Notes on Sharing and Exhibiting

Notes on Sharing and Exhibiting

October 12, 2022

 Titles

My recent works are all untitled, but come with parenthetical subtitles. They’re untitled to leave the question of what they are, or what they are about, open. I’m not interested in enforcing aboutness, and I find aboutness to be a dubious proposition/presumption to begin with, and I think the push to arrive at conclusions as to what work is about leads to a kind of reduction and abbreviation of the work. The parenthetical subtitles might refer to how I think in relation to a group of works or an individual work, or what was on my mind as I went into making them, or how I came to think of them as I completed them, or things I realized after the fact. Sometimes these parentheticals are attitudinal, sometimes more referential. Sometimes they involve, directly or indirectly, references to artists who inspired me or came to mind as I was making the work. The parenthetical subtitles are like nicknames. They’re things to call the works other than proper names, and other than numbers and dates.

Presentation and Pedestals

I’m always thinking about presentation as I’m making the work, sometimes in very specific terms, and sometimes more generally. All of the recent work is what I would generally call pedestal work. In the case of the recent work, I see the pedestals as extensions of the studio and the exhibition rather than as extensions of the individual works. The works themselves are not tethered to bases, nor are bases or pedestals parts of the work. I have preferred heights for displaying sculptures, and prefer that they be situated where one can circumnavigate them, but they can go anywhere and find a place on any counter, table, pedestal, or ledge (though I have preferred heights) or even on the floor or the ground (thought that is not a preferred height for most of the recent work).

Referencing Materials

When listing materials, I try to be clear and specific, and to use technical terminology rather than jargon. To the uninitiated, the technical terms might be just as impenetrable as the jargon, maybe even more so, but I prefer to be as specific as possible, using terms that reflect the technical aspects of what is made rather than the language of making cultures.

Statements

I started writing about art—my work and the work of others—when I was a student, and I’ve never stopped. I write about my work regularly, mostly for my own consideration. It’s an ongoing exercise focused on recalling and recording, observing and note-taking, and committing ideas to words that then get scrutinized, unpacked, researched, and revised. Some of what I write about my work gets pulled together, in varying forms, into statements I’m willing to share. I’m always learning about and from my work, so I never think of any statement I write as definitive or final. They’re always in progress, momentary. I do not consider my writing to be an extension of the work, but I do consider it an important part of the practice. 

Opacity and Transparency (not material)

There are some things with the work regarding which I am opaque. I try to be as transparent as possible about the rest.