Situations, Alien Locations and Art in Context
What would happen If you went to the Fishmonger and instead of a beautiful display of freshly caught fish on, surrounded by green furls of parsley you were presented with socks. This is a Fishmongers so these must actually be fish. The Fishmonger assures you they are fish. But they’re not are they? They’re socks. This isn’t a subjective thing either. The person in the queue next to you isn’t likely to take one home to cook for tea any more than you would.
Accepting that it isn’t Jesus running the gallery, what is it that an exhibition space does that can turn socks into fish?
To think beyond the gallery, outside of the white cube, is to be creative. To understand how art might work in different situations and contexts allows that art to be understood in different ways. However, it remains the 'white cube' exhibition space that is accepted and recognised by the public as a place where objects or activities can be understood as art. The 'priming' offered by the conventional exhibition space is significant.
With few exceptions the place to fully appreciate film is the cinema and likewise with live performance it's the theatre. These are focussed experiences. We are more easily immersed when the extraneous world with its constant flow of interruptions and interferences are removed - we even attempt to recreate that experience in our own homes when watching a movie on T.V. We set aside a couple of hours, some 'time-out', to be exhilarated, to be moved to tears, or frightened half to death, our senses aroused and emotions heightened. We experience different lives, different worlds.
These often deeply felt yet passive encounters are highly valued and their affects taken out from the focussed cinematic or theatre experience to diffuse and disperse through our active engagement with the 'real world'. The skilled, talented, creative film and theatre makers extract from the real world, these concentrations are presented and experienced in a focussed situation that excludes the real world, it is experienced in that situation and it then subjectively re-emerges out into the real.
anyone taking anything and putting it anywhere is art. and it to the point where art galleries have become playgrounds
Duchamp's urinal and Joseph Beuy's assertion that everyone is an artist have caused a dilution. We are asked to consider that anyone taking anything and putting it anywhere is art. and it to the point where art galleries have become playgrounds
contemplative experience of a visit to an art gallery or exhibition seems
Not everything is art: and not everywhere.
If those changes in perspective offered by presenting beyond and outside of the context of the gallery in alien situations and unusual contexts be recreated within the gallery might this not offer the public the best of both worlds.
This what the public expect when they chose these experiences. They are immersive, passive and when successful are deeply felt.














