PoArt Exhibit: Kathleen McHugh [32]

Kathleen McHugh
Seattle, Washington, USA
mchughart.net

8/20/2010 - Original Proposal:

This is my concept, but I haven't developed it in great detail yet. If it's accepted, I will mail
1) the piece of glass
2) the stack of printed papers, sealed and ready to display
3) A little "take me" sign
4) Two boxes for casting ballots

Proposal A) work which may be interacted with by an audience

I would like a small piece of clear Plexiglas to be installed in a lower corner of a window, hopefully near the entrance.

Somewhere deeper in the space, I would like a stack papers placed on a table with a "take me" sign directing people to them. They would be folded in half and sealed, with the following printed on the outside:

Title of proposed work : Is This Piece of Art Courting You For Love Or Is She Just After Your Money?

Does This Work Meet The Three Prong Prostitution Test?

1) Is it unnoticeable and forgettable

2) Upon identifying "it" as art, is it a work that promotes inquiry, investigation and discourse into cutting edge relevant contemporary issues?
3) Finally, is it able to attach itself, by verbal association, to a long lineage of very important art?

by the seal would be the words "open me"

On the inside of the paper would be a formally written art criticism statement about the work (piece of glass in the window) which would highlight inquiry, investigation and discourse and would be defended by a pedigree of name dropping art....

The #1 would be to ask the reader if he/she identified the piece of glass as art when walking by it, or regarded it as art after reading the art criticism. Why is the work approaching the viewer? Is it because the art loves the viewer, or wants money? Somewhere near the glass, but not so close as to "give it away", would be two boxes, one labeled "Love" and one "Prostitution" Each person would be invited to cast a vote by dropping a paper into a box. Each person could decide for himself or herself if what she was looking at was art or prostitution.

At some point, the votes could be tallied and the results could be placed on the blog ?

8/21/2010 - More details (excerpts from an email):

Nothing is exact in my mind. At the moment, I think the glass should be taped to the glass window somehow since it would be easier to come up with some art rationale for doubling it. Maybe I'll send you and envelope of sand too (just kidding).... I'll collect some appropriate lingo and jargon this weekend, I'll look for ways to embellish the ballot boxes. I don't care where things are situated etc.,
The main idea would be to present people with a situation in which each one would be asked to make an individual choice : art? or not? There would be no reason to get into 'groupthink', but I think 'groupthink' is habitual now. I see it in galleries. People confer with each other and THEN start discussing something.... can someone go through the steps as an individual and make a personal decision about art when confronted with it? That is my question. My bias and pet peeve is of course about all the unremarkable unnoticeable objects or non objects that people gloss over until someone says with enthusiasm,"that's a john smith ecoblast"////then, it's "oh, an ecoblast.... wasn't john smith at the 2003 conference in Finland about non refractable melt with lasper evans? Yes, oh, Lasper Evans wasn't he a member of the moss out of the shadows guerrilla gardening Detroit strike of 2001?" then hours of talk about eco art urban guerrilla works can ensue and the john smith eco blast is, by association, absorbed into the entire movement , thereby giving the 'john smith ecoblast' it's place of status in art in the viewers minds...- all writing in red is pure fiction- typed off the top of my head.
So, basically, the sheets of paper will have 'the qustions' on the outside, description and location of the art installation on the window, and on the inside will be the 'blah, blah blah "It will be up to each individual to decide for himself or herself where to cast a vote.
I'll figure out a way to put this idea into a coherent package and mail it to Mobius. All feedback appreciated.
Thanks, my mind is racing....................................

8/22/2010 - Final Package prior to mailing:

Attached are photos of the "voting apparatus"-

two mini desk trash cans labeled 'Art' and 'PoArt'
with an assemblage & basket to hold puzzle pieces.



A vote is cast by putting a puzzle piece into a trash can.



One 8" x 10" sheet of plexiglas. (The protective film can be removed just before you stick it to the window so that it will be clean and smudge free. )


The following is what is printed on the outside and inside of the flyers:

Printed on the outside of the folded taped sheet:

Is This Piece of Art Courting You For Love Or Is She Just After Your Money?

Does This Work Meet The Three Prong Prostitution Test?

1) Is it unnoticeable and forgettable

2) Upon identifying "it" as art, is it a work that promotes inquiry, investigation and discourse into cutting edge relevant contemporary issues?

3) Finally, is it able to attach itself, by verbal association, to a long lineage of very important art?

　open me

Printed on the inside of folded sheet

Plexiscape #1

An eco-investigation into the invisible ways modern urban culture creates artificial boundaries to barricade itself from the natural world. Plexiscape #1 demands blueprints for a new cultural imperative.

Plexiscape #1 Unnoticed and invisible, mass-produced and environmentally harmful, modern urban life is contained inside plastic. Butcher paper has been replaced by styrofoam trays and cellophane, glass has been replaced by clear acrylic, and, whenever possible, the natural has been replaced by the synthetic.
Plexiscape #1 is an eco artwork that speaks to the invisible layers we use to separate ourselves from the natural environment. These layers are transparent, but not transcendent. They are the silent tomb we are sealing ourselves in as we destroy our source of life in the natural world.

What is eco art?

In a general sense, [Eco-art] is art that helps improve our relationship with the natural world. There is no definition set in stone. This living worldwide movement is growing and changing as you read this. Much environmental art is ephemeral, designed for a particular place (site-specific) and involves collaborations between artists and others such as scientists, educators and community groups. -The Greenmuseum

In our modern world advanced by technology, experience of the real is often mediated by the virtual: television, movies or email. With the globalization of economies, widespread and ferocious industrialization, rapidity of communication and commerce and the shift to hypo-real lifestyles, the very nature of our lives have changed. Work entails the exchange of information. Leisure is often sedentary and indoor. And agriculture is managed by a distant corporation. Nature has become an abstract concept; something that we see through a car window, passing at 55 mph.

Society has become disconnected from Nature—the very source of life. The ecosystem that we rely upon for our survival, we poison without second thought. As cultural disconnection from Nature continues to develop, it has become imperative that Nature in art and art in Nature provide a connection to the power and meaning of life. - Tim Gaudreau

"It's the polar bears, the hurricanes, the triple-digit temperatures recorded last month in Seattle. It's global warming, climate change and environmental destruction. While scientists, politicians, corporate heads and Al Gore discuss climate change, Kurtz believes that it's the artist's job to comment upon it.

To that end, Kurtz proposes a whole new realm of critical theory through which to evaluate and interpret modern art, dubbing it visual eco-criticism. Already an accepted practice in literary circles, visual eco-criticism questions how nature and the environment are depicted in both artworks and the media; analyses art—even that which wasn't created with, say, climate change in mind—through the prism of global concerns; questions the role of class, gender, race and sexuality in an environmental context; encourages artists to engage with activists in their work; and examines even the "footprint" of the artwork: the sustainability of the materials used, their toxicity, their possible longevity in the atmosphere. "-Gretchen Giles

9/18 to 9/25/2010 - At the Exhibition:

At the opening which was at night, one audience member could not see the plexiglass and because of the placement of the voting apparatus in relation to the plexiglass, a few people were unable to draw the connection. Another artist said that it's difficult to get people to vote on anything and that you have to hit them over the head or practically threaten them. The curators decided to make the connection more obvious.

What follows are two videos, one shot at night

Is This Piece of Art Courting You For Love Or Is She Just After Your Money? #1

and the other during the actual daytime open studios on Saturday September 25th with an artist who came to the show and was kind enough to let us videotape him experience the installation.

Is This Piece of Art Courting You For Love Or Is She Just After Your Money? #2

9/25/2010 - FINAL TALLY:

3 = PoArt
17 = Art