Susan Kwon

Last day today. I think I’m ready to go back to real life. Even though I’ve been blogging everyday I haven’t heard or seen any news or talked to friends or family for the past two weeks. I love Ox-Bow but I kinda miss home. I’ll wrap it up with a scene from tonight’s costume party. I haven’t hula hooped in a loooong time….it was fun. So goodbye cow bell, goodbye good food, goodbye midnight toast bar, goodbye deet, goodbye mosquitos, fleas, ticks & spiders, goodbye beer at 5pm, goodbye bonfire & moonwalk in the meadow & crow’s nest, goodbye random people…. hello NPR and laundry and barefeet and texting. Bittersweet, really.

My work space today:

The unique thing about Ox-bow is the different people you meet everyday. Since it’s a small community, I see the same faces several times a day, especially at meals. It’s normal to smile and say hi to strangers and start a conversation before exchanging names. Sometimes, we even skip the “What do you do?” and dive into “What are you wearing to the costume party?”  It’s like overnight camp for adults where you can become bff’s with someone you meet at the toast bar at midnight. Yes, we have a toast bar. It terrific. All the dwelling spaces have a personal touch, that makes it inviting & arsty, from the hand-painted signs to refurbished furniture. People interact here in a more personable way, not via text and facebook…although that might also have to do with poor cellphone reception and internet connection…

So I’ve been utilizing Ox-Bow’s community to expand the text I use in my work.  Still working in line with my interest in mealtime conversations, I placed lists marked I SAID & I MEANT in shared spaces. This one was on a table in the breezeway to the dining room where people stand in line to get their food. I put others on bulletin boards, an outdoor bench, and even bathrooms. I’m hoping this method of collective authorship & anonymity will allow for more open, candid responses rather than contrived. I think this approach will help remove the filter that shortens the gap between language and subtext.

We had our first critique today. I’ve been working on a video installation to display from the windows of my inn but I have very limited access to media related equipment which has been a little frustrating. The video I’m working with is the silhouette version of Digital Portraits. In the meantime I did an exercise with paint swatches outdoors. I’m not so much interested in matching the colors as I am in seeing how the names romanticize nature. The hike to Crow’s Nest made me think of how many artists create a picturesque image of the outdoors. The names of colors such as Summer Pudding, Koi Pond, Arresting Auburn, etc. appeal to our consumerist desires to create a sense of artificial closeness to nature while further removing us from the actual thing. This image is from a experiential piece by the lagoon. We shared a beer & tried to catch a breeze that skimmed our bottle and whistled. It actually worked!

Since I got here I’ve been so consumed with reading & writing that I haven’t made anything yet….so I started playing around with things that put me at ease: cutting stencils of text. That led to trying screenprinting for the first time at 1 am. I like its immediacy once the screen is prepared and the possibilites of hand-pulled multiples. This is my screen with a set of text to be printed with white ink on canvas. I haven’t decided where I’m going to install them yet.

I had an individual meeting with the Stephanie Brooks today. It was refreshing to show my work to new eyes. Based on clips of She Said Look, She Said Yes, Digital Portraits & Minding The Gap, she repeated my key words back to me, which means I’m getting somewhere:

fragmented text
push & pull
desire longing
distant personal intimacy

I also looked at the work of Ellen Rothenberg and instantly felt a connection to her installation pieces, especially Public Address, which is mostly bold text from a third-person point of view. Next on my reading list is On Longing by Susan Stewart and The Female Complaint by Lauren Berlant, a feminist cultural theorist. Just as I started to branch off from the female perspective, I’m moving back towards it, but in a more refined way. I’m liking where I’m headed & want to get there sooner.

Strategy for materializing Here & There:
Replace with This & That. Replace with image for 2D work & object for 3D work.

We took a hike to the Crow’s nest today:

This time I got lodging in the Janie…hooray! It’s a lovely purple cabin with new wood floors, ceiling fans & a separate living area. I stayed in the old inn the past two summers so this space feels like a luxury already.

So for our first class meeting tonight we met in the new printmaking studio. I perked up at the row of colorful ductape, stencil letters, spray paint, & huge rolls of paper along one end of the wall. This is right up my alley. I love D.I.Y. & visual culture stuff. I brought an old window frame I saved from my house renovation and hope to incorporate it into an outdoor installation. It sounds like I’ll have access to a video camera and projector as well which I’m super excited about.

My first reading was an excerpt from Six Years by Lucy Lippard. It revolves around the question, “What is a dematerialized art object?” Even though this book was written in the 60′s, it sparks a conversation about conceptual art. I personally think it’s something that is evidence, residue, or a documentation of an ephemeral moment or idea. Kind of like the Fluxus movement started in the 1950′s explored by John Cage with his experimental music. Sometimes what is leftover from a movement or idea is the art object itself, even if it is a piece of paper with writing on it. When wondering why it is that traditional forms of art such as painting and sculpture is in some ways still valued more than conceptual art, it makes sense that the notion of art as commodity supports the gallery and museum institutions. How do you sell an idea when it’s not in a physical form? Art has no monetary value unless someone is willing to pay for it. I think new media work such as video, installation & sound art looks outside of these traditional settings to seek validation from a wider audience, making it accessible to anyone who has access to the internet. Since a lot of media work is not object based and speak a similar language to popular culture today (film, youtube, interactive video games, portable technology on cellphones, etc.) it can risk easily slipping between the fine line of art versus entertainment. However ephemeral it might be, putting art into the hands of more people through media can be a powerful & effective tool. I think of Miranda July’s website, Learning To Love You More, as an example of conceptual art using the internet as a public sharing forum.

I’m counting down til Ox-bow. I’ve been retreating to Saugatuck, MI for the past two summers and I always have an amazing time, meet interesting people and make unexpected work. This year I’ll be taking Conceptual Practices with Stephanie Brooks. I plan on immersing myself in thesis work. Here are some ideas I want to explore in my two weeks there:

I am interested in contradictions & multiple meanings & pairs. In some of my past work, I’ve explored the notion of duality through the revealing & concealing of layers. Now I’m interested in exposing both sides at the same time. I think opposites work harmoniously rather than negating the other. What something is is defined by what it is not.

[film a long duration of the horizon (sky & lagoon) and keep a time log---backlit projection onto window frames covered with white vellum---suspend in exact location & space where the footage was taken---start playing video 12 hours from the time recorded so that day 'meets' night---variation would be to film an inside space and show it outside or vis versa]

[sculptural paper installation---combine with video projection or internal sound piece (zoom mic).]

[appropriate by assigning new associations to existing visual languages (ie. signage, public symbols) using text & typography; ask the viewer to imagine or fill in the meaning---construct dimensional object referring to an experience of something else (a metaphor/physical placeholder) using material that's easy to carve or make molds from---wood, wire & plaster OR using found ephemeral material that rusts & decomposes left outdoors---think multiples---think location---think conceptual title]

[negative space cutouts from colored felt draped from branches]

[stop-motion film depicting 'the bonus']