Rework, painting zine project outline
Project overview
After talking a while with some artist/painters, about the need for some dialogue/ activity focusing on the practice and evaluation of painting in Brighton, an idea for a project has emerged in order to create some sort of forum for this.
I talked with Mike Stoakes recently about missing the dialogue and writing activity that existed within, and alongside our practice while on the MAFA at Brighton Uni.
An interesting model for the activity at hand may be seen in the project crosskick (http://www.crosskick.de/eng/projekt.php). This looks at the idea of institutions that mediate between art schools on the one hand and museums and galleries on the other:
‘Frequently they serve as experimental stages and protective spaces for art which exists in the space between these two poles: art no longer produced in an educational context, but not yet established in exhibition spaces, and for the most part not yet enjoying success in the market.’Similarities from this can be translated into the approach for this project, or as a point of departure.
Painting as such
In order to express an idea that is helpful in outlining the outlook for the zine it is helpful to rephrase a definition of the practice of painting from Helmut Draxlers theses on ‘Painting As Apparatus’(1):
In the tightly woven complex of image, painting, and art; painting as such-rather than the mere act of painting- establishes itself precisely in the tensions between: the image, the act of painting and art; that are coming to be increasingly dissociated (significantly through modes of production such as photography, film and new media).
About painting as such in the modern sense Draxler states: ‘It delineates itself as a discursively charged praxis designed to articulate and reflect on the multiplicity of interrelations between image, painterly practice, and artistic aspiration.’
This project is undertaken by practitioners who use painting as a primary medium of their practice and who also- along with practitioners in other fields of production- share an affinity with the notion of ‘painting as such’.
Agenda
The basic idea for this project is to submit some text of interest for other contributors to respond to, the response may be either or both:
1 Some text, article or poetry, some work you have made that can be documented and printed, that may work in the form/embodiment of the printed Zine. The Zine would be published quarterly.
2 Work involved in your practice, made as a response to the text that will be exhibited in a project space as a one off project or full exhibition.
This will be documented/ contextualised in subsequent zines and could initiate future responses.
Notes
(1) Helmut Draxler, Painting As Apparatus, Texte Zur Kunst, March 2010
