Studio Unbound by Lane Relyea: Reading Response
The article presented the idea of the new emerging studio as a network in a intriguing way. By blurring the lines between studio and gallery, the process of making art and displaying it, Relyea brings up participatory art as an example. Referencing Gareth James’s piece where he made a functional bar in the museum and invited the public to drink and graffiti the walls, Relyea shows how this new sense of creating art connects the artist and the public in a network that together allows the “art” to be possible. The artist relies on others connected in this web to make his or her work possible.
In this sense, the process of making the art and it’s central idea becomes more important than the finished product. In discussion, someone posed the question of whether this more intense focus on the process of art draws the public in or makes them more critical of how an artist approaches his or her work. However, the participatory nature of this networked studio engages the public as they get to feel a deeper connection to the work if they are a part of it themselves.
Over winter break, I visited the Power Station of Art in Shanghai and there was a piece where the artist laid thousands of steel triangles on the floor and allowed the people visiting to make patterns and design the tiles themselves. The process of allowing the public to interact and change the piece drew me in as I essentially played with the little metal triangles.
The concept of a dynamic studio as a network ushers in an exciting form of participatory art.