By: Laura Phipps
Many critics have been writing about the decline of the art market and its possible effects on art production. Opinions range from hope for a creative revival of an art world ruled by artists (notably The New York Times’ Holland Cotter) to gloom and doom for the art world (The Art Newspaper, The New Criterion). SCOPE New York International Art Show, this year gave some credence to the optimists in that crowd, while it openly fulfilled the more tradition role of art fair. There was a large presence of collector-friendly, display-ready work at SCOPE, Pulse, and the Armory, as well as certain safeness to galleries’ selections. However at Scope there was an accessibility that was a boon to the fair and gave it a more interactive, user-friendly feel than either Pulse or the Armory. Interaction between artists and fairgoers uncharacteristically occurred as in Jon Burgerman’s Lossy Data Lab and the inclusion of artist-run galleries and collectives encouraged dialogue, even among those not buying. This perception was perhaps a result of the prevalent themes that were present this year, including nostalgia for both our near and far histories and an embrace of “folksy” Americana.
Initially, this “folksy” scene was set by an installation that began to the right of the traditionally glossy art fair entrance, down a dark wooden hallway interrupted by rugs taped to the floor and faux furniture on walls. The installation, Cheap Fast & Out of Contro1, organized by the artist Lilah Freedland and sponsored by the SCOPE Foundation, combined the performance, installation, films and inexpensive art goods of 19 artists. Most of the contributions were incorporated into a timber-frame construction leading fairgoers into a backwoods honky-tonk of sorts. Kristen Schiele, the artist that created the full scale house as a part of the piece Riding America Like a Cheap Pony, consideres it to be part of a “scenic domestic land of memorabilia.” To Schiele “mock rifles, games, and beer symbolize the hard currency of the Great American Experiment.” Within the construction a band strummed inconsistently, fairgoers exchanged galleries’ cards for drawings and perused vignettes of various art pieces, books, and clothing for sale, and a bartender served beer behind a homemade bar.
Emerging back into the bright white booths of the fair one felt some comfort in seeing the crocheted guns of Karley Klofenstein (Charest-Weinberg Gallery) and handmade cuckoo clocks, adorned with the accoutrements of middle class Americana such as a trucker’s hat, by Nathan Skiles (Greene Contemporary). Okay Mountain put wistful memories of the late 1970s and 1980s at the forefront with pieces based on obsolete video games and arcades by Jesse Greenberg, while also heading in the direction of Cheap Fast & Out of Control by offering small handheld pieces for small prices. In another use of the form of childhood wistfulness, albeit within a darker context and with a more pointed purpose, Wayne Coe’s work approaches the subjects of Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and torture through the packaging of retro model kits (Jonathan Schorr Gallery).
An entirely different form of nostalgia reaching further back than the simply retro was seen in the reclamation of cultural artifacts by artists. Krampf Gallery presented several handmade porcelain sculptures by Ma Jun. Ma Jun follows traditional Chinese techniques to create boomboxes, televisions, and cans of beer that question tradition versus modern consumption. Anna Frants’ series Made in Ancient Greece involves videos projected onto plaster vases shaped and painted to resemble those of antiquity (Dam, Stuhltrager & Frants Gallery Space). These pieces by Ma Jun and Frants create a confusing sensation of not knowing what history we are to engage with—the technology that shaped our culture in the past, or that which shapes our present.
There was enough of the high production value painting, sculpture, and installation at SCOPE to keep fairgoers in the correct state of mind, but there was also a definite creeping in of homespun, collective art production and a cash-and-carry mentality. Its yet to be seen what the bottom of the art market will look like to artists, collectors, and galleries, much less art fairs, but if its appearance is the overtaking of art fairs by artists and collectives then the optimists may just win in the end.
Hi Laura,
I also read the Holland Cotter article and it certainly left an impression! For everyone's convenience, please find the now famous NY times article below...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/arts/design/15cott.html
Posted by: Sarah | March 17, 2009 at 04:52 PM