Heath Flagtvedt: Go Wash Your Bowl
“the title of this show is taken from perhaps the most famous zen buddhist koan, which can be described as teaching parables.
koan are very old, mostly very short [verses], which seldom, if ever, are directly [resolved].
they are not proper riddles, but situations and stories with which to shape your awareness.
i find that my experience with them and my experience with western art have been very similar. and for good reason:
truly fine art is seldom a one-liner with a call and response and neither are koan.
for many of us, in viewing art we see not only what was made but the awareness that made it. sometimes, it is more the latter.
duchamp said that great thing about the artist having no control over their art besides making it; society takes what it wants. i think that’s right. in many regards, it’s just not important what i say about my art…
Here is what I don't do in my art (as quoted from carolee schneemann’s interior scroll): take one clear process, follow its strictest implications, intellectually establish a system of permutations, [and/then] establish their visual set.
but if you want to know what i think i am up to, i am giving birth.
i exert my conscious influence over my state of mind rather than the materials. when i am successful, the making happens of itself without much rational interference. our existence is much bigger than we can rationally contain or convey.
beauty, sometimes despite our best efforts, is born and not made.”
- Heath Flagvedt
This presentation by Main Street is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.