8-Day
Week
A weekly e-newsletter from the publisher of Chronogram containing:
Up-to-date Mid-Hudson events, listings, selections of insight
for conscious living, and social & political commentary.
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Backbone
> Lucid Dreaming
Sprechen Sie “Art”?
 One
occasionally hears the declaration that “art is the universal language,”
or somesuch blather. As I’ve been discussing it quite carefully with
students in my Art Criticism class this semester at SUNY New Paltz, the
whsole concept of “art” is one that is historically quite specific,
and in fact the enterprise of imposing such a procrustean definition on
an apparently infinite range of cultures and their respective cultural production
does real violence to all involved in the “exchange”.
In an age of broadband Internet, jet planes, FedEx, and faxes, it can seem
almost quaint to imagine that place still makes a difference, at least in
the developed world. Maybe globalization has put the world in some sort
of giant blender, waiting to make a gigantic, homogenous smoothie of all
of us—but it hasn’t actually happened yet. Despite the best efforts
of real estate developers seemingly everywhere, erecting millions of identical
little suburban sprawl cookie-cutter houses for people to live in, they
have not yet managed to pave over all the differences of place. Even McDonald’s
has had to admit that they needed to fine-tune the menu in certain places
like Israel (no bacon-cheeseburgers) and India (no dead cow at all). We
do have different traditions, different assumptions about ourselves, and
different ways of looking at things. In fact, it’s these differences
that make the world interesting, if you ask me.
Looking at art generally requires at least some openness on the part of
the viewer: If you can’t allow for possibilities outside your own usual
frame of reference, you’re likely to miss all or part of the experience
being offered. It’s sometimes hard to remember this when you spend
most of your time looking at the same artists all the time—a situation
locally that will be transformed completely this month, with the presence
of a group of German artists who will be visiting through the auspices of
the Art Society of Kingston (ASK).
The “Rhine-Hudson Bridge” project began utterly by chance. Vindora
Wixom, vice-president of ASK and a native of Germany, was in Cologne to
solicit companies to come do business here, on behalf of the Ulster County
Development Corporation. While waiting to speak with a German official,
she struck up a conversation with another woman waiting in line, Elfie Hellmich,
who just happened to be the president of a local arts organization, the
Kunstlerinnenverbund Erftkreis/Köln (KEK). Immediately, the idea took
hold to conduct an artistic exchange between the two organizations, which
begins this month with the appearance of two exhibitions and the visit of
six artists from Germany. In the fall of 2003, a delegation of artists will
visit Cologne, accompanying an exhibition of works by members of ASK.
The groups are not direct parallels of each other—while ASK is an open-membership
organization which includes both artists and art lovers, KEK is a smaller,
more tightly-defined group of women artists, most of whom are full-time
arts professionals (art therapists, art teachers, etc.). The exhibitions
put together by KEK reflect the overall high professional standards of the
group as well. There will be two shows on view here, spread across four
galleries in Kingston. The Coffey Gallery will display “Lichtpause—fühlen
um zu begreifen,” loosely translated as “Exposure—feeling
in order to understand.”
Lichtpause is the technical term in German for a photographic exposure,
literally the “pause for light” in the camera. In this way it
also carries a secondary sense for the exhibition, because the work was
all conceived of as art for the blind and sight-impaired. As artist Anita
Eindorf noted in the catalog for the show’s original German installation,
“As a painter it was and is very difficult for me to make my abstract
work accessible for the blind. How do I make the color blue perceptible?”
Her painting Blue Wind combines mixed media on heavy, handmade paper to
create a work that is visually blue but which also creates a texture that,
for Eindorf, corresponds to her sense of the color.
With this exhibition especially, the question of translation becomes inevitable.
Not only is there the cultural difference between Kingston and Cologne,
but the show itself addresses the translation of what is usually conceived
of as a primarily visual experience (painting, sculpture, etc.) into the
realm of the tactile. Rita Lü will be showing a series of white works
on paper, on which a series of simple forms have been embossed—and
in these works, feeling the raised portions becomes the primary mode of
encountering the work, as it is difficult to see very much. In fact, non-seeing-impaired
visitors to the exhibition will be encouraged to don blindfolds, in order
to experience the work through all the other senses available, in order
to better grasp (begreifen, which similarly preserves the double meaning
of “to understand” and “to grab”) the world of the blind.
A second exhibition, put together expressly for the Rhine-Hudson Bridge
exchange, will appear at the ASK and Donskoj galleries. “Elements of
Time” will include works sent by members of KEK, as well as a number
of pieces executed partially or entirely here, in borrowed studios, by the
visiting German artists. Given the much more fluid nature of the genesis
of this show, there are relatively few details available at press time on
specific works; however, they will all address aspects of the question of
time and continuity, marked particularly by the flow between the two communities
and the artistic and cultural dialogue opened up by the exchange. Expect
to see work that reflects both the common media culture that we share and
also some of the geographically/culturally particular features that distinguish
the Rhine from the Hudson.
The Living Room Gallery will exhibit several sculptures from “Elements
of Time” that are too large for the other venues, and in addition,
a group of works by the Munich-based artist Cäsar W. Radetzky (who
is not connected to the KEK exchange). Radetzky’s major claim to fame
is the fact that he was one of the last artists to study with Austrian Expressionist
great Oskar Kokoschka, a tradition that he has apparently elected to exuberantly
continue. His large, painterly canvases promise an experience of pure painting
that is rarely seen in this area.
In my humble opinion, the ultimate effect of this sort of dynamic cultural
exchange can only be beneficial. And just imagine, after absorbing this
infusion of new aesthetic inspiration, what our very own Hudson Valley artists
will be able to create—and then send back to Cologne to complete the
circle in 2003.
“Lichtpause/Exposure,” May 4-25 at the Coffey Gallery, 330 Wall
Street, Kingston. 339-6105.
“Elements of Time,” May 4-25 at the ASK Gallery, 37 North Front
Street (2nd floor), Kingston. 338-0331. Also at Donskoj & Company, 93
Broadway, Kingston. 338-8473.
“The Vivid Expressions of Cäsar W. Radetzky,” (also several
works from “Elements of Time”), May 4-25 at The Living Room, 45
North Front Street, Kingston. 338-8353. |
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Lucid
Dreaming 
