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A3: Recipe Book

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Advertisement Posters 

these were the posters we made in order to advertise our event, 

here are the many different coloured variations

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‘theanyspacewhatever’

We did some further research into artist who share similar practices in relation to relational aesthetics. In doing this we came across the art exhibition in the Guggenheim called ‘theanyspacewhatever 2008-2009′ where 10 artists worked together to create a collective experience, all having different expertise.

theanyspacewhatever 2008-2009

Within this exhibition, 10 artists with common ideas on relational aesthetics created an exhibition at the Guggenheim.

‘...ten artists who share certain strategies and sensibilities: Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.’

Though each artist is recognized for his or her own practice, they are linked by a mutual rethinking of the early modernist impulse to conflate art and life. Rather than deploy representational strategies, they privilege experiential, situation-based work over discrete aesthetic objects.’

All these artists are from ‘theanyspacewhatever’:

Angela Bulloch

Firmamental Night Sky: Oculus.12, 2008

‘Engaging the senses with color, light, and music, Angela Bulloch's installations explore the effects of environmental stimuli by incorporating elements that are activated by the viewer or patterned according to digital programming.’

Maurizio Cattelan

Daddy Daddy, 2008

‘Maurizio Cattelan is known for his provocative, paradoxical sculptures and installations, which frequently invoke the artist's own antiheroic persona. While a black sense of humor, roguish pranks, and a taste for the subversive have become hallmarks of Cattelan's work, its foundation lies in a nuanced confrontation with the absurdity and tragedy of the human condition. Cattelan's life-size effigy of a beloved fairytale character lying face down in the museum's fountain reads as a crime scene replete with questions of intent: suicide, homicide, or ill-planned escape?’

Liam Gillick

theanyspacewhatever Signage System, 2008

Powder-coated, water-cut aluminum pieces

‘Liam Gillick's work investigates the ideological underpinnings of the built environment, exposing the social, political, and economic forces that distinguish architectural spaces, and investigating how these properties construct and mediate behavior. He often exploits the potential of the exhibition format within a practice that encompasses an intricate layering of critical writing, fiction, and sculptural form, with an emphasis on modern design. For theanyspacewhatever, Gillick has intervened in the Guggenheim's operational systems, such as directions, didactics, and seating, to subtly reorient visitors' experiences of the exhibition itself.     His series of hanging aluminum signs infiltrates the museum, deploying a characteristically spare and arresting graphic aesthetic. Appropriating the conventions of institutional signage, some of the texts playfully mimic imperative and informational language, while others reference the work of the artists participating in the show, or offer enigmatic slogans.’

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's

Meyers, NY.2022, 2008

Sound and light environment, 9 min.

‘Gonzalez-Foerster's light- and sound-based installation NY.2022 (2008), created in collaboration with Ari Benjamin Meyers, regularly animates the Peter B. Lewis Theater as a new iteration of an orchestral performance commissioned by the museum's Works & Process series and presented during the opening weekend of the exhibition. The live production of NY.2022 reconceived the science fiction film Soylent Green (1973) as an abstract musical narrative about endings and departures.’

Douglas Gordon

prettymucheverywordwritten,spoken,heard,overheardfrom1989

Wall texts in various fonts and sizes

‘From the beginning of his career, Douglas Gordon has used text and the spoken word to subtly intervene in existing environments. Whether whispered over the phone to unsuspecting audience members or sent via mail, his succinct but poignant missives disrupt the usual flows of communication. Dispersed virally throughout the museum's rotunda, prettymucheverywordwritten,spoken,heard,overheardfrom1989 . . . is a compilation of texts that provides a veritable archive of Gordon's written work. Encountered collectively, the texts reveal the artist's obsession with opposites–fact and fiction, good and evil, and so on–and the ways in which they often collapse into one another.’

Carsten Höller

Revolving Hotel Room, 2008

‘Carsten Höller's work generates unstable situations that challenge the assumptions of the viewer and explore the influence of unanticipated movement on human perception. His participation-based installations and devices—ranging from flying machines, slides, and carousels, to goggles that view the world upsidedown—induce new psychological and physiological sensations that prompt the participant to experience him or herself and the environment in a new way. Höller's fully functioning hotel room invites visitors to spend the night in the museum's rotunda on four slow-turning discs equipped with comfortable sleeping, dressing, and working areas. Members of the public can reserve the room for one night each and enjoy a leisurely private viewing of the entire exhibition at any point during their stay.’

Pierre Huyghe

theanyspacewhatever transfer book, 2008

‘Pierre Huyghe's work plays freely with the constructs of time and reality, creating fictional narratives that draw upon and ultimately affect our empirical world. As his contribution to theanyspacewhatever, Huyghe has created a book of iron-on transfers that illustrate the Guggenheim's exterior and interior, incorporating images of the spaces in which the artworks appear as a speculative device. This representation of a possible reality includes a number of renderings of the darkened rotunda filled with multiple beams of light, in reference to the participatory event, OPENING, that Huyghe will stage three times during the run of the exhibition. Disrupting and disorienting the temporal flow of the museum's presentation, the performance invites visitors to roam through the space in blackout conditions, lighting their way with headlamps. In a conceptually linked project, an  image by Huyghe is currently displayed on a billboard in Times Square, at 47th  Street with 7th Avenue’

Philippe Parreno

Marquee, Guggenheim, NY, 2008

‘Philippe Parreno considers the exhibition to be an integral element in his poetic and elusive work, which also comprises publications, lectures, and performances. His site-specific, illuminated movie marquee installed on the facade of the Guggenheim Museum functions as an enigmatic “label” for the exhibition. Rendered in white Plexiglas and neon, this ghostly sign announces the show without making any pronouncements about its content or structure, instead reflecting the open-ended nature of the exhibition.’

Jorge Pardo

Jorge Pardo Sculpture Ink, 2008

‘Infusing the aesthetics of modern design with a Pop inflection, Jorge Pardo reunites form and function to create operative environments within the museum, while also bringing art into everyday life in his architecture and design projects.

Whether redesigning a restaurant, an office, or a domestic interior, his work is always characterized by finely crafted, decorative elements and an interest in the social dynamics of public and private space. For this exhibition, Pardo has transformed one of the museum's ramps with an interlocking system of intricately-patterned cardboard screens that are illuminated by sculptural lamps. Demarcating an alternative circulation route for visitors, the installation also functions as an inventive display system for a series of silkscreened prints created by the artists in the exhibition and produced on a press in Pardo's studio in collaboration with master printer Christian Zickler.’

Rirkrit Tiravanija

CHEW THE FAT, 2008

A  documentary film portrait

‘Rirkrit Tiravanija is best known for the meals he has cooked for visitors during his exhibitions, as well as the architectural structures he transposes to the gallery environment, in a layering of the real onto the aesthetic. True to his career-long pursuit to blend art and life, Tiravanija has created a documentary film, CHEW THE FAT, on the occasion of this exhibition. The film features extensive interviews with the artists in theanyspacewhatever as well as with other friends and colleagues, providing an intimate perspective on the art of the 1990s. The interviews–all approximately seventy—five minutes in length–are on view on dedicated monitors in the High Gallery, and in an edited-down, feature-length version screened regularly in the museum's theaters.’

After researching and observing all the different approaches throughout this exhibition it really broadened the scope of possibilities of how we could approach this type of topic of creating a community. Ultimately was very helpful when deciding what we were going to do! 

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Artist Inspiration - Rirkrit Tiravanija 

I am reblogging this again as Tiravanija work was an artist who has inspired the development of our idea, his combination and lack of distinction between art and life is very insightful and very successful. 

Similarly in our event we want to create an environment in which conversations can form and for stories to be told, using old recipes and food as the platform for this to happen.

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Untitled (Free), 1992

source

(source)

“In 1992, Rirkrit Tiravanija created an exhibition entitled Untitled (Free) at 303 Gallery in New York. In this landmark piece, the artist converted a gallery into a kitchen where he served rice and Thai curry for free. In this deceptively simple conceptual piece, the artist invites the visitor to interact with contemporary art in a more sociable way, and blurs the distance between artist and viewer. You aren’t looking at the art, but are part of it—and are, in fact, making the art as you eat curry and talk with friends or new acquaintances.“ 

source: (MoMA)

“Tiravanija is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of his generation, and since the 1990s has based much of his art around the idea of creating social spaces and platforms for instruction and discussion. His works have taken various forms, including performances, teaching, readings, broadcasting music, cooking and sharing meals, and are associated with the concept of ‘relational aesthetics’, a term coined in the 1990s by French curator and art critic Nicolas Bourriaud that describes ‘a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space’; or put simply, as Tiravanija has stated, ‘It is not what you see that is important but what takes place between people’.“

source: (NGV)

I like Tiravanija’s focus on creating a community within his works, and how he creates works that bring people together (some that may not usually associate) and creates an environment conducive for discussion.

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A3 Idea for Event

Collaborative and community based event located at a local primary school space e.g. Glebe Primary School. The event is based around the idea of community and culture, attendees are encouraged to bring a dish that is  maybe a recipe passed through the family or a family favourite. Coming together to share stories and listen to each other.

Main inspiration: relational aesthetics in art

The event will be inviting different people to bring recipes and food and share their stories with strangers who have done the same, uncovering different histories that exist within the communities we live in.

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‘1 batch of brownies, 6 suburbs’ 2018

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Concept Statement

How does collaboration create communities in art and design? What challenges do collaborative approaches face and what are some of the solutions?

‘1 batch of brownies, 6 suburbs’, 2018

Communities are everywhere. Everyone is apart of one or multiple different communities, people move from one to another, some cease to exist and some are catalysts to the creation of others. Communities can be physical, digital, interest based, and many other different variables. When approaching this project I took all these possibilities into consideration and decided to challenge the idea of what a community is. The way I decided to do this was through the use of food as a tool to catalyse the production of a community. But not just to create a regular community, but to be the factor that connects a group of people who are potentially unaware of the other members of this communities existence. This idea was generated as an attempt to suggest the idea of participating in a community you are unaware of, the unknown contribution to a community. 

When creating this work I was highly inspired by Agatha Goethe-Snape’s work, ‘Every Artists Remembered’, 2009, and Rirkrit Tiravanija’s socially collaborative work ‘Untitled (Free)’, 1992, as these works push for the creation of new communities through the use of unique methods. Goethe-Snape’s work created a community of people who engaged in her work, by listing artists as many artists they knew. Tiravanija was extremely influential when approaching this project as he used both food and people to create a social encounter, and ultimately to build a new community. These two artists were the two most significant influencers of my work, as I was encouraged by their creative approaches and their desire to create a social encounter throughout their works. 

The other artist who inspired my works was Gabriel Orozco’s, ‘Watermelons and Cats’, 1992. This work touches on the deconstruction of supermarket systems through placing cat food on top of watermelons. The combination of a playful approach and a powerful meaning was highly inspiring when considering how to approach this project.

‘1 batch of brownies, 6 suburbs’ is a collaborative work that seeks the production of multiple social encounters and ultimately, to create an invisible community. It was conducted over two nights, travelling to six different suburbs, spanning from the North Shore to the Northern Beaches. Through cooking a batch of brownies and gifting them to different people, they, one by one, were contributing to the creation of a community of people who had eaten that batch of brownies. Through collectively sharing the same experience in ‘sharing a meal’ the participants unknowingly were a part in the development on a minor community of brownie eaters. This brings focus onto food being the a catalyst in producing experiences that can be collectively shared, in the same place, or not. And it also further suggests a broader view for what a community may pertain.

When conducting this experiment I had the assistance of a friend in documenting the process through photographs and videos. This process was a significant component of this work as it captured the essence of the production. The shots of each different house is suggestive of the separation between each of the individuals but as the video progresses it shows the collectively similarity in the experience they have in receiving/eating the brownies. 

This work uses brownies as a means of creating an invisible community, and fundamentally touches on the flexibility of the parameters that define what a community may be.

Bibliography:

Francis Alÿs

http://francisalys.com/sometimes-making-something-leads-to-nothing/

Barbara Cleveland

‘Bodies in Time’, 2016 (excerpt)

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/380.2016/

Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni

2045 – The Death of Ray Kurzweil, 2014, Season 1, Episode 1 (excerpt)

https://vimeo.com/85250038

Gabriel Orozco

Watermelons and Cats, 1992

https://www.artpractical.com/review/gabriel_orozco/

Image Source

https://theredlist.com/wiki-2-351-382-1160-1167-view-mexico-profile-orozco-gabriel.html

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Untitled (Free), 1992

https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/rirkrit-tiravanija/

https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/02/03/rirkrit-tiravanija-cooking-up-an-art-experience/

Agatha Gothe-Snape

‘Every Artist Remembered’, 2009

https://thecommercialgallery.com/artist/agatha-gothe-snape/exhibition/95/every-artist-remembered-2

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Experiment 5

Further Video experimentation

In this experiment I reshuffled the video, and removed the gaps between the different encounters with people.

I also changed the sizing of the words at the beginning of the video to being smaller than the previous video.

This was the result:

In reflection I do also like the outcome of this experiment, the smaller writing I think is a good addition. As well as the removal of gaps between each video, I thought it allowed for the video to flow well. 

Now I need to decide which aspects of my experiments are my preferred way of presentation for my collaborative works.

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Experiment 4:

Premiere Pro CC Video Experimentation

I started to test with the Adobe program ‘Premiere Pro CC’ and begun to collate all the footage together.

When collating all the footage I found that this program had a LOT more capabilities.

I begun to crop, chop, insert overlay text and overlaying audio from videos not included to create the video

In the first version I inserted gaps in between the different footage to seperate all the different encounters I had with people.

This was the result:

After reflecting on this video I liked the effect in breaking up the footage into seperate videos as it helped assist the narrative of how the work played out. Although they could be more evenly dispersed, and I also think that the text at the beginning was larger than necessary.

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Experiment 3:

iMovie Video documentation

So in this experiment I tested making a video of all the footage I had taken during the work.

When using iMovie it was relatively good as a program but it wasn’t long before I realised that it did not have the technical functions I was hoping, which was quite disappointing.

So I needed to keep looking for another program capable.

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further video documentation inspo

Francis Alÿs

‘Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing’, 1997

source

Within this work the artist himself pushes a block of ice around Mexico city until it melts. It is documented by showing short clips along the way of the artist pushing the ice in different areas, on the side of the road, down stairs etc. 

After finding this work, I really enjoyed how it was documented and the rough, unfinished representation of the whole work. 

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Post-Work

After driving around to different people’s houses and offering them brownies I have some photos and videos of the whole process. I asked a friend to assist me for a section of the work so that there were photos of me mid-process.

In doing this these were the images captured. 

Now what I need to do is experiment with how I plan on presenting my final work, as I will need to decide what images I display/ if I would like to display them

and how I plan on displaying the videos. 

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Final Idea:

Make a batch of brownies, 

drive around and deliver them to a group of random people, 

document it with photos and videos.

Time limit: until the brownies are done!

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 video documentation inspiration

Barbara Cleveland

‘Bodies in Time’, 2016 (excerpt) 

- text used in video

- voice over/ collection of voices saying statements

- sound effects, background music/noise

source

Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni

2045 – The Death of Ray Kurzweil, 2014, Season 1, Episode 1 (excerpt)

- extreme close up shots, and extreme wide shots

- diegetic and non-diegetic sound

source

Looking at how these three artists present their works through videos is helpful for me as I might decide to document through video recording.

It is helpful to observe how different people approach visually documenting.

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inspo

Gabriel Orozco 

Watermelons and Cats, 1992

 source

“Orozco's work creates the endearing feeling that he just happened upon a strange and beautiful scene. They resemble quirky documentary photographs, and it almost appears that Orozco is following a younger counterpart around, documenting the remnants of playtime. Surely, this playfulness is seen in Cats and Watermelons (1992), in which cans of cat food sit atop a crate of watermelons in a grocery store. The sculptures take after the Surrealists’ Exquisite Corpse game, with the face of the wide-eyed and hungry kitten as the top half and the watermelon as the bottom half of the imagined body”

source

In this work I really like how the distinction between life and art is blurred and how it has a playful sense to the production of this work. The work touches on the supermarket systems that seperate products specifically by colour, and by introducing two products that are far from the same context it creates an interruption within these systems in place. 

Personally taking away from this I really enjoy the playful approach and it’s deeper purpose and also the blurred distinction between life and art.  

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Development of Idea:

Creating a community using a food:

I plan on cooking some brownies and going around to different people’s and offering them some brownies to eat. 

In doing this I plan on challenging the idea of a community being a group of people in the same place, sharing the same interests, but even people sharing the same experience can create a community.

Now..

there are a couple of ways I could document this process;

 video, photos, film photos, a physical document people write on, a montage video of a bunch of section of the work.

and also

will there be a fixed time limit?