#michaelasher

[antoninolavelaart]

Michael Asher: Architect of the Invisible

Michael Asher: Architect of the Invisible

[antoninolavelaart]

Challenging the Norm: The Bold World of Institutional Critique

Challenging the Norm: The Bold World of Institutional Critique

[asalvadorsala]

#MichaelAsher https://www.instagram.com/p/CWTrNSlNePe/?utm_medium=tumblr

[artbookdap]

Congrats @primaryinfo !! #Repost ・・・We're happy to announce the release of Michael Asher’s Writings 1973–1983 on Works 1969–1979, an essential document of a decade of formative work by the artist. Originally published in 1983 and edited by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, the book presents 33 works through the artist’s writings, photographic documentation, architectural floor plans, exhibition announcements, and other ephemera. ⁠ ⁠ Writings 1973–1983 on Works 1969–1979 is 240 pages and retails for $40.00. Link to order in bio! ⁠ ⁠ Asher did not create traditional art objects; instead, he chose to alter the existing institutional apparatus through which art is presented, creating work dependent on the architectural, social, or economic systems that undergird how art is produced and experienced. ⁠ ⁠ Due to its site specificity and immateriality, Asher’s work ceased to exist after an exhibition, which makes this highly sought-after book the definitive mode through which one can gain insight into the work he made during this period. As the artist states in the introduction: “This book as a finished product will have a material permanence that contradicts the actual impermanence of the art-work, yet paradoxically functions as a testimony to that impermanence of my production.”⁠ ⁠ Initiated by Kasper König, Writings 1973–1983 on Works 1969–1979 was originally co-published by the Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and was largely shaped by Asher’s close collaboration with art historian Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, who succeeded König as editor of the press.⁠ ⁠ Images:⁠ 1: Cover of Michael Asher’s Writings 1973–1983 on Works 1969–1979⁠ 2-5: Interior spreads of Michael Asher’s Writings 1973–1983 on Works 1969–1979⁠ ⁠ All images by @naokomaeda⁠ Managing Editor: @_james_hoff Managing Editor: @rickmyers_cabinstudio ⁠ #MichaelAsher #NovaScotiaCollegeofArtandDesign @moca #KasperKoenig #BenjaminHDBuchloh @bb1341 #JamesHoff #RickMyers https://www.instagram.com/p/CWGFtVAF4Vu/?utm_medium=tumblr

[artbookdap]

Good news from @primaryinfo — 'Michael Asher: Writings 1973–1983 on Works 1969–1979' is a New Release this week! ⁠ ⁠ Originally published in 1983, this volume, by Los Angeles artist Michael Asher (1943-2012) presents select documentation of 33 works through writings, photographs, architectural floor plans, exhibition announcements and other ephemera.⁠ ⁠ For most of his career, Asher did not create traditional art objects; instead, he altered the existing institutional apparatus through which art is presented, creating work that intervened in the architectural, social or economic systems that undergird how art is produced and experienced. For example, in 1974, he removed the partition wall dividing the office and gallery space of the Claire S. Copley Gallery in Los Angeles, revealing the day-to-day activities of the gallery to the public. In another work from 1979, Asher had a bronze replica of a late 18th-century sculpture of George Washington moved from the exterior of the Art Institute of Chicago to a museum gallery that housed 18th-century art, reintroducing the statue to its original period context and shifting its function from public monument to indoor sculpture.⁠ ⁠ Due to its site- and time-specific nature, Asher’s work generally ceased to exist after an exhibition, which makes this highly sought-after book an invaluable resource. As the artist states in the introduction: “This book as a finished product will have a material permanence that contradicts the actual impermanence of the art-work, yet paradoxically functions as a testimony to that impermanence of my production.”⁠ ⁠ Initiated by Kasper König, 'Writings 1973-1983 on Works 1969-1979' was originally copublished by the Press of @nscaduniversity and @moca LA and was largely shaped by Asher’s close collaboration with Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, who succeeded König as editor of the press.⁠ ⁠ Edited with text by Benjamin Buchloh.⁠ ⁠ Read more via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ @bb1341 #michaelasher #michaelasherwritings1973 https://www.instagram.com/p/CViH-R7lMdx/?utm_medium=tumblr

[worldfoodbooks]

OPEN TODAY 11-5 PM. BACK IN THE BOOKSHOP: INSTITUTIONAL CRITIQUE - AN ANTHOLOGY OF ARTISTS' WRITINGS (2009) • "Institutional critique" is an artistic practice that reflects critically on its own housing in galleries and museums and on the concept and social function of art itself. Such concerns have always been a part of modern art but took on new urgency at the end of the 1960s, when--driven by the social upheaval of the time and enabled by the tools and techniques of conceptual art--institutional critique emerged as a genre. This anthology traces the development of institutional critique as an artistic concern from the 1960s to the present by gathering writings and representative art projects of artists from across Europe and throughout the Americas who developed and extended the genre. The texts and artworks included are notable for the range of perspectives and positions they reflect and for their influence in pushing the boundaries of what is meant by institutional critique. Like Alberro and Stimson's Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology this volume will shed new light on its subject through its critical and historical framing. Even readers already familiar with institutional critique will come away from this book with a greater and often redirected understanding of its significance. • Artists represented include Wieslaw Borowski, Daniel Buren, Marcel Broodthaers, Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel, Hans Haacke, Robert Smithson, John Knight, Graciela Carnevale, Osvaldo Mateo Boglione, Guerilla Art Action Group, Art Workers' Coalition, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Michael Asher, Mel Ramsden, Adrian Piper, The Guerrilla Girls, Laibach, Silvia Kolbowski, Andrea Fraser, Fred Wilson, Mark Dion, Maria Eichhorn, Critical Art Ensemble, Bureau d'Etudes, WochenKlausur, The Yes Men, Hito Steyerl, Andreas Siekmann. • Available in the bookshop today and via our website. • #worldfoodbooks #institutionalcritique #themitpress #adrianpiper #michaelasher #hanshaacke #barbarakruger #louiselawler #nilsnorman #theguerrillagirls #mariaeichhorn #mierleukeles #danielburen #marcelbroodthaers #guerillaartactiongroup #melramsden (at WORLD FOOD BOOKS)

[albumsbyconceptualartists]

Asher: Here I Stand Joel Score

[calartstest-blog]

Michael Asher, down to earth

IMAGE: Michael Asher, Kunstraum Vienna (viewing South), 1996. Kunstraum Wien, Vienna, Austria. Photo: Hans Schubert.

Allan Sekula discusses Michael Asher's incisive, forensic, and often very funny practice in this 2000 essay for Afterall. As Sekula writes, Asher's engagement of sculpture, site, documentation, history, and politics realigned a perspective on art with that of decrepitude and waste, both past and present. Exposing the contradictions, poetics, and (in Sekula's words) "restless flux of big and little opportunisms" that condition art's making and understanding, Asher's work brought the discrepancies and slippages separating things from their meanings "down to earth." From the essay's closing paragraph:

"It is worth recounting a story Michael Asher told me once. It's a story about cars [...]. We were standing around one night in the CalArts parking lot, postponing our long drives over the pass and back through the San Fernando Valley to our respective precincts of the Los Angeles basin. Asher was having trouble with his old Volkswagen, and this led him to mention his uncle, a mechanic, who helped him out with automobiles from time to time. As it turned out, this uncle, who had of course developed an acute and extensive acoustical memory of engine noises, always complained when Hollywood films would, for example, accompany a shot of a '56 Ford with the sound of a '56 Chrysler engine. At the time, this story, casually told with lots of laughter, seemed like a parable of Asher's own essentially realist and comedic aesthetic procedures."

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Excerpted from East of Borneo. This essay originally appeared in Afterall 1 (Autumn/Winter 2000), and is reproduced with permission from the author. Click here to download a PDF copy.