 The Stranger Suggests – Miller’s Crossing, The Stranger, by Eric Fredrickson, Jan. 13-19, 2000.
1999 Hearty Shows Step Into the Light, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 16, 1999.
Ten Artists Share Ideas, The Seattle Times, by Cynthia Rose, July 2, 1999.
1998 HorseHead Sculpture Project '98, Sculpture Magazine, by Matthew Kangas, Dec. Issue, 1998.
There's a gritty substance in fertile environment... Soil, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p. 15. What's Happening, by Regina Hackett, May 22, 1998.
Goods, New Art Examiner, by Jill Connor, p. 65, December/January, 1998/99.
Soil's whimsical art show/sale offers mixture of humor, style, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, by Regina Hackett, September 4, 1998.
Horsehead Arts Festival, Seattle Times, Scene, by Robin Updyke, April 30, 1999.
Alternative Art: A New Accounting, Seattle Times, by Cynthia Rose, Dec. 17, 1998.
1997 Pick of the Week, LA Weekly, by Peter Frank, May 1997.
CURATORIAL
2003-present John Erickson Museum of Art, Founder and Curator, Location Variable Museum project, see http://www.jema.us.
2010 The Appleton Biennial 2010: Florida Installation Art, Juror, The Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, FL., June 12-Aug. 15, 2010. Catalogue produced.
2008 Packed, University Gallery, Stetson University, Stetson Deland, Florida, February-March, 2008.
2004 Sites, Investigations, and Re-enactments, Limerick City Gallery, Limerick, Ireland.
Exchange Exhibition with Ireland, Co-Curator: Matthew Lennon, Sean Miller, and Sean Taylor.
1999 The Invisible Hand (Craig Coleman and Jesse Paul Miller), SOIL, Seattle, WA.
RESIDENCIES
2008 Flax Art Studios, Belfast, Northern Ireland, April, 2008.
LECTURES
2010 University of South Florida, Tampa, FL., Visiting Artist - Invited, Lecture April 7, 2010.
University of Minnesota Morris, Morris, MN., Visiting Artist (Invited), Lecture March 2, 2010.
City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA., Visiting Artist (Invited), Lecture February 24, 2010.
San Jose State University, San Jose CA., Visiting Artist (Invited), Lecture February 22, 2010.
City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA., Visiting Artist (Invited), Lecture February 24, 2010.
University of Minnesota Morris, Morris, MN., Visiting Artist (Invited), Lecture March 2, 2010.
2010 Savannah College of Art and Design, FATE, ‘Flexible Foundations: Teaching “Artists” not “Art”’,
Paper Co-Presented with Bethany Taylor , (FATE) Foundations in Art Theory and Education, Southeast Regional Conference, “Re-envisioning Foundations: Identity and Purpose,” May 1, 2010.
2009 Istituto di Storia dell'Arte of the University, Genoa, Italy, Visiting Artist - Invited, co-presentation with LuLu LoLo, lecture/performance to fourth year students and faculty, Genoa, Italy, March 13th, 2009.
Ulster University, Visiting Artist - Invited, Illustrated lecture, WARP/Personal work, Belfast, Northern Ireland, March 6, 2009.
2008 Glasgow School of Art, Visiting Artist - Invited, co-presentation with Bethany Taylor, illustrated lecture, Glasgow Scotland, May 2008.
Golden Tread Gallery, Gallery Talk Personal Work with Flaxart Studios, Illustrated Lecture, Belfast,
Northern Ireland, April 6, 2008.
2007 ACC Galerie, Weimar, Germany, Mobilmachung eines Suchtrupps,? co-presentation, illustrated lecture with Kristin Lucas concerning Public Forum Project, Weimar, Germany, May 17, 2007.
Limerick School of Art and Design, Limerick, Ireland, Visiting Artist, Illustrated Lecture/studio visits, Feb. 22, 2007.
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Visiting Artist, illustrated lecture and studio visits, Feb. 2007.
2006 Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA. , Guest Speaker, Illustrated Lecture, Oct. 2006.
NAEA Conference, Chicago, Barriers and Bridges: Transitioning Students to the College Art Experience, Illustrated Lecture, March 23, 2006.
CAA Conference, FATE Session, The Importance of Nonsense to a Studio Art Curriculum, Boston, 2006.
2004 SECAC Conference, Foundations Panel organized by Scott Betz, Paper and Slides presented, The Benefits of Including Identity-Based Projects in a Foundations Curriculum.
Mercer University, Exhibition Talk with Slides, Macon, GA.
CAA Conference, Shopping It Around: An Off-Road Approach, Panel organized by Reni Gower, Paper and slides presented, The John Erickson Museum of Art: A New Museum Space.
2003 Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Museum as Archive Archive as Museum Symposium, Illustrated Lecture, Museum Grounds: White Lies, Airborne Dust Bunnies and Maintaining the Appropriate Distance.
2002 SECAC Conference, Foundations Panel organized by Scott Betz, Paper and Illustrated Lecture, Promoting a Learning Community: The Workshop for Art Research and Practice.
DIALOG
Art Museum Dust Collection: Wearing Away Museum Grounds?—Dust Bunnies, White Lies,
and New Measures
KELLY COBB AND SEAN MILLER
Kelly Cobb is an Instructor of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware. Garment/ Research, her studio moniker, is an umbrella term for cross-genre works, usually involving costume as a point of reference. In project-related works she merges Costume Design with Social Sculpture and Performance Art/Participation Art.
Sean Miller is an internationally exhibiting multimedia artist based in Gainesville, Florida.
He is a cofounder of SOIL (Seattle, WA) and the founder/director of the John Erickson Museum
of Art (www.jema.us). Miller serves as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Florida where
he teaches the Workshop for Art Research and Practice.
Abstract
This Dialog piece details the current collaborative work underway between Sean Miller’s Art Museum Dust Collection and Kelly Cobb’s textile-based studio project Garment/Research. The Art Museum Dust Collection is an ongoing conceptual project that spans more than 13 years and includes dust from art museums worldwide. The Art Museum Dust Collection consists of a plethora of art-related activities and media, including a photographic series utilizing microscopy, dustcollecting actions in museums, dust-collecting equipment, performances, multiples, wearable art, and a miniature gallery featuring an art-museum dust montage mural.
Introduction
The Art Museum Dust Collection was initiated by and is maintained by Sean Miller, the Director of the John Erickson Museum of Art (JEMA). Over the years, the collection has
attracted many valued admirers and collaborators. The Art Museum Dust Collection invites an interrelationship with craft, art, design, and contemporary culture via the participation of
collaborators who work in a variety of disciplines and media.
Most recently, artist Kelly Cobb has prepared plans to tailor for Miller a museum director’s suit
woven of dust. In addition, Cobb has exhibited jacquard woven dust fabric in an international
traveling exhibition organized by JEMA. Cobb and Miller will continue to collaborate and examine the parallels between textiles and dust to discover new ways to significantly complement Miller’s
diligent conceptual project.
JEMA Director Sean Miller Considers Clothes and Dust
If considered from the proper perspective(s), dust as it relates to textiles has the capability
of invoking a sense of wonder. In order to fully consider the significance of dust in relation to
textiles and clothing, it is helpful to move beyond familiar everyday associations with these materials and consider their properties, complexities, and the numerous ways they function, impact, and sometimes even intrude upon our lives. A quick survey of any bedroom closet reveals clothes hanging suspended, waiting to be worn and guided through daily activities. We become intimate collaborators with these hanging sculptures. It is not surprising that many individuals own a “lucky shirt” or other clothing item that allegedly provides comfort and even good fortune. If one were asked to define “clothing” to another life form that had no frame of reference, one might find oneself comparing clothes to architecture, sculpture, bedding, bandages, or some kind of tool. However, one’s description would have to be crafted with words that conveyed notions of intimacy. Whatever clothing is, it is always close to us. It is like a friend or lover—always along for the ride during our ups and downs—and the meaningful, mundane, and pivotal moments that combine to form our trajectory through life’s events.
Some of our most prized clothing items, despite the best of care, over time, become frayed, and wear thin. Old garments become clearly more lightweight, colors fade, and stitching threads fray. As if caught in the process of reductive sculpture, our clothes wear down like sanded wood or chipped marble. When we purchase or tailor an item recognizable to all as “blouse,” “scarf,” or “pants,” what is actually acquired is a complex matrix of varied threads saturated with dye. The closer one observes any clothing item, the more clearly one understands the multiple components that make up the garment and how they are systematically arranged. Close inspection reveals cloth fibers as comparable to any carefully stacked pile of objects, such as stacks of fi rewood or bales of hay. The threads are arranged in such a way that they will hold their form. However, despite our best efforts, entropy will take a toll. The more we spin, shake, brush, rub, pat, sit on, and bounce the pile, the more pieces are going to fall away. The lint catcher in the dryer helps us measure our wardrobe as it slowly defects from our governance. As a child, my father
used to tell my brother and me to quit pillow fighting and jumping on furniture because the dust
aggravated his allergies. At the time the complexities of this playful battle were lost on me. However, as my brother and I played and fought—a literal rising storm of tiny airborne particles fi lled our living room. Waves of fibers and particles swept toward my father’s nose and mouth, congesting his breathing and causing discomfort and irritation. Despite its varied and mysterious origins, dust always seems to have a stealthy, disruptive, and subversive quality.
Museum Grounds: Sean Miller Measures Art Museum Dust in Relation to “The White Cube”
An image comes to mind of a white, ideal space that, more than any single picture, may be the archetypal image of 20th-century art. And it clarifi es itself through a process of historical inevitability usually attached to the art it contains. (O’Doherty 1986)
In an art museum, a viewer is disappointed by the presence of dust. Besides being physically
bad for the collection, the elusive substance flies in the face of the unconscious desires and
expectations art audiences hold for the transcendent “white cube” gallery or museum space. Dust
must be removed to preserve the integrity and fallacy of the timeless objective white cube. In addition, typically and almost universally dust, as it relates to art, is a major distraction. The annoying substance infiltrates clean Plexiglas cases, framed artworks, and freshly painted varnish. It descends on sculptures and polished floors, and it attaches itself to photographic negatives, prints, and slides. It even settles on the documentation and record keeping of an art institution.
File cabinets and computer keyboards slowly collect this at times elusive but ever present material.
My fascination with dust as art subject originated thirteen years ago on the third and fourth floors of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). Not that those fl oors are especially dusty places: rather, they were places where I was forced to confront art museum dust as a tangible, yet unwelcome, substance.
As an Exhibition Technician at SAM, one of my weekly duties included the careful removal of
dust from the art displays. This tedious, solitary, and meditative task began to mold my thoughts in unexpected ways. The aura of the museum gave the task a performance art quality and the
dust itself captured my imagination as a bewildering material. As if by magic, it reappeared each week, on schedule, like an unwanted subscription—an inevitable airmail delivery of the most boring gray junk mail imaginable. When I was hired to carefully regard the material and dutifully remove it in the hallowed halls of the museum, it became an obsession for me.
A pivotal moment with the museum dust occurred when I was cleaning around an African Mask display. I noticed a tiny fiber had fallen from one of the masks—too small to report—barely noticeable, actually. However, that minute fiber had a monumental impact on me. The fiber represented additive and reductive sculpture simultaneously, depending on where one perceives
the prime location of the art. If one supposes the art resides in the mask then the fiber obviously
becomes a reductive element. However, if one reverses one’s thinking and considers the dust as
the hypothetical site for the art, the fiber becomes an additive element.
In the end, I decided that the most progressive point of view was to consider the fiber as both
additive and reductive sculpture, and furthermore, to perceive both the mask and the dust to be artworks in their own right. On this day, I decided art-museum dust has a hidden aesthetic value and conceptual significance. Since that day in 1996, my art has been collecting dust.
Art-museum dust is a hybrid of decaying art, the art institution, the art audience, artists themselves, and art administrators. Due to this synthesis, it may be the most pure and beautiful material present in many museums.
The Art Museum Dust Collection project started in 1996, and today includes over 80 museums worldwide and continues to grow. The original collection was started in collaboration with Seattle Art Museum Coworker Phil Stoiber. We formed a mail art project and began contacting museum employees around the U.S. and requesting dust samples and dusty white gloves for our collection. We displayed the collection, including white gloves with trace amounts of dust on the
fingers and certifi cates with dust samples. Our early dust was hand collected or given on permanent loan from various museum employees.
In 2002, I began using microscopy as a way to photographically document the dust. I was immediately amazed at the aesthetics of the dust—the fibers, colors, textures, and even the creatures that existed in a small pinch of the stuff. The resulting photographic documentation was
inspiring to me, and in many ways I found the imagery had a clear dialogue with Modernist-style
abstraction, especially Modernist abstract painting.
In March 2003, at the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida, during the symposium
Museum as Archive: Archive as Museum, the Art Museum Dust Collection expanded further. I revealed new art-museum dust microscopy and I went so far as to claim all currently existing and future art-museum dust worldwide as a personal readymade. Considering that universally museums are actively trying to rid themselves of this substance and have no use for it—I decided JEMA should accept responsibility for recognizing, designating, collecting, and claiming art museum dust as a part of JEMA’s growing permanent art collection. It is my hope that viewers will begin to recognize the presence of this rich material in art museums as an intentionally exhibited, on loan, artwork—not tiny bits of clutter.
Since its origins the Art Museum Dust Collection project has been maintained by a variety of artists, designers, and well-wishers. In 2004 San Francisco-based designer Connie Hwang began collaborating on the dust collection by assisting with design, archiving, and overall
organization and branding of the collection.
LuLu LoLo has joined the Art Museum Dust Collection collaborators as an Art Museum Dust Collection Specialist. LuLu LoLo is a New York based playwright, performance artist, and visual artist. She has worked to collect art-museum dust internationally and turn the process of dust collecting into a performance event.
In March 2009, LuLu LoLo and Sean Miller collected dust at a series of art museums in Genoa, Italy as part of a series of interventions curated by Caterina Gualco of UnimediaModern Contemporary Art (Genoa, Italy). In addition to designing the textiles and garments for Art Museum Dust Collection, Kelly Cobb has been active as a Dust Collection specialist and researcher, most recently
harvesting dust with curator Irene Hofmann at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
Art-museum dust probably interests audiences for different reasons. For me, there is a
personal enjoyment in the absurdity of maintaining the collection. However, the dust additionally serves as a type of evidence against the museum. It is an indication and reminder of
the power of nature, time, and entropy over the timelessness, the publicity, and the imposing nature of many monumental museums. It also demonstrates the limitations as well as the dynamic possibilities of the human energy and ongoing activities that sustain and define the institution. The dust indicates the lived experience and social aspect of viewing, maintaining, exhibiting, and appreciating art. It seems vital, in considering the contemporary art museum, that the collective nature and collective action in the museum should be weighted heavily, especially in order to sublimate the flipside perceptions of art museums as timeless, hermetically-sealed, security-filled, geographically fixed, upper-class, esoteric, vaulted spaces. These latter associations will not serve art museums well in the twenty-first century.
This remains a pertinent issue for contemporary art museums because, despite a never-ending slew of attempts to unconventionalize the methods of art display by museums, galleries, alternative spaces, and individual artists, Brian O’Doherty’s “white cube” remains a foreboding
presence in the public’s collective consciousness in regards to art experience and practice. If one
considers one’s most stirring first-hand visual-art experiences, there remains a strong possibility that several of the artworks involved were somehow collaborating conspiratorially with the white cube of the gallery or other conventions associated with modernist art display tactics. Many artworks remain framed and supported by stealthy bits of museum putty, track lighting, spackle, glossy wood floors, and various mathematical formulas (for proper placement in the gallery). These elements conspire together toward the seamless visual presentation of the art object to an art audience.
Sean Miller Imagines Various Art Museum Dust Scenarios
A museum promotes security to ensure a timeless, safe, and static environment for its permanent collection and special exhibitions. But it is also responsible for producing many other things. Alfred H. Barr, The Museum of Modern Art’s fi rst Director, touched on notions of museum production in a confidential report to the trustees. He stated:
Basically, the Museum ‘produces’ art knowledge, criticism, scholarship, understanding, taste ... once a product is made, the next job is distribution. An exhibition in the galleries is distribution.
Circulations of exhibition catalogs, memberships, publicity, radio, are all distribution.
(Barr 1933: 2)
It is not impossible that, unbeknownst to Barr, as he wrote this report, his arm rubbed briefl y on his desk. This rubbing action detached several micron-sized dead skin particles and they went airborne (a micron is one twenty-five-thousandth of an inch). It is also not impossible that, due to a slight draft in his office, one skin particle floated upward and settled on top of a bookshelf. As it landed it commingled with a dust-sized portion of a Picasso assemblage, a microscopic bit of the Sahara Desert, and a piece of one of Frida Kahlo’s eyelashes. Something was being produced
in MOMA that Barr’s report had omitted. A different collection was under way not only at MoMA
but in art museums around the world. For generations of museum employees, this ongoing growing collection is a constantly and carefully regarded preoccupation. A tireless struggle continues as
staff attempt to de-accession this unwanted collection and its components.
Kelly Cobb Considers Frida’s Eyelash
“Can you have one dust? Is it not perceptible until it’s gathered together with other dusts?”
Dust gathers quite differently in relation to how patterns are bound in fabric, or even how fibers combine into weave. I never considered until first viewing Miller’s microscopy that dust is essentially a textile; a spontaneous, tumbled non-woven; a collection of cast-offs, crumbs, spores, flakes of skin, ancient grains. As fluid as any material textile can be, dust is constantly shifting, shedding, or growing. The collective nature of dust is compelling. Rogue particles die alone; it is the disparate hair and flake in combination that become visible and particularly sublime
as photographed microscopy. Combinations further interpreted in varied twills and shaded satins
are simultaneously intimate and epic.
The project teases out many variants of “the collection,” as dust itself is a collection of smaller dusts—spontaneous bits and parts of people, places, and time. The curatorial suit and garment accessories form a sartorial collection. The gathering of museum dusts from collections around the world is exhibited as an art collection in its own right. The collective of many various types of
art, artists, and ideas form a new hybrid collection.
Kelly Cobb Figures Stuff: Something from Nothing
The literature of historic textiles is replete with amazing examples of supplemental warp, damask,
and Jacquard figured textiles.
Theories regarding symbolism of cloth abound. There is a palpable significance and power to an embedded symbol. Why do makers embed imagery into cloth? Why do we wear figured textiles? These questions are worthy of further investigation.
Turkish weavers weave secret “little gifts” or Boncugu into their carpets as a wish, or for good luck. The details that exist in the embedded dust cloth recall these gifts. The notion of embedding the trace into cloth by way of pattern and structure is a central theme in Art Museum Dust Collection. The discovery of wondrous forms and compelling compositions and structures is also integral to the photographic documentation of the dust.
Burmese acheik figured textiles (Maxwell 1990) are inspired by natural phenomena such as cloud and water patterns. Similar to a cloud, the world of dust unfolds from seemingly nothing, from an aside or periphery. Dust teeters between something that is and something that once was.
Textiles embedded with power objects elevate the position or status of the wearer. Depictions of
“animals of might” impart strength, mythical beasts ward off evil spirits. Petals, creepers, and fl ower heads promote fertility. Symbolic rhombs, motifs of legend, celestial nymphs, and romantic encounters are also embedded into cloth to articulate emotions and ways of being we would like to possess, but can’t necessarily touch.
Textile Iconography morphs and shifts as regions mingle and as cultures are exposed to other
symbolic registries. The power of the symbol, be it vapor, cloud, or dust, lies in the urge to touch the intangible, to make nothing something.
The physical forms assumed by clothing, like all of our artifacts, merge into and participate in a collective ordering and interpretation of the worlds ‘stuff’. “Being formal” then becomes an activity that has a precise sartorial correlative, namely absorption by and into, a form.
Kelly Cobb on Being Formal
I learned to weave in 1990 through a process called woven imagery in a beginners’ weaving class taught by Sandra Brownlee. We would warp our looms in black or white, and simply let a tactile story unfold. It was quite a sublime experience, which I had forgotten until I wove off my first dust sample at the Oriole Mill in North Carolina.
The signature fabric in the Dust Collection is patterned with configurations and varied scale of dust microscopy. Dust is woven via the Jacquard process into dust cloth. There is a life and complexity to this fabric. Each patterned microscopy exists as a world in itself, each bit and
flake and fiber has its own designated weave and in combination a tactile conversation. Gathered on a larger pliable plane, it seems a whole universe is unfolding.
In the summer of 2008, I visited The Jacquard Center 7 in North Carolina to explore the potential of utilizing Jacquard designed fabric for The Dust Collection. My time at The Jacquard Center was highly productive and the Jacquard process seems an ideal medium to elucidate dust.
I worked closely with director Bethanne Knudson to develop repeat patterns that would complement textiles for the use of menswear, specifically a man’s three-piece suit. JEMA has
since extended the dust collection to include uniforms and garment accessories for curatorial assistants and dust researchers, as well as a floor treatment for the JEMA dust gallery.
Kelly Cobb on New Measures: Tailoring a Pliable Context
And you may carve a shrine about my dust.
(Tennyson 2008)
Often, garments cut from figured cloth were worn as ritual garments or to mark status or special rank. Special clothing can articulate the wearer’s position. My primary interest was in developing the design for a suit constructed out of custom dust figured cloth, the quintessential power garment.
The suit elucidates Miller’s status as director and curator, and underscores Miller’s ongoing
commitment to unsettling viewers’ preconceptions concerning the nature of the contemporary art museum. He will become stylishly adorned with the dust, and through his activities he will stir the dust, while simultaneously wearing it like a badge of honor (in the same way that a uniform symbolically legitimizes and reminds us of the importance of a judge or an officer of the law).
I like the notion of outfitting a process. The Art Museum Dust Collection project includes performances, such as dust harvesting, official proclamations, lecturing, and conversing with museum professionals, as well as many signifi cant curatorial actions. Performative gestures are often hard to frame. In my experience, I have found that the garment provides an ideal frame and pliable context.
Sean Miller Discusses Connie Hwang and Kelly Cobb Exhibition at the John Erickson Museum of Art
As Kelly Cobb and I continue to collaborate on the Art Museum Dust Collection fabric I have also been proud to include it in exhibitions at JEMA. In 2008, Kelly Cobb and Connie Hwang began working independently with the microscopy images to create an exhibition for JEMA titled the Art Museum Dust Collection exhibition. Connie Hwang created an Art Museum Dust Montage, a wallpaper montage to cover JEMA’s gallery walls. Kelly Cobb has transformed her fi rst artmuseum dust imagery into a digitally woven fabric to create her Art Museum Dust Collection Weaving. This material is exhibited in the JEMA galleries as a floor treatment.
JEMA opened Connie Hwang and Kelly Cobb’s exhibition Art Museum Dust Collection in Genoa, Italy on March 12, 2009. In Genoa, Cobb and Hwang’s exhibition was included as part of a series of museum interventions organized by Genoa-based curator Caterina Gualco of UnimediaModern Contemporary Art. Cobb and Hwang’s Art Museum Dust Collection traveled to the following Genoa art institutions: Villa Croce Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Museo di Strada Nuova, Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Genoa, Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola, l’Aula Magna dell’Universitàdi Genova, and UnimediaModern Contemporary Art.
Despite their working separately, the results of Cobb’s and Hwang’s efforts designing and producing work with the dust imagery yielded strong and cohesive results. Connie Hwang responded to working with dust as a subject by stating: “Designing with dust interests me, because the dust particles relate to history, language, and/or text. Designing with the dust touches the power of storytelling—from trailing the dust to making space for it—or sometimes I think it may be something else entirely?”
Conclusion
Contemporary art audiences generally understand the artifice of museum display; they know where to look for art in a museum, and they know what to ignore. Contemporary museum-goers wisely hedge any perceptual or intellectual overload by telling themselves an ongoing stream of “white lies” in order to observe the socially inscribed cues from the museum which dictate what is institutionally endorsed as “art object.” In an art museum, art could be anywhere or claimed to be anywhere, but most contemporary viewers dutifully follow these culturally inscribed visual cues. This creates an aesthetic climate whereby many contemporary art audiences still wander through exhibition spaces like Arctic explorers lost in a white-out blizzard, looking for any recognizable forms that may lead them to safety or bring them in from the cold.
Could it be that the contemporary art museum is wasting space? Even worse, not perceiving space in a contemporary context—or fully progressive or creative manner? Artists, directors, and curators should have the vision to redesign the contemporary art museum. The twenty-first-century art museum should go far beyond furniture showrooms, poster shops, magazine stands, window displays, office buildings, design centers, and airports.
The digital age has afforded us new increments by which to measure the material world and
new mechanisms for viewing and perceiving it. In a digital, social-networked society, which
benefits from continual scientific updates, technological breakthroughs, and new theories regarding the nature of time and space, it seems that massive changes may lie in store for our culture, and therefore also for the contemporary art museum. With so many artists worldwide struggling to
“find a space” to exhibit their work, hopefully projects like JEMA and the Art Museum Dust Collection offer some inspiration and two possible small alternative models.
As museums and galleries are struggling to expand in size and offer space for new exhibitions, art-museum dust may remind some viewers of the near-infinite amount of space already available. It will be interesting to measure the progress of artists, museums, curators, and audiences as they continue to redefine and explore the ways art may occupy space in our contemporary social context. Much more is possible in the ways spaces for art are creatively utilized.
A desire to exhibit (and soon wear) art-museum dust is one small way to simultaneously contribute critical possibilities, aesthetic insights, style, and humor into the dialog surrounding the contemporary art museum.
Notions such as these motivate the maintenance and expansion of the Art Museum Dust Collection. This substance—art-museum dust—is a literally like a ghost that silently follows us ... hovering ... invading our air space. It is a reminder to us that our museums’ “permanent collections” are never permanent. Dust fl oats through outer space and fibers of it float through the
air in our atmosphere, eventually settling in our homes and on our possessions. Our clothes and our bodies contribute to it. By looking closely at dust we can envision a whole world of possibilities
within a tiny circle.
Notes
1. Garment/Research: http://www.garmentresearch.org/wpress/
2. John Erikson Museum of Art: http://www.jema.us/
3. From a conversation with
the artist and artist/curator
Judith Leeman.
4. Boncugu was introduced to me by workers at a Turkish rug importer’s shop, where I worked as a design assistant in 1996. They used boncugu (bonjuk) to refer to intentional surprises or symbolic gifts which Turkish weavers embedded into carpets. Upon further reading, I found that Nazarlik is officially the word and means “charm used against the evil eye.” It can also be referred to as kem nazar, nazar Boncugu, goz
(Landreau, 1983).
5. Georg Simmel. Clothes and Fashion, quoted in Carter
(2003: 64).
6. http://www.theoriolemill.com
7. http://www.thejacquardcenter.com/who.htm
References
Barr, A. H. 1933. “Present Status and Future Direction of the Museum of Modern Art,” p. 2. MoMA Archives: AHB Papers (AAA: 3266; 122).
Carter, M. 2003. Fashion Classics from Carlyle to Barthes. Oxford and New York: Berg.
Landreau, A. N. 1983. Flowers of the Yayla: Yörük weaving of the Toros Mountains. Washington, DC: Textile Museum.
Maxwell, R. J. 1990. Textiles of Southeast Asia: Tradition, Trade, and Transformation. New York: Oxford University Press.
O’Doherty, B. 1986. Inside the White Cube: the Ideology of the Gallery Space. Santa Monica, CA: Lapis Press.
Tennyson, A. “St. Simeon Stylites.” In the readprint digital library, http://www.readprint.com/work-1411/St-Simeon-Stylites-Lord-Alfred-Tennyson
(accessed July 15, 2008).
May 1 - August 30, 2012
Tom Marioni, Beer, Art and Philosophy: A Memoir,
2011, Pencil on printed book on paper, 6,49 x 8,4 x 0,59 in.
Tom Marioni is a sculptor who has created a large body of work in drawing and printmaking.
He has lived in San Francisco since 1959.
ART HIGHLIGHTS
1969: ”One Second Sculpture”
1970: “The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the “Highest form of Art”
1970: Founded the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA). Closed in 1984
1975: Editor/Designer Vision Magazine
2000: Founded The Society of Independent Artists
BIOGRAPHY
In 1969, as an art action, Tom Marioni released a tightly coiled metal tape measure into the air. The instrument started out as a circle, then opened up and created a loud sound as it made a drawing in space, and finally fell to the ground as a line. The work was titled One Second Sculpture, and it demonstrated several principles of Conceptual Art. This type of art was new at the time but has now become a major influence on artists and on our society. A principle demonstrated by “One Second Sculpture” is that duration can be an element in art. Another is that the lasting form of an artwork is created and later re-created in the viewer’s mind. And a third principle is that elements other than the visual (in this case, sound) may be part of the form of an artwork.
Conceptual Art extended and expanded traditional art approaches in unprecedented ways. For example, instead of looking for form in things, or objects, in the world, Conceptual artists began to pay attention to forms that occur in life situations. Marioni pioneered using social situations as art, and his 1970 piece called The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art has become legendary. Also in 1970, Marioni founded the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA) as “a large-scale social work of art.” Until it closed in 1984, he directed MOCA and at the same time continued to pursue his individual work as an artist. MOCA was the first “alternative art space” in the United States, and its presence in San Francisco is evidence that in our time, with our fast world-wide communications, it is not necessary to live in the country’s primary art center to do influential work. MOCA presented many landmark shows, (including the first Sound Sculpture show in 1970), and also provided a social situation for artists.
Tom Marioni is a sculptor who has created a large body of work in drawing and printmaking. Tree, Drawing a Line as Far as I Can Reach, 1972, set up a theme that he has developed for twenty-eight years. A work from the same time, Bird, Running and Jumping with a Pencil, Marking the Paper while Trying to Fly (1972) is the forerunner of his new color print Flying with Friends (Drypoint). In fact, most of Marioni’s prints have been results of repetitive activity, his own or others’. Even his pictorial prints are dependent on his activity—a Zen-like concentration on mark-making.? ?Marioni is interested in Asian art and thought, and the elegant spareness of his art in general has something to do with Zen philosophy. The work has a simple beauty that, like Zen, offers at the same time something to think about.
- Kathan Brown: Crown Point Press
EXHIBITIONS
Individual Exhibitions
1963 Bradley Memorial Museum of Art, Columbus, GA [Sculpture & Drawings]
1968 Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA [Sculpture]
1970 The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
“The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art” [Installation]
1972 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland [Drawings, Sculpture]
DeSaisset Museum, University of Santa Clara, CA, “My First Car” [Installation]
Reese Palley Gallery, San Francisco, CA, “A Seven Day Performance” [Installation]
1975 Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland, “Thinking Out Loud” [Installation]
1977 M H deYoung Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, “The Sound of Flight” [Installation]
Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA [Drawings & Sculpture]
1978 Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA [Drawings]
1979 “The Museum of Conceptual Art at the San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art,” San Francisco, CA [Installation with Free Beer]
Grita Insam Gallery, Vienna, Austria, “The Power of Suggestion” [Installation]
Cochise Fine Arts Center, Bisbee, AZ, “A Penny from Heaven” [Installation]
1980 Felix Handschin Gallery, Basel, Switzerland [Drawings]
Matrix, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum [Drawings]
1981 Site, Inc., San Francisco, CA, “Paris, San Francisco, Kyoto” [Installation]
1984 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA [Drawings]
Le Consortium, Dijon, France, “Cutting the Mustard” [Installation]
1985 Eaton/Shoen Gallery, San Francisco, CA [Sculpture]
1986 New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA, “The Back Wall of MOCA” [Installation]
Kuhlenschmidt/Simon, Los Angeles, CA [Sculpture]
1987 Museo ItaloAmericano, San Francisco, CA, “The Germans,The Italians,The Japanese” [Sculpture]
Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY [Sculpture]
Yoh Art Gallery, Osaka, Japan [Drawings & Sculpture]
Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY, “Astronomy Piece” [Installation]
Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, CA. “Observatory Bird” [Public sculpture commission]
1989 Fuller Gross, San Francisco, CA, “Golden Rectangles” [Wall Sculptures]
1990 Fuller Gross, San Francisco, CA [Sculpture & Photograms]
Capp Street Project A.V.T., San Francisco, CA
“The Artist Studio (Starting Over)” [Installation]
1993 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, “Seascapes” [Sculpture, Drawings]
Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA, “Landscapes” [Prints] and “By the Sea” [Installation]
Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, CA [Color Photograms]
University of Nevada, Reno, NV, “Around the World” [Installation]
1994 Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY, “Shadowgrams” [Photograms with their objects]
1995 Refusalon, San Francisco, CA [Conceptual Works 1969-73]
1996 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, “Elegant Solutions” [Sculpture]
1998 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA [Sculpture, Drawings]
Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY [Drawings]
1999 Y-1 Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden . ”beer with friends etc” 1970. [Installation]
Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA, “Trees and Birds” 1969-1999 [Drawings, Prints]
Cincinnati Art Academy, Cincinnati, OH [Drawings, Sculpture]
2000 Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY, [Sculpture and Drawings]
Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, [Sculpture and Drawings]
2001 silentgallery.com, on line project, San Francisco, CA [Psychic Sculpture]
2003 Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York, NY, [Sculpture and Drawings] YBC Center for the Arts,
2004 Yerba Buena Center for Arts, “Golden Rectangle” San Francisco, [Sculpture Installation]
2006 Contemporary Arts Center, Survey Show, Installations, Drawings. Cincinnati, Ohio
Tom Marioni 1
Selected Group Exhibitions
1970 Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), San Francisco, CA*, “Sound Sculpture As”
1971 DeSaisset Museum, University of Santa Clara, CA, “Fish, Fox, Kos”
1972 Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, CA*, “Notes and Scores for Sounds”
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA*, “The San Francisco Performance”
1973 Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA*, “All Night Sculptures”
1975 Biuro Wystaw Artyslycznych, Poland, “Kontra punkt”
1979 Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria, “Art as Photography”
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, “Space/Time/Sound”
1980 Academy der Kunst, Berlin, Germany, “For Eyes and Ears”
ACR Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France, “For Eyes and Ears”
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, “Music/Sound/Language/Theater”
1982 Biennial II, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, “Twenty Americans”
Oakland Museum, CA, “100 Years of California Sculpture”
Rimini, Italy. Sound Art, “Sonorita Prospettiche”
Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, “Sound”
Belca House, Kyoto, Japan*, “Elegant Miniatures from San Francisco”
[Also at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA]
1983 San Francisco Art Institute, CA*, “Art Against War”
Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, “In Other Words”
1984 The Sculpture Center, New York, NY, “The Sound Art Show”
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; Lock Haven Art Center, Orlando, FL;
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI, “Awards in Visual Arts”
1985 Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland, “Alles und Noch Viel Mehr”
Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, West Germany, “From Sound to Image”
Oakland Museum, CA, “Art in the San Francisco Bay Area: 1945-1980”
Otis Art Institute of the Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, CA
“The Marriage of Art and Music for L.A.” [Installation for “New Music America Festival”]
1986 Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes Station, CA, “Under One Roof”
1987 Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Center, Alberta, Canada, “Object Lesson”
1988 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA, “Solid Concept”
1989 UCLA, San Jose, CA, Fresno, CA, Omaha, NB museums, “Forty Years of California Assemblage”
Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY, “Bay Area Conceptualism: 2 Generations”
1990 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, “In Site”
Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, NY. “Drawings”. Organized by John Cage
1993 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, Guggenheim Soho NY, Houston, TX, Philadelphia,
PA, and Tokyo, Japan museums, “Rolywholyover A Circus” [Traveling show organized by
John Cage.]
1994 Artists Space, New York, NY, “Conceptual Art from the Bay Area”
[Tom Marioni and David Ireland, Installations]
Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA [New Photogravures]
1995 Index Gallery, Osaka, Japan. Benefit for the Kobe earthquake victims.
Exit Art/The First World, New York, NY, “Endurance”
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, “1965-1975 Reconsidering the Object of Art”
1996 Musees de Marseilles, France, “The Art Embodied”
1997 Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, “Chain Reaction”
1998 Museum of Contemporary Art at The Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
“Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object 1949-1979;” traveling to:
Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna; Museu d’art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Centre George Pompidou, Paris;
Dijon/Consortium, Dijon, France
1999 Refusalon, San Francisco,CA, “SOUND”
M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, “Museum Pieces”
Landesmusem, Linz, Austria, “Die Kunst Der Linie”
2000 Generali Foundation, Vienna, Austria, “Replay: The Beginning of Media Art in Austria”
Chester Springs Studio, Chester Springs, PA, “Reenactment/Rapprochement”
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA, “Made in California”
Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Ill. “Drawings of Choice” Traveling exhibition
Pasadins Art Museum, Bay Area Conceptual Art of the 70’s, Pasadena, Ca.
California College of Arts, San Francisco Ca. “Extra Art” 1960-1999 Traveling exhibition
Independent Curators International, New York, “Walk Ways” Traveling exhibition
Baltimore Museum of Art, “Work Ethic”, Traveling exhibition, Wexner Center, Columbus. Oh.
Wesleyan University, Middleton CT. Works from LeWitt collection. “Unexpected Dimensions”
2004 Legion of Honor Museum, “Photo Image in American Prints”, San Francisco
2005 Lyon Biennale d’art contemporain, Lyon, France
The Drawing Room, London, England. “Sounds Like Drawing”
Rhode Island School of Design, Drawings.
Performance | Actions
1966 Worked in night club, sketching nude model, San Francisco, CA
1969 “One Second Sculpture,” San Francisco, CA
“Abstract Expressionistic Performance Sculpture,” San Francisco, CA
1970 “Sound Sculpture As,” Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), San Francisco, CA
1971 “Chain Reaction,” DeSaisset Museum, University of Santa Clara, CA
“Identity Transfer,” Berkeley Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1972 “Sunday; Scottish Landscape,” Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
“Sound Actions,” Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
“The Creation: A Seven Day Performance,” Reese Palley Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1973 “A Talk,” Project, Inc., Boston, MA
Concert, MOCA Ensemble, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh Festival, Scotland
Concert, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England
Concert, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Demonstration, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
Radio performance, KPFA, Berkeley, CA
1974 “The Sun's Reception,” Residence of David and Mary Robinson, Sausalito, CA
“A Sculpture in 2/3 Time,” Student Cultural Center, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
“One Minute Demonstration,” Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Yugoslavia
1975 “Duologue (with Terry Fox),” CARP, Los Angeles, CA
“Morning Action,” Salon of the Museum of Modern Art, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
“East/West,” (with Petr Stembera), Prague, Czechoslovakia
“Thinking Out Loud,” Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland
“Lecture/Reception/Action,” Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
1976 “Bird in Space: A Psychic Sculpture,” and/or Gallery, Seattle, WA
1977 “Yellow is the Color of the Intellect,” Portland Center for the Visual Arts, Portland, OR
“The Sound of Flight,” M H deYoung Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
1978 “Now We'll Have a Party,” International Performance Festival, Vienna, Austria
“Predictions,” Alternative Art Space Conference, Los Angeles, CA
1979 “Freibier (free beer),” Vienna Performance Biennial, Vienna, Austria
“A Social Action,” Dany Keller Galerie, Munich, Germany
“Action,” Krinzinger Gallery, Innsbruck, Austria
“Liberating Light and Sound,” Pellegrino Gallery, Bologna, Italy
“Talking Drumming,” LACE, Los Angeles, CA
“A Theatrical Action to Define Non-theatrical Principles,” Santa Barbara Museum of Art,
Santa Barbara, CA
1980 “Studio Bern,” Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland
“Studio Basel,” Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland
“Bending Light,” Berner Gallery, Bern, Switzerland
“Atelier,” Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France
“Studio Berkeley,” University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
“Spirit in the Dark,” Crown Point Press, Oakland, CA
“Studio Berlin,” Akademie der Kunst, Berlin, West Germany
“Word of Mouth,” conference, Crown Point Press, Ponape Island, Pacific Ocean
1981 “Studio,” Tea house of the Saito Family, Kamakura, Japan
“Studio Chicago,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
International Performance Festival, ELAC, Lyon, France
Performance Festival, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
1982 University of California, San Diego, CA
Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany
Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, WI
“Social Action,” Intersection Theater, Performance Festival, San Francisco, CA
“Studio Kyoto,” Ohara Shrine, Kyoto, Japan (sponsored by Belca House)
1986 “Double Portrait,” (with Shoichi Ida), The American Center, Kyoto, Japan
1996 “Studio,” WDR Radio, Acoustic Festival, Cologne, Germany
1997 The Art Orchestra, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
1998 “Studio Berkeley 1980,” University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
“A Social Action, 1978,” Austrian Musuem of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria
2000 “Studio”, Chester Springs Center for Visual Art, PA.
“Beer Drinking Sonata” Acustica International, Goethe Institute, San Francisco, CA
2004 “Buddhist Band” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
2005 “Beer with Friends etc.” Lyon, France, Biennale
Related Professional Activities
1966 Worked in night club, sketching nude model, San Francisco, CA
1969 “One Second Sculpture,” San Francisco, CA
“Abstract Expressionistic Performance Sculpture,” San Francisco, CA
1970 “Sound Sculpture As,” Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), San Francisco, CA
1968-1971 Curator of Art, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
1970-1984 Founding Director, Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), San Francisco, CA
1973 Founding Director, MOCA Ensemble, San Francisco, CA
1975-1982 Editor/Designer, Vision, art journal published by Crown Point Press, Oakland, CA
1981 Artist-in-Residence, Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, CA
1985 Commencement Speaker, Cincinnati Art Academy, Cincinnati, OH
1990 Artist-in-Residence, Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA
Artist-in-Residence, The Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, PA
1992 Consultant for public art, Central Embarcadero Project, City of San Francisco, CA
1996 Founder, The Art Orchestra, San Francisco, CA
2000 Founder, Society of Independent Artists, San Francisco
2005 Produced “A Motion Picture”, video movie with 18 San Francisco Artists
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
1976 National Endowment for the Arts: Sculpture
1980 National Endowment for the Arts: Sculpture
1981 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial: Conceptual Art
1984 National Endowment for the Arts: Sculpture
Awards in the Visual Arts: Sculpture
1986 Asian Cultural Council: Travel Grant/Japan
1998 Flintridge Foundation: Sculpture
Fleishhacker Foundation: Sculpture Books & Publications
“Invisible Painting and Sculpture”, Richmond Art Center, Catalog 1969
“The Return of Abstract Expressionism”, Richmond Art Center, Catalog 1969
“Sculpture Annual”, Richmond Art Center”, Catalog 1970
“Vision”, Crown Point Press, #1 California, 1976, #2 Eastern Europe, 1976,
#3 New York City, 1976, #4 Word of Mouth, 1980, #5 Artists Photographs, 1981
“The Sound of Flight Tom Marioni”, Thomas Garver, catalog M H De Young Museum, exhibition, 1977 “Tom Marioni, The Italians, The Germans, The Japanese” catalog Museo Italo Americano, 1987 “Tom Marioni Sculpture and Installations 1969-1997”, self published
“See What I’m Saying”, 1978, self published
“Writings on Art Tom Marioni 1969-1999”, Crown Point Press, 2000
“Beer, Art and Philosophy” A Memoir, Tom Marioni, Crown Point Press, San Francisco, 2004
Sound Compositions
1969 “One Second Sculpture”
1970 “Piss Piece” for Sound Sculpture As, Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, CA.
1972 “Sunday Scottish Landscape” (Violin Bird) DeMarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland.
“Sound Actions” Whitchaple Gallery, London, England.
1973 “MOCA Ensemble” ICA, London, England.
1974 “A Sculpture in 2/3 Time” Student Culture Center, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
1975 “Thinking Out Loud” Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland.
1977 “The Sound of Flight” M H De Young, San Francisco, CA.
1979 “Liberating Light and Sound” Pellegrino Gallery, Bologna, Italy.
Sound Compositions Continued
1980 “Studio” Kunst Museum, Bern, Switzerland.
1985 “From China to Czechoslovakia” (A world map in beer bottles), San Francisco, CA.
1991 “The Yellow Sound for Kandinsky” West Deutscher Rundfunk (radio), Cologne, Germany
1996 “Beer Drinking Sonata” The Art Orchestra, Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
2004 “Breathing” Buddhist Band, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, SF.
Bibliography
Cover story. Pacific Sun, July 7-13, San Rafael, CA, 1971
“Man of Sound Vision,” Cordilea Oliver, The Guardian, Glasgow, Scotland, June 5, 1972
Interview. Prudence Juris, Studio International, June 1972
Moment #3 & #4, Student Culture Center, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1973
“Was it Art?” Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA, July 6, 1973
Interview. “Activity as Sculpture,” Hilla Futterman, Art and Artists, London, England, August 1973
“4 Museums,” Peter Plagens, Artforum, pp. 82-84, October 1973
“The Arts in America,” Newsweek, December 24, 1973
Review. Alan Moore, Artforum, p. 78, June 1974
“Kalifornia ‘Actionismus’,” der Lowe #1, Bern, Switzerland, 1974
“Music for the Avant Garde,” Source, #11, 1974
Il Corpo Come Lingvaggio (La Body Art), Milan, Italy, 1974
The Painted Word, Tom Wolfe, pp. 107-08, 1975
“South of the Slot,” (Group of performances at Bluxome St.), Phil Linharas, Artweek, January 11, 1975 Interview. La Mammelle, San Francisco, CA, Spring 1976
“The Two Faces of California,” Newsweek, p. 55, September 6, 1976
“Deja Vu,” San Francisco Magazine, pp. 94-95, December 1976
“Mellow Marioni Still Off the Wall,” Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 1977
“Report from San Francisco,” Carter Ratcliff, Art in America, May/June 1977
“Tom Marioni and the Sound of Flight,” Bill Kleb, Artweek, p.7, June 4, 1977
“An Artist’s Right to Remain Silent,” Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 1977
“Toward a History of California Performance: Part One,” Moira Roth, Arts, February 1978
“The Sound of Tooting My Own Horn,” Tom Marioni (Sound Sculpture), Journal LAICA, #22, pp. 63-64, March/April 1979
“Space, Time, Sound,” Suzanne Foley, Catalog, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1979
“Art to Make One Foam at the Mouth,” Alfred Frankenstein, San Francisco Chronicle, May 22, 1979
“Denk-Bilder,” von Walter Beyer, Observer, Vienna, Austria, June 13, 1979
Review. (Galerie Dany Keller) Suddentsce Zeitung, Munich, Germany, June 23, 1979
“Performing with Sound,” J. & N. Stodder, Tom Marioni & Terry Fox, Artweek, August 11, 1979
Performance Anthology; California Performance Art, Contemporary Arts Press, San Francisco, CA, 1980 “Performance Art Today, Expression in the Act,” Alan G. Artner, The Chicago Tribune, January 23, 1981.
Review. Kunstmuseum Bern performance, Der Bund, Bern, Switzerland, June 6, 1980
Review. Frank Cebulski, Artweek, August 14, 1982
Review. “Marioni a Master Illusionist’s Act,” Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, August 17, 1982
“The Merging of Visual Arts with the Theater,” Thomas Albright, San Francisco Chronicle, August 22, 1982
“Museums by Artists,” Art Metropole, Toronto, Canada, 1983
“Establishing an Object’s Worth,” Christopher French, Artweek, January 28, 1984
Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980, Thomas Albright, University of California Press, 1985
“Interview #32,” Barbara Smith, High Performance, November 1985
“Marioni’s Allegory of the Senses,” Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, January 4, 1986
“Tom Marioni at Paule Anglim,” Robert Atkins, Flash Art, April/May 1984
“Five Galleries ‘discover’ Neglected Bay Artist,” Charles Shere, Oakland Tribune, January 14, 1986
“Persistence of Memory,” Will Torphy, Artweek, January 25, 1986
Bibliography Continued
Interview. Jamie Brunson, Expo-see, #19, San Francisco, CA, April/May 1984
Review. Bill Berkson, Artforum, May 1986
“Eaton Schoen, San Francisco,” David Winter, Artnews, April 1986
“Kuhlenschmidt/Simon,” Kristine McKenna, Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1986
“Tom Marioni, Museo Italo Americano,” Mark Levy, Art in America, June 1987
“Art for Conception’s Sake,” Charles Shere, The Tribune, Oakland, CA, February 19, 1987
“National Characteristics in Elegant Puzzles,” Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, February 18, 1987
“Object Lesson,” Leslie Dawn, Vanguard, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Canada, December 1987-Jan1988
Review. Robert Atkins, Village Voice, October 1988
Review. Ken Johnson, Art in America, February 1989
“Stonehenge Chiaroscuro,” Mark Levy, Art International, p. 66, Spring 1989
“Shadow Boxes Hold Wit, Art Homages,” Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 1990
“Significant Engagement,” Terri Cohn, Art Week, June 7, 1990
“Art Through the Eye of the Beer Glass,” David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, June 8, 1990
“Marioni Rebounds at Capp St. Project,” Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 1990
“Crown Point Press, Paule Anglim,” Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, February 14, 1993
“Playing with Chance and Process,” David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, February 17, 1993
“Paule Anglim Gallery,” Marcia Tanner, Artnews, April 1993
“Photograms at Robert Koch,” Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, September 17, 1993
“Reconsidering the Object of Art 1965-1975,” catalog Ann Goldstein, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Los Angeles, CA, 1995
“Veterans Week, Meyer, Marioni,” David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, February 11, 1998
“Sacred Geometry,” Terri Cohn, Sculpture Magazine, March 1998
“Out of Actions, Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979,” Paul Schimmel,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, 1998
“Works,” Site of Sound: of Architecture & the Ear. Edited by Brandon LaBelle and Steve Roden.
Errant Bodies Press, Los Angeles, CA, 1999
“Marioni Drawings,” David Bonetti, San Francisco Examiner, December 17, 1999
Review. Ken Johnson, The New York Times, April 7, 2000
“at Margarete Roeder”. review, Sarah Valdez, Art in America, July 2000
“Tom Marioni Trees and Birds, 1969-1999”, Marcia Tanner, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Performance Artists Talking in the Eighties” Linda Montano, University of California Press
Out of the Box, The Reinvention of Art 1965-1975, Carter Ratcliff, Allworth Press. NY 2000
“Epicenter” Mark Johnstone, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA
“It’s really art drinking beer and gabbing with friends”, Jesse Hamlin, SF Chronicle Feb. 13, ’04
“Beer, Art and Philosophy” review, Frank Cebulski, sculpture.org/documents, July Aug ’04
“Beer, Art and Philosophy, review, Alison Bing, Artweek, Sept 2004
“Beer, Art and Philosophy, review, Terri Cohn, http://stretcher.org
“New Music Box” Web Magazine, American Music Center, March 2004
“Tom Marioni at YBC, review, Mark Van Proyen, Art in America, Nov. 2004
Public Collections
Oakland Museum, CA
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Consortium, Dijon, France
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Stadtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany
Museo Italo Americano, San Francisco, CA
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Bank of America, San Francisco, CA
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA
Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA
California State University, Los Angeles, CA
UC Med Center, San Francisco
BEER, ART, AND PHILOSOPHY: A MEMOIR
Beer, Art and Philosophy: A Memoir. (TOM MARIONI)?San Francisco: Crown Point Press, 2003. Introduction by Thomas McEvilley. With illustrations by the author. By Frank Cebulski. 223 pp.
BOOK REVIEW
The subtitle and leading epigraph to Tom Marioni’s memoir, “Beer, Art and Philosophy: A Memoir” is appropriately, “The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends Is the Highest Form of Art.” Those familiar with Marioni’s art know immediately that this pronouncement is no idle statement of passing humor, but a proven fact of his work itself, since his studio includes a full bar where he meets every Wednesday with selected friends to drink beer, converse, and create the “highest form of art.” (p. 27) After being removed from his position as curator at the Richmond Art Center, in Richmond, California, for his provocative and daring exhibitions, Marioni founded in 1970 the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA) in San Francisco. This museum became his “life’s work for a decade.”
Through the museum, he tried “to define Conceptual Art with words and demonstrations.” He is particularly concerned with defining California Conceptual Art, as distinct and different from International Conceptual Art and New York/East Coast Conceptual Art. The distinctions he makes and substantiates through his works, and now in this memoir, are significant and clarifying. Italian Conceptual Art of the ‘60s and ‘70s, for example, is all about Arte Povera (poor art), whereas Germans usually define Conceptual Art as “a scientific principle.” (p. 26). As an international movement Conceptual Art “took on different forms depending on its location.” In England, prehistoric earthworks and stone circles, like Stonehenge, influenced the development of Land Art. In “New York, Conceptual Art meant Language Art,” but a Language Art based on “systems.” California, however, “is like a separate country,” where there was “no literary tradition except the Beat poets.” This judgment, of course, is not historically accurate, for it denies the clearly established literary tradition of California writers of the 19th century and those of the 1930s and ‘40s that included such recognized poets as Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, and William Everson (Brother Antoninus), all writing in San Francisco in the decade before the Beats. Conceptual Art in Los Angeles, for Marioni, is influenced by the beach, the weather, Hollywood, Mexico, and Japan. In San Francisco, “the culture is European and Chinese.” And, Marioni declares, “I am a product of that tradition.” (p. 27)
The Museum of Conceptual Art no longer exists. The “social artwork, Café Society,” which he created in the ‘70s, included one of his best-known works, The Art of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art (1970). This social artwork has now “evolved into an artist’s club called the Society of Independent Artists.” One of Marioni’s most famous conceptual works, of course, is his sound art piece (Piss Piece), where after drinking several bottles of beer he climbed up a ladder and urinated into a bucket (with his back to the audience, he notes), which produces a sound of different tones and frequency as the bucket fills.
This art memoir is also truly an interesting personal memoir, for Marioni starts with his life as a child in Cincinnati in the ‘40s, tells us about his family and friends, and brings us forward with him to the present. He recounts many interesting coincidences in his life where his life touches famous artists and architects early in his career, and then later he becomes friends with them or creates works that are part of their works—like his relationship with John Cage and Marcel Duchamp and his commissioned sculpture for the Marin Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. These stories and the explanations and descriptions of his many conceptual works of art and the circumstances surrounding their evolution and development, create a text of engaging interest with important historical context and documentary evidence.
Marioni deliberately writes in a simple style, with short epigrammatic sentences that by their very simplicity produce the depth, texture and fabric of parable. His subtle humor only lightly covers the seriousness of his intentions, however, as when, for example, he criticizes museum curators he has known for the incestuous nature of their cyclic nepotism. The drawings that accompany the text graphically recall his works and add not only pictorial interest to the book, but in fact become iconic depictions of the conceptual works themselves, like sketchy records of remembered physical events.
This is an important work for sculpture, for Marioni holds that the origin and impetus of Conceptual Art resides not in pictorial art but in sculpture. His analysis of the development and influence of Conceptual Art and its origins is indispensable for a true comprehension of this important worldwide movement. The introduction by Thomas McEvilley presents an aesthetic setting and background for the memoir and puts an art historian’s perspective on Marioni’s life and work. McEvilley views New York Conceptual Art as derived from the idea of the sublime, a preoccupation of Abstract Expressionist painters of the ‘40s that which became essentially a theological movement based on the theory of Edmund Burke. To give Marioni his due, however, he admits himself that the curator in him “likes to talk about what my objects mean to me,” but that the mystery can disappear if “things are overexplained.” Now when people ask him what he is working on, he replies, “Psychic sculpture.” When they ask, “What is that?” He says, “It will come to you.” (p. 186)
January 1 - April 30, 2012
Tónia Coll, Llit, 2011, assemblage of plastic toy and hair, 4,5 x 2,6 x 2,1 in.
LA FLOR I LA PRESÓ
L’assalt als grans temes: heus aquí una probable vocació de l’artista.
Això sí, els grans temes poden ser tractats amb sordina irònica,
o ser reconstruïts amb material humil, o simplement ser acarats per decidir
que, fet i fet, no són tan grans. Com molt bé dóna a entendre l’escriptor
Joan Pons en el seu camusià escrit, amb «La flor i la presó»
Tónia Coll ha afrontat un seguit de paradoxes molt estimulants:
el límit geogràfic que allibera, per exemple.
O el joc subtil entre la destrucció i l’amor.
I moltes altres, en realitat. Descabdellar els significats
de «La flor i la presó» no és, però, la funció d’aquestes breus paraules
que us adreç. Més aviat, voldria fer ressaltar la importància
de continuar amb el projecte editorial de la col·lecció «ARTIB».
En els darrers anys, Coll ha esdevingut un referent imprescindible
de l’art a les Illes Balears. Incorporar-la al catàleg és tot un encert
que es complementa amb el magnífic text de Pons,
un autor que enguany ha tornat a recollir elogis merescuts
per la seva novel·la La casa de gel.
Imaginar una casa de gel és imaginar un espai tan poc acollidor com una presó.
I, així i tot, Coll i Pons saben transformar el límit en virtut.
Els qui s’acostin a «La flor i la presó» descobriran que la memòria
s’ha de transformar inevitablement per no esdevenir fang, aigües mortes.
Amb la seva obra, Coll al·ludeix a una memòria personal i col·lectiva,
però ho fa per projectar-la cap a un nou territori:el de la vida que palpita.
Per això, l’espectador s’amara de la seva proposta, i hi pot reconèixer veritats universals:
aquest esforç de Tónia Coll ens ha de proporcionar moltes més alegries en el futur.
De moment, i com a fita en la seva trajectòria, el volum que teniu a les mans
dóna fe de la seva maduresa artística.
Bartomeu Llinàs Ferrà
Conseller d’Educació i Cultura
LA FLOR I LA PRESÓ
Quina és la porta natural de Menorca? És una pregunta sense cap
resposta. L’illa és com una casa sense portes ni parets ni sostres,
oberta al cel, a la mar i al vent. No podem viure sense límits. La
geologia ens els imposa. La ment, no, afortunadament. En sabem
les coordenades i, amb aquesta informació cartogràfica, ens podem
situar de forma imaginària damunt el mapa.
39º 57’ N, 4º 3’ E.
Ja tenim una cosa palpable. Un indret. Un començament. Un codi
secret. És la clau xifrada que ens permetrà entrar a l’illa. Però no ens
enganyem. Aquest codi genètic és un miratge, una falsa il·lusió. Les
illes tenen les seves pròpies lleis, les seves pròpies normes, el seu
propi temps. Un temps diferent al temps dels continents.
Encegats per la set i el sol, els viatgers romàntics van caure en l’error
del miratge i les van anomenar les illes oblidades. Una ingenuïtat colonial.
Només és una qüestió de grandària. Un punt de vista tan vàlid
com qualsevol altre. El punt de vista dels continents. A les illes els és
indiferent. Tant els fa si algú les ha oblidat. Qui? Els homes i les dones
que les han estimat. Perquè les illes són com les persones belles i
desitjades que saben que sempre —mentre continuïn sent belles—
seran desitjades i tindran pretendentes o pretendents. No són seductores.
Són objectes de seducció. Són, sobretot, independents.
No, no són les illes, les oblidades. Són els continents. Si més
no per a les illes. Les illes han estat continents. I els continents
són illes que pateixen gegantisme; només cal mirar un globus
terraqüi. O repassar la història geològica d’aquest mar nostre que
anomenem Mediterrani.
Topades continentals, illes que es van formant i serralades que es
van alçant. Noves col·lisions entre continents, estrets que es tanquen
i mars que s’eixuguen igual que un plat amb aigua de marès
exposat al sol blanc. Illes que havien estat illes i que deixen de ser
illes per convertir-se en una gran muntanya enmig d’un desert de sal.
Estrets que tornen a obrir-se gràcies al moviment constant de l’escorça
terrestre i masses d’aigua que retornen allà d'on no havien d’haver
sortit mai. Illes tornant a ser illes dins un mar inundat i una nova era
de glaciacions que provoquen que grans quantitats d’aigua quedin
atrapades als casquets polars. El nivell de la mar que continua davallant
i les joves illes que s’uneixen com dues germanes bessones de
l’antic regne de Siam. Desglaç parcial dels casquets polars i el nivell
de la mar que torna a pujar. Illes ja més antigues que se separen per
sempre (?), però que continuen compartint plantes, animals i espinades
naturals.
Costa imaginar aquests canvis que abastaren milions d’anys.
Costa imaginar la Mediterrània eixuta com un bacallà.
Costa imaginar Menorca envoltada d’un desert de sal.
Costa imaginar Menorca i Mallorca formant una única illa més gran.
Costa imaginar Menorca a mercè de les oscil·lacions hídriques provocades
pels casquets polars.
Ens costa fer aquest exercici mental, perquè els éssers humans
tenim una visió rígida del món i ens és difícil substituir-la per una
percepció més plàstica, més dinàmica i, en el fons, més real.
Per començar, de totes les decisions importants que la vida
ens va plantejant, la d’abandonar la llar familiar és tal vegada la
més primitiva i transcendental. Goya la va immortalitzar amb la
visió lateral i minúscula d’un ca. Perro semihundido en la arena.
Per als illencs, aquesta decisió domèstica és més costosa. Tal
vegada per açò, a l’hora de perpetuar-la en una llegenda, l’inconscient
col·lectiu menorquí va optar per la tragèdia rural. Sa
nuvia d’Algendar. Una bellesa humana. Un paisatge solar. Unes
noces. Aigua que flueix fins a la mar. Una bruixa que anticipa
l’avenir. Un segrest per part d’un príncep o un pirata malvat. Un
naufragi. La vida miserable augurada per la vella despentinada a
l’altra banda de la mar. Una fugida. Un retorn. La bogeria davant
la casa a la qual estava destinada.
La casa com a flor. La casa com a presó. L’illa com a flor. L’illa
com a presó. La flor i la presó. Per a les cases i per a les illes
les dones són més importants que els homes. Per a les cases
i per a les illes els perills provenen de l’exterior. El preu que pots
arribar a pagar si finalment decideixes abandonar la casa o l’illa
pot ser devastador.
Però no és veritat. O, si més no, no és veritat total. El romanç
traspua una petita escletxa de llum. La llegenda deixa entreveure
que la bella núvia que acabarà convertida en el presagi del seu
futur està enamorada de l’estranger. És un segrest pactat. La
núvia vol que l’estranger la tregui del seu món i la porti a un indret
millor. No. Les desgràcies sempre són interiors. El mal comença
a gestar-se ben endins. I també la fortuna. I el bé. Nosaltres ens
llaurem el nostre propi destí. Les conseqüències són el premi —o
el càstig— que hi ha darrere la retxa de l’horitzó.
Els avantpassats materns de l’escriptor francès Albert Camus
de ben segur que coneixien la llegenda de la núvia viatgera. És
molt probable a més que l’haguessin contada a l’hivern, mentre
passaven les vetllades davall la porxada o a l’estiu, mentre
prenien la fresca al pati de la casa de Sant Lluís. Allà, al sudest
insular, un dia de Nadal, havia nascut la seva àvia, Catalina
Maria Cardona Fedelich. La situació econòmica a Menorca era
precària i els Cardona van haver d’emigrar. A l’illa van deixar
la casa blanca de Pou Nou, amb el pensament, tal vegada,
de tornar-hi com els passa a tots els errants esperançats. Les
dones de la família, mentre el vaixell sortia del port de Maó en
direcció a Àfrica i deixava la península de la Mola a babord, tal
vegada pensaven en la sort de la núvia de la llegenda popular.
Tal vegada, des de la coberta del veler, se senyaven perquè la
maledicció no es repetís. Tal vegada van veure una vella encorbada
pintant un rivet vermell mangra a la paret blanca d’una
casa del port. Supersticioses com la majoria de menorquins, tal
vegada van creure que la dona vestida de negre hi dibuixava la
narració del seu futur. Com passa amb totes les desmesures
de la imaginació anaven errades encara que copsessin el sentit
abstracte del món. Dos fets, de ben segur, va deixar de dibuixar
a la pantalla del rivet l’emblanquinadora menorquina amb el
mocador al cap. Un, que un descendent rebria un dia el Premi
Nobel de literatura. Dos, que el seu nét famós moriria en un ac-
cident de circulació. Albert Camus s’havia mogut durant tota la vida
entre domèstiques dones de camamil·la i exquisides i exòtiques dones
orquídia. Se sentia esquinçat entre les senzilles madones figues
de moro i les exquisides damisel·les de París. La vida és inquietud
i l’univers original és més estàtic i segur. La vida, però, és agitació.
Ningú no pot restar parat. Ens ho demostra la mar. També la història
geològica del món. Tot gira. Res no resta aturat. Fins i tot la carn
continua vivint en la putrefacció.
Primer la nina i després la dona. «Las muñecas y nosotras éramos
iguales». Després, com deixa entreveure el vers de Marosa di Giorgio,
ja no. Després, els cabells de les dones són els tesos i excitants brins
que ens mantenen units al món. Penèlope teixeix de dia el sudari i
el desteixeix de nit per donar temps a Ulisses i enganyar els pretendents
que han pres possessió del palau interior. Mentrestant, pentina
els seus llargs cabells davant el mirall. Ulisses tampoc no ha parat. És
com Camus. O com Hartung. O com sa nuvia d’Algendar. També com
el murmuri de la mar: «Jo sóc la solitud que indaga i mai no promet res;
/ així és com seràs alliberat. D’amor, no n’hi ha gens; / només enveges
diferents, i totes tristes».
Uns versos pessimistes i més si observem el nostre voltant. La mar
diposita en la sorra de les platges precioses pedres treballades
per les onades, mol·luscs recoberts amb nacre i paciència, tresors
antics carregats de records, restes de naufragis, cristalls perfectes,
auguris i premonicions.
També persones.
Després de recórrer el vast món, Hans Heinrich Ernst Hartung, el pintor
que d’al·lot volia ser astrònom, va triar una illa per fugir de la pròpia
agitació. Menorca. A la platja de cala Tirant va dissenyar a l’arena els
plànols d’una casa blanca amb l’ajut de la seva esposa, Anna-Eva
Bergman. En aquella casa de marès i en aquell paisatge del nord va
renéixer com a pintor. La vida, no obstant això, no és fàcil per a un
artista en una illa petita si es té l’esperit d’un ciclop. Confós amb un
espia alemany va patir la violència i la incomprensió de l'estreta comunitat
insular. Hans Hartung va abandonar Menorca en companyia
de la seva dona i amb els rotllos de les seves teles abstractes sota
el braç. Destinació? Oslo. La casa va quedar allà, damunt l’arena,
d’esquena a la mar de cala Tirant. La gent de Menorca la va anar
desmuntant biga a biga, bloc a bloc, bastidor a bastidor; i la casa va
desaparèixer i va quedar en el lloc original un cocó de sal.
216 quilòmetres lineals de costa. Una altra xifra exacta que ens
retorna una altra vegada a la realitat. Amb tants de forats a la
crosta càrstica, tal vegada la porta de Menorca és subterrània.
Davant Ciutadella hi ha submergida la ciutat de Parella. Més al nord
existeix un passadís secret que uneix l’antic castell de Santa Àgueda
i la mar de tramuntana. En aquest mateix mar septentrional hi ha un
riu subterrani que flueix fins a les fonts de Menorca. Aquesta aigua és
dolça i neix a la serralada emblanquinada dels Pirineus. Campanes de
plata, vedells d’or, voltes d’alabastre. Rossinyols que canten damunt la
mar de nit, cavalls negres a les valls que galopen cap a la posta de sol,
llops que udolen davant la boca de les fonts glaçades. És massa polit
per ser veritat, però importa ben poc perquè la bellesa ja és veritat.
Només volem que les imatges parlin i només ho poden fer amb
aquesta capacitat infantil de fabulació i de meravella amb què la
història forja el caràcter: «Els pous, les línies arquitectòniques i els
noms que deixaren els àrabs; el sentit cívic de la religió, la llengua i
les lleis dels catalans; la consciència del perill exterior que despertaren
els espanyols; la cultura i refinament que van sentir amb els
francesos; el respecte a les llibertats i la prosperitat que aportaren
els anglesos (...). Senzills i reaccionaris, es van oposar a les innovacions;
sobris i feiners, s’apartaren dels privilegis; incomunicats
i amenaçats, s’aïllaren i es van recloure. Com les seves rudes i
desgastades terres tancades entre murs mil·lenaris, com les seves
embullades marines mediterrànies envoltades de praderies, com
els seus emboirats penya-segats i amagades platges, Menorca és,
en la seva història, austera, infrangible i secreta».
Poques persones van entendre millor Menorca que Micaela Mata.
A vegades la mirada amiga de l’estranger sap interpretar amb més
claredat el nostre reflex al mirall.
90.000 habitants. Una dada que va fluctuant amb el flux de les
migracions i amb els índexs de natalitat i que hem arrodonit com
en una ingènua operació infantil escolar. La ciència capta els fenòmens
i els enumera, però no podem aprehendre el món a través de
la ciència. La imatge reflecteix el món, però la seva lucidesa diàfana
s’esvaeix en la metàfora. De fet, de totes les illes de la Mediterrània,
Menorca és la més allunyada del continent.
La porta de Menorca no és subterrània, no. El subsòl de l’illa reté
l’aigua dolça dels aqüífers naturals i conserva en la seva eternitat lítica
el gòral, la cabra extingida que ens protegeix des de les profunditats.
No. Té raó Auden. Hi ha massa portes i massa corrents; massa coves
i massa llacs immòbils davall els mants grocs de camamil·la a
punt d’esclatar; massa pugnes entre l’aigua dolça del subsòl i la pedra
calcària que va llepant; massa tensions entre els buits de la costa
i la força hidràulica de la mar. L’illa cruix i s’estremeix i esquitxa el cel
amb els bufadors ingènuament infernals. Només és un principi físic,
però no ens hi conformem. No, no hem trobat la porta de Menorca
en el litoral i en el seu perfil càrstic i esquerdat. Auden ja ho va cantar.
Estem massa avesats a la pedra que ens parla i ja no li fem cas. No
et pots refiar d’un paisatge que pot ser dissolt per l’aigua.
Cansats de tantes invasions que canviaven el mapa estratègic de
la Mediterrània, els governs europeus van decidir posar una porta
que tanqués l’entrada a Menorca. El castell de Sant Felip havia estat
durant molts anys la porta més segura. Les claus les havien tingut els
anglesos i els espanyols, els francesos —de passada, aquests darrers,
tan sofisticats i despreocupats, havien elaborat per primera vegada
a Menorca la salsa maonesa— i els holandesos. Finalment, els
espanyols havien tirat la clau dins un pou i havien derruït el magnífic
castell de Sant Felip. Les pedres les havien traslladat a l’altra banda
de port, havien obert pedreres verges i havien començat a construir
una nova fortalesa a la península de la Mola. El lloc era ideal. Una
illa dins una altra illa unida només pel cordó umbilical de l’istme dels
Freus. Es van seguir els nous sistemes de defensa francesos que
augmentaven l’eficiència de les fortificacions en baluard. Quan es va
inaugurar la fortalesa que mirava doblement el mar, la reina Isabel II
s’esperava que les escales serien d’or. Després de banyar-se a l’aljub
principal, va deixar per sempre la fortalesa. Massa polit per ser veritat,
però a qui importa que sigui veritat? Com diria Georges Perec, l’autor
del guió del reportatge de televisió i després llibre Ellis Island, hem
anat amunt i avall per desenes i desenes de corredors, hem visitat
desenes i desenes de galeries, de peces de totes mides, d’aljubs
amb voltes o sense voltes, d’excusats comunitaris o privats, de fossats
o murs fortificats, de places o de pous de càrrega, de bateries
o de terrasses assolellades, de laberints de pedra o de canoneres, «i
cada vegada demanant-nos, intentant representar-nos, què hi passava,
a què s’assemblava, qui hi venia, i per què, qui recorria aquells
passadissos, qui pujava aquelles escales, qui esperava en aquells
bancs, com s’escolaven aquelles hores i aquells dies, com ho feia
aquella gent per alimentar-se, rentar-se, colgar-se, vestir-se?».
La fortalesa va quedar obsoleta en quatre dies. Mai no va ser atacada,
mai no se'n van disparar els canons. Tanta pedra, tanta enginyeria,
tant d’espai robat al vent per no res. Quarter, penitenciaria,
centre d’atracció turística. Altres usos que no havien imaginat
els enginyers. Ni tampoc la reina Isabel. El poeta Auden ens ha
mostrat les similituds que hi ha entre la pedra de marès i la mare.
La fortalesa de la Mola, construïda en la seva vasta totalitat amb
pedra calcària, és una segona illa connectada per una llesca de
terra a vegades inundada per una delicada làmina d’aigua. Si la
família és una metàfora de la societat i l’illa és una metàfora geològica
del món, la fortalesa de la Mola és una metàfora calcària de la
resiliència de Menorca.
Durant aquest viatge hem cercat la porta de l’illa amb paraules. Deu
ser la porta de la Reina, l’entrada principal fortament protegida que
dóna accés a la fortificació, la porta de Menorca? Inalterable, la flor
de camamil·la ens revela la solució. Els homes han passat per la fortalesa
deixant-hi retalls de vida, d’amor i de mort. Tots han desaparegut
deixant-hi gravades petites petjades que no recorda el vell món.
Enginyers, militars, picapedrers, presidiaris, soldats, mariners, prínceps
i reis. Només n’han quedat els ecos. La camamil·la, en canvi,
s’ha mantingut a mercè dels vents, de les tramuntanades que arros-
segaven la sal del mar i la deixaven damunt les fulles i les branques de les
mates. Bella i modesta. Útil i domèstica. Esclatant i alhora insignificant.
Creixent i sobrevivint al costat del mar i a la vorera dels penyals. Sentint
els crits de dolor de les víctimes i les rialles dels soldats desenfeinats,
escoltant les paraules esperançades d’ànim dels familiars que visitaven
la penitenciaria o llegint els laments dels presoners escrits amb fúria estancada
als murs de pedra mitjançant un rudimentari reble o un altre
objecte tallant similar. Espargint l’aroma agresta als quatre vents, mostrant
la bellesa de les seves flors daurades o oferint al caminant el remei
casolà de la seva mil·lenària i domèstica infusió.
La flor i la presó. L’or i el rovell. L’amor o l’odi més pregon. Allò que roman
és la bellesa i la memòria del dolor. La resta són focs d’artifici.
Las muñecas y nosotras éramos iguales
Una de les nines penjades davall les parres es deia Camali. Li havia
posat aquest nom perquè tenia les cames molt llargues. Jo li deia així
despectivament, ja que no era la nina que esperava que em compressin
els pares. Jo n’havia demanat una altra que havia vist a l’aparador d’una
botiga. Era petita, dolça, amb rínxols, i crec recordar que portava un
vestidet blanc amb randes i seia en un gronxador penjat del sostre amb
cordes primes. La Camali era grandota, camalluda, i tenia els cabells
castanys. Penjada davall la parra, encara portava el vestit que li havíem
fet entre la mare, l’àvia i jo amb retalls dels nostres vestits, imitant-los i
seguint la tendència de moda de l’època. Vam cosir-li diferents conjunts
i així me la vaig anar fent meva. L’altra nina ens havia tocat a una tómbola
durant les festes del poble i allà, sota els pàmpols, duia un vestit que
havia cosit la mare amb retalls d’un vestit seu.
Un dels tresors de la casa familiar sempre havia estat la capsa de
les talladures. Amb la distància que et dóna el temps, aquella capsa
m’evoca una frase de la poeta Marosa di Giorgio: «Las muñecas y
nosotras éramos iguales». Penjant davall les verdes fulles, joguines
rompudes, amb la cara florida, els ulls esglaiats i els cabells embullats,
executaven la seva nova funció acariciades per un ventet d’estiu suau
i càlid. I a mi em venia el punt amarg i definitiu de la pèrdua. Les nines
descol·locades ballant a l’ombra verda. Brodats, farbalans, cintes de
seda fúcsia i una pluja de flors estampades. Aquells vestits de cop
s’il·luminaren amb tota la intensitat del sol.
Les vaig despullar i en vaig guardar els vestits.
Aquells espantalls de plàstic brut que havien acomplert la seva funció
van ser despenjats i llançats al foc. Una flaire de goma socarrimada
acompanyada del fum del fester reductor s’enlairà cap al cel net i clar,
d’un anyil antic i sempre nou.
A començaments de la tardor, el pare va fer vi amb el raïm que no
s’havien menjat els ocells.
TÓNIA COLL
Va néixer a Ferreries (Menorca) el 17 de febrer de 1965. Després de passar la
infantesa i la joventut a l’illa, va desplaçar-se a Barcelona, on va estudiar belles
arts a la Universitat de Barcelona. Després d’una estada a la Bristol Polytechnics,
va prosseguir els estudis fent els cursos de doctorat i va defensar a la
mateixa Universitat la tesi Miquel Barceló. Insularitat i creació, que va obtenir la
màxima qualificació acadèmica. L’editorial Columna, de Barcelona, es va interessar
en la publicació del treball, que l’any 2000 va sortir en forma de llibre.
Després d’impartir classes a la facultat on havia estudiat, Tónia Coll va guanyar
la plaça de professora titular al Departament de Pintura, on ha coincidit amb
altres artistes de la talla de Joaquim Chancho o Joan Hernández Pijuan. Docència
universitària, cursos artístics, vida familiar, creació artística... Tónia Coll
s’ha convertit amb el temps en una artista global que domina, gràcies a la seva
formació moderna, tots els gèneres i formats de l’art contemporani: pintura,
fotografia, dibuix, vídeo, il·lustració, assaig o instal·lació.
La seva obra forma part d’importants col·leccions privades i públiques, com
la de la Universitat de Barcelona, la del Consell Insular de Menorca, la de la
Fundació Sa Nostra o la de la Fundació La Caixa. Ha rebut premis i guardons
de pintura i ha fet exposicions individuals importants, com «El cant de les
sirenes», a la sala d’exposicions de Sa Nostra a Ciutadella (1997), i diverses
de col·lectives. «La flor i la presó», un diàleg entre l’art i l’espai on està exposat,
és la culminació d’aquest viatge artístic iniciat a l’illa de Menorca. «La flor i la
presó» és una exposició entesa també com a punt de partida i taller de noves
experiències artístiques que es puguin anar produint. L’oblit o la memòria, el
dolor de les dones i la seva capacitat de transformació, la convivència, en un
mateix paisatge i espai temporal, de la bellesa i l’horror, la reflexió intel·ligent
sobre la insularitat, les tensions entre nomadisme i sedentarisme, la relació
de la dona i el món. La recuperació de materials la presència dels quals es
redueix a les llars i que l’art ha considerat poc nobles, i la intensificació irònica
del seu poder de metamorfosi.