LEE WALTON
www.leewalton.com
"Often regarded as an Experientialist, Walton’s work takes many forms- from drawings on paper, game/system based structures, video, web-based performances, public projects, theatrical orchestrations and more." (taken from website)
Through this curatorial process, we are exploring the "What is dance?" question at the same time as the "What does it mean to curate?" question. Since I’m coming more from the visual art side of things, I’m a bit more familiar (or overly-familiar!) with the "What is art?" question, so the dance question is interesting for me to talk about (even though it’s virtually the same dialogue..but with a different community, which brings about many differences). The curation question overlaps both (if there is a "both") communities and is an integral part of the presentation and organization of most art programs/exhibitions/performances/etc. Dance is obviously art, and through this project and many others that AUNTS (and some other dance-oriented groups and individuals) has brought to the table, the dance world and visual art world are moving towards one another in the way that they should.
This (the Team One experience) is a good opportunity to actually invite those who consider themselves part of the visual art community or those who have been placed within the visual art community to join or sample the dance community. As dance should and is working towards obtaining a voice within the art community (i.e. the Performa dialogue, etc), it is then important to bring visual art (especially those artists who are dealing with the body) into this community. There needs to be a trade. That being said, I am certainly not suggesting that we invite artists whose work might not be appropriate for this forum. Instead, I am suggesting that we say, "Hey! I know you’re a visual artist, but perhaps your work can also be considered dance. The dance community has looked at your work and values what you’re doing not only as visual art, but also as a type of dance or choreography."
Lee Walton is already involved with a similar back-and-forth give-and-take trade between art/performance and life, two stages or forums. At the same time, though I haven’t found any evidence of Walton labeling his work as "dance", I would like to suggest that he is indeed choreographing work on both himself and others. He performs a "solo" in much of his work; however, the public (or audience) is necessary for the work to exist. These solos are documented in finished videos.
As participants in Team One, we are functioning in a very similar way that the PUBLIC (as a medium or component) functions in Walton’s work. We are objects (with opinions, feelings, and life--living breathing "objects") or the medium of Team One by AUNTS. The artists, both Lee Walton and AUNTS, have chosen to work with time-based media that produce a time-based product. Both are dependent upon the spontaneous actions and decisions of their respective media. Walton and AUNTS create an environment in which self-selected humans can influence their work. Both moderate what is a self-generating artwork. Both control the finished product through the editing/filming/presentation process.
Lee Walton
Medium = audience/passersby/public ? participants
AUNTS
Medium= Team One volunteers ? participants
EXAMPLES OF LEE WALTON’S CHOREOGRAPHIC AND IMPROVISED ARTWORK:
Getting a Feel For the Place, 2007
"Walton visits Belfast, Ireland and gets a good feel of the city." (description from website)
http://www.leewalton.com/performances/getting_a_feel_for_the_place/index.html
Many other works similar to this public performance are scattered throughout Walton’s website.
Pulling Strings, 2007
"An Invitational Exhibition by the Students of the Digital Technology and Cultural Club of Washington State University, Tri-Cities"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKJt1upJP8k
Just Walk Away, 2007 (Portland, Oregon)
http://www.leewalton.com/performances/just_walk_away/index.html
Press Record, 2006
"A Series of Video Collaborations with the Art Students of Middlesex High School, New Jersey.
A one-day visiting artist project organized by Kelly Clark, Instructor of Art at Middlesex High School and supported by a Dodge Foundation Grant."
Moving Desks, 2007
http://www.leewalton.com/projects/press_record/moving_desks.html
(*beautiful sound composition…example of Walton’s work not in outdoor/public environment)
Gym Class, 2007
http://www.leewalton.com/projects/press_record/gym_class.html
In Remote Instructions (2004-ongoing), Lee Walton also asks for participants to carry out a process. He is curating his own body of work through the use of volunteers. We have already been curated to curate. Most likely, the participants in Walton’s Remote Instructions encounter a type of transformation and are faced with various decision-making opportunities in their efforts to create a finished artwork (obviously conceived of by Walton). As participants in Team One, we are in a similar position. The experience of Walton’s collaborators and Team One will both be presented in the art institution environment. Both comment on the creation of presented work, whether it is in the museum environment or an alternative art space. The description of Remote Instructions from the artist’s website is as follows:
Remote Instructions
2004—ongoing
Remote Instructions is a web-central project that utilizes both the communication capabilities of the web and spectatorship of its users. From a central hub, Walton is collaborating with strangers globally via the web and orchestrating a series of video performances that will take place in real cities, neighborhoods, villages and towns around the world.
If you are interested in collaborating or know particular people around the world that may want to participate, please contact the artist immediately.
Video collaborators will be paid for their services. Professionalism and adequate equipment is necessary.
The video work created will be exhibited at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York (2008). All participating performers and videographers will be credited.
A Project By Lee Walton, funded by Rhizome.org of New York.
Union Square: Giving It Up For Life
September 15, 2006—life
From an interview with Joseph del Pesco (April 2007) Walton talks about his project where he gave up Union Square Park for life. He states the following which is very much in line with what we are doing here today and how as artists/dancers we are able to move around certain boundaries and make these boundaries work for us…How do we make sacrifices within the system? The problem of Artist-As-Curator arises (I imagine in most cases). We cannot submit our own work—that which we are most familiar. We must watch from afar, in a certain way, and cast judgments on someone else’s playground…Maybe from as far as DSW Shoe Store? Here it is:
…This dissolving of the boundaries between art and life is understandably necessary. However, to be honest, art was separate from my life until I was in my twenties. I wasn’t even thinking about things in the context of art – I was just living. ?I have found it more useful or meaningful to integrate art into my life rather than separate it. For example, by giving myself a life-imposed ban on Union Square Park, I have set myself up for new and alternative experiences. Not better or more memorable experiences, just new ones.?This artwork has affecting my life already in various ways. Here are just a few:
1. I learned about Lee Lazanos "Dropout Piece".?
2. I have spent time under Union Square Park researching the subway station at the park. I now know all the possible exits where I will surface outside the parks boundaries. This took a little time, and still I am careful and cautious each time I exit.?
3. I have been spending more time at Madison Square Park. I actually have grown fond of it and am beginning to feel attached.
?
4. Recently, a group of my students at Parsons the New School performed their final project at Union Square Park. Unable to attend, I watched the performance from a window across the street at Barnes and Nobles. I then held a critique via cell phone.?
5. I met a man that gives private tours of Harlem and the Bronx.
?6. I found myself looking at my own personal map of Manhattan and wondering if I should cut Union Square Park out with an exacto knife. I decided against it. (Mostly because I would then have the dilemma of figuring out what to do with the little cut-out park.)
?7. I have become very comfortable with DSW Shoe Store across the street from the park. From these windows you can watch all the activities in the park.?
8. When I make plans to meet a friend in the city, we always spend extra time struggling to agree on a meeting place besides Union Square.?
9. I was once strolling my daughter and was forced by unpredictable construction circumstances to walk right to the edge of Union Square Park. Unable to get on the sidewalk, I walked along the street and put the stroller on the sidewalk next to me.?
10. I have a better idea of what the last few minutes of my life might feel like.?Anyway, this could go on. Of course, the affects are constant- at this point, most of them being very subtle and personal. I have definitely regained respect for the park. Often times, when I catch myself admiring it from afar. If I let my imagination go- I will get a little pain in my stomach, similar to seeing a beautiful woman and knowing that my time has past and she forever untouchable. The park is now part of my history. My memory.
His process is directly related to our process here. Had this experience not been heading in the direction of bringing the private to the public (in that this will be documented as an artwork and improvisational composition and exchange), I might not propose this artist. However, in challenging ourselves and having been invited (to volunteer via public broadcasting methods) by AUNTS to challenge the limits of dance (based on what "AUNTS is…") and the curatorial process in general, I think it is also important to challenge the selected person/group/work. If we choose something that is not challenged by the boundaries and possibilities of this environment, there will be a sort of moat or boundary between the selection process and the finished event, which is the very thing that we are seeking to stitch together.
Though I have never seen Walton’s work in person, I have followed his work via the internet for a number of years. I think it would be interesting to see how he would work within a stage environment or possibly what he would send in his place. He focuses on the broadcasting experience, the game of telephone that occurs through translation and transmittance, and how performance can function in different environments. Though the theater/stage is a traditional environment for dancers, this is a non-traditional stage. We are looking for something that lends itself to a non-traditional environment, but in playing the role of curators, we must also challenge the artist/work. There is always a responsibility to create history, immortality, and change.
To me it is important to curate a series of works that lends itself to the experience of Team One. As mechanisms for decisions, within the framework of Team One, and as volunteers, it is our responsibility as performers/actors/dancers/medium to uphold the artistic intention. We have been curated to curate about curation. At the same time, we must keep in mind that this curation scenario is a unique one.
Last thing/example with a description below parallels this unique experience and artwork rather nicely:
http://www.leewalton.com/projects/you_make_the_call/rockland.html
Golf Drawing
2007
(Curator TIm Laun at Rockland Center for the Arts, NY.)
In Lee Walton’s Bryan Park Drawings, the artist?collaborates with curators Tim Laun and Lynn Stein to?produce a site specific floor drawing determined by?rounds of golf Walton plays in North Carolina. Many of?Walton’s work involves long distance collaborations—?often conducted over the internet with people Walton?has never met—yielding unpredictable results. Typically,?Walton establishes rules for his collaborators to?interpret and work within, but the end result is?unknown. Walton is interested in surrendering control?of the final piece—the completion of the work is?ultimately determined by the other participants. Bryan?Park Drawings is a project developed specifically for the?Rockland Center For the Arts, and will occur throughout?the duration of this exhibition.
SPECIAL SECTION
*Special and semi-unrelated-related note: Check out Lee Walton’s drawings…especially the early ones. They’re quite nice:
http://www.leewalton.com/drawings/index.html
This one is really beautiful:
http://www.leewalton.com/drawings/2000/66_golf_balls.html
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