19.10.2010
Projects and Assignments
curated by Andrew Berardini
20.10.2010 - 02. 11.2010
Projects and Assignments, installation view, 2010
John Baldessari, installation view, 2010
Natascha Sadr Haghighian, installation view, 2010
The trick is to create something physical and transformative with an economy of means.
Something that denies the pure dematerialization of the internet, but as graceful a gesture as an athlete’s subtle turn or a beautiful woman opening a window.
Two of the artists come from that slightly more idealistic moment popularly known as the 1960s. The others come from the present moment.
David Askevold’s Projects Class came as the immediate inspiration. Canadian artist Askevold held a course at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1969 where he invited artists to propose an idea to be realized by the class as collaborators.
Some examples from the class:
Robert Barry proposed that the students get together and "decide on a single common idea. The idea can be of any nature, simple or complex..." Sol LeWitt presented a "to do" list for the class which included: '1. A work that uses the idea of error 2. A work that uses the idea of incompleteness 3. A work that uses the idea of infinity....' Robert Smithson suggested a work that would involve mud being dumped over a cliff. Lawrence Weiner asked students to "remove" some unspecified thing Halfway Between the Equator and the North Pole.Other than how art travels, questions of how art is taught, or if it can be taught come into play. Is teaching as good a way as any in which to exchange ideas? Is doing better than looking?
I imagined it as an exhibition instead of a class at once to have a space that was open, permeable, and without restriction (enrollment and tuition for example) for involvement, but also as a way to underline that materiality and presence (even with a project in the throws of the dematerialization of art) still matters, people gathering in a space to realize an idea, with others being able to participate however passively by coming to the exhibition.
It’s not a recreation of Askevold’s Projects Class but a gesture to think about art and exchange in a way that depends less on money and more on possibilities.
Roberta Lima & Can Gülcü, 2010
Andrew Berardini (born 1982) is an American art critic, writer, and curator of contemporary art. He has published articles and essays in publications such as Fillip (Vancouver), Artforum (New York), X-TRA (Los Angeles), Artnet, Frieze (London), MOUSSE (Milan), La Stampa (Turin), Paper Monument (New York), Angeleno (Los Angeles), Art Review (London), Style and the Family Tunes (Berlin), Rolling Stone (Italia), and Afterall (London/Los Angeles).[1]. A graduate with an MFA from the School of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts, Berardini has lectured on Art History and Cultural Production at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)[2]. He previously held the position of Assistant Editor of Semiotext(e) Press.[3] Berardini was recently Adjunct Assistant Curator at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena and is currently Los Angeles Editor for Mousse and Senior Editor for Artslant.
