Clement Greenberg speaking in 1961.

In 1983, art historian T.J. Clark delivered his paper, “More on the Differences Between Comrade Greenberg and Ourselves” at the Vancouver conference, Modernism and Modernity. Clement Greenberg, the critic who named kitsch “the epitome of all that is spurious” and had a Pollock hanging in his bathroom, was in the audience. I do not know if Greenberg participated in the Q&A, or spoke up for himself at all when Clark finished speaking. Certainly, he was not sitting center stage as Rosalind Krauss was yesterday in the L.A. Convention Center, when Benjamin Buchloh delivered his paper, “More on the Differences between Comrade Krauss and Ourselves.”

Annually, the College Art Association Conference, underway in L.A. right now, honors a distinguished scholar by assembling a group of other distinguished scholars to pay well-researched homage (or “femmage,” critic Hal Foster joked badly yesterday). Those assembled in Rosalind Krauss’s honor included, in addition to Foster and Buchloh, Yve-Alain Bois, Harry Cooper, Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, and Briony Fer, all famous within the “art ideas” bubble for some contribution made to art history during the time Krauss has been making hers. All have published in October, the now-renown art theory quarterly Krauss, along with Annette Michelson, co-founded in 1976.

Rosalind Krauss speaking on Bruce Nauman at the Dia Art Foundation, New York, May 23, 2002.

As makes sense for homage, most of what went was said glowed with respect and generous affection, well-deserved for the woman who more or less made art theory a field. Buchloh alone pointedly took Krauss to task. And this, according to him, is something he’s done quite regularly since they met in the 1970s.

Buchloh encountered Krauss first when still an adjunct in Germany. He read her writing — I forgot which essay, but, given the timeline, it likely had to do with Modern sculpture and, quite possibly, with the work of David Smith — and had been bowled over by its critical clarity. This is after all, the woman who wrote, “Everything that has been said up to this point boils down to this: in language there are only differences” and who has appeared in every art theory textbook I have ever owned, sometimes talking about Mondrian, sometimes about Mike Kelley. She is and has always been agile, and Buchloh knew immediately he wanted to traffic in a world where someone like her could air such precisely articulated ideas.

Buchloh met Krauss in person some time later, probably still in the 1970s, at a conference in Canada where, to his surprise, he realized Greenberg, at least in the eyes of North American scholars, was not a provincial figure as he had previously imagined. He amended his critical canon accordingly, and went about becoming friends with the women helming art theory’s new, more academic wave, though they’ve been friends constantly at odds with each others’ ideas.

The main thing that still irks Buchloh about Krauss has to do with her continuous side-stepping of conceptualism. He noted the absence of conceptual art from Passages in Modern Sculpture, Krauss’ first book, and its absence when she embraced post-structural linguistics at the end of the 1980s. Why, in particular, had Krauss never written about Lawrence Weiner (a favorite of Buchloh’s)? “I can only repeat what my colleagues have pointed to,” said Krauss (I’m paraphrasing), when she had a chance to respond, “and point to my interest in the visual.” Conceptualism has just never been her thing.

Benjamin Buchloh teaching at Harvard.

The second criticism Buchloh leveled felt more powerful. He, like all his colleagues, loved Krauss for her stylistics, her mastery of language and her ability to sound official, assertive, incontrovertible when talking about practically anything: modern sculpture, assemblage, 19^th century painting. “The precision of her thinking,” Buchloh said, anticipated Krauss’ wrath, borders “on the tautological.” Her writing, like that of many of their other peers, “Does not even attempt to get its hands dirty.”

Why wouldn’t Krauss let her criticality choke her up sometimes, to think thoroughly through an issue but do it less than cogently, so as to risk unanticipated discoveries and/or blunders? Bruce Hainley, a SoCal art writer who has not written for October but knows its content well, recently published an essay in the form of a letter, “To Whom it May Concern,” in Bard’s Journal of Curatorial Studies. His advice for critics pushes even further than I imagine Buchloh’s would:

 I was actually going to quote Gertrude Stein (“Act so there is no use in a center.”) and then suggest that you doubt, if not exactly everything, then at least all the things in the grammar toolbox, all the blossoms in the writerly garden: mess with syntax; fuck with form (recognizing the genre you’re engaged in); piss off your (metaphorical) parents (few now helming October or the Whitney ISP ever have); ride the proverbial jocks of writers worth the bother (so as to organize some fresh rendezvous of questions and question marks).

The problem, of course, remains how to be centerless and self-conscious and subversive and do it well. Not to undermine Krauss’ achievements in the least, but it’s easier to be successfully tautological than successfully fucked up.

Atelier Bow-Wow, "Small Case Study House" (BBQ house), 2009. Installation view, REDCAT, Los Angeles, courtesy the artists and REDCAT. Photo: Steve Gunther.

Over the last eight years, Kim has focused on contemporary art from Pacific Rim countries, with exhibitions like Small Case House Study, 2009, a three-month residency and project by the Japanese micro-architecture firm, Atelier Bow Wow, and Animalia, by the Korean artist Kim Beom, which contained—amongst other works—Spectacle, 2010, a twist on the typical predator/prey video.

Kim Beom, "Spectacle," 2010. Video still.

It seems fitting that Kim’s culminating project—a forum on alternative art spaces—was also global in its reach and impact.  State of Independence: A Global Forum on Alternative Practice, took place over the course of two days: July 23 and 24, 2011.  It featured artists, writers, archivists and curators from Mexico, Jakarta, Columbia, China, and Los Angeles, amongst other places.  One of the standouts was Janet Chan of Asia Art Archive, a Hong Kong-based group which has taken on the Sisyphean task of creating an as-comprehensive-as-possible archive of documents relating to the last twenty-five years of contemporary art in Asia, at least a portion of which is available online.

ruangrupa, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2011. Image courtesy of REDCAT.

The forum was the result of six months of field research on alternative art spaces around the world: their effect on their communities, their relationship to the Internet and digital technologies, their financial architecture, and how they function in relation to the larger, often state-sponsored, art institutions in their countries.  As Thomas Lawson of East of Borneo—an online publication based in LA—put it, there’s a shift in how you think about the struggle of an independent art space (or program) when you realize that part of that struggle is against a government that trends toward totalitarianism.

Borges Libreria, Guangzhou, China, 2011. Image courtesy of REDCAT.

The last panel of the weekend asked whether alternative spaces could become new models for future institutions; we here at DailyServing Los Angeles would like to take a moment to recognize Ms. Kim for her work at REDCAT and point out that regardless of whether an institution is “alternative,” it will only ever be as good as the people it is made up of, and we’re sorry to see her go.

Fritz Haeg lecture, photo by John Muse

Last week the Open Engagement Conference gathered artists, critics, curators and one museum director to discuss an emergent field, Art and Social Practice. It was organized by Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice faculty Jen Delos Reyes and Harrell Fletcher along with their MFA students. This is the third iteration of the conference and it featured Julie Ault, Fritz Haeg, and Pablo Helguera – all of whom work across platforms such as art, architecture, education, curatorial practice and publication.

The structure of the conference included lectures by these artists as well as panels that addressed the relationships between Social Practice projects and museums and educational institutions with social practice programs such as CCA, PSU, OTIS, MICA, and UCSC. There were also a number of breakout sessions, performances and exhibitions.

Elyse Mallouk presentation on "Landfill" photo by John Muse

One early breakout session was a presentation by Elyse Mallouk, a CCA visual and critical studies MA student, on Landfill – a new project designed to archive the ephemeral detritus of Social Practice projects. The website emphasizes posters, pamphlets, maps and objects that were used in projects by artists such as Jeremy Deller, Santiago Sierra, and Superflex. One issue brought up in the discussion about this project was how to address the tension between fetishizing objects around ephemeral projects and treating ephemera in terms of their materiality and aesthetics. Another was about PLAND (Practice Art Through Necessary Dislocation). This project, run by three women who have worked as curators, artists and writers, is an off-the-grid residency program in Taos, NM. Their mission is to produce “open-ended experimental projects that facilitate sustainability, collaboration, and hyper-local engagement.”

Open Engagement, Photo by Jason Sturgill

The Museum summit included discussions about Social Practice projects at the Walker Art Center, the Hammer Museum, The National Gallery of Victoria, the Portland Art Museum and the University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Larry Rinder, the director of the Berkeley Art Museum, noted that he wished that more museum directors were there to discuss the issues around Social Practice. One reason for the importance of this was drawn out in the discussion, where there was often a clear tension between curatorial and education departments when it comes to projects that don’t focus on objects. One potential problematic was the tendency for Social Practice projects to serve as merely peripheral or interpretive events that exist in a decorative manner, around what is perceived to be the primary programs of the museum.

Rick Lowe, Fritz Haeg, Harrel Fletcher, Julie Ault, photo by John Muse

The artists’ lectures and their final panel discussion revealed some lingering questions that were only touched upon by the conference. What is the relationship between Social Practice and other art practices that have long historical and theoretical trajectories such as conceptualism, performance, institutional critique and the wide range of artistic engagements with art and politics? What is the relationship between the mostly American examples presented and other global models of socially motivated art practices? And finally, is there an aesthetic to Social Practice projects that involves groups of people gathering around and doing something?  As one community organizer from the Queens Museum of Art pointed out – maybe these will serve as the basis for next year’s conference.

Tokion Magazine presents the Fifth Creativity Now Conference in New York City at Cooper Union‘s Great Hall on May 17th-18th. The doors will open at 11 am on both days with the conference beginning at noon and finishing at 6:30 pm. Tokion is an innovative New York-based magazine that covers artists, fashion designers, people from the film industry, photographers, graffiti artists, designers, musicians, and new media artists on a global scale. Founded over ten years ago, Tokion has become one of the most authoritative anthologies on alternative emerging art and artists as well as featuring more established artists such as Bjork and Jeff Koons. Previous print covers have featured diverse artists and thinkers such as Isabelle Huppert, Jena Malone, James Franco, Natasha Kahn, Jarvis Cocker, and most recently Nate Lowman, who will be presenting at this year’s conference.

Tokion is a Japanese term which translates as “the sound of now”, a perfect way to describe this cultural symposium, bringing together some of the most brilliant and progressive minds from a wide range of disciplines. Maria Bamford from Comedians of Comedy, P.S.1/MoMA’s curator Klaus Biesenbach, Emmy Award winning comedian, actor, and writer David Cross from “Arrested Development” (watch clip to see brief interview from Vancouver), artist, poet, and professional skateboarder Mark Gonzales (“The Gonz”), Curator of Deitch Projects Kathy Grayson, and Whitney Museum Curator Shamim M. Monin are just a few of the artists, curators, gallerists, and writers slated to present at this weekend’s conference. The conference consists of panel discussions and independent presentations, with the profile of attendees including students, aspiring artists and pop culture enthusiasts as well as industry professionals and other figures from the creative community.

Previous conference participants and presenters include photographer Stephen Shore, Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth, actor Jason Lee and renowned contemporary artist, Matthew Barney, best known for his five-part film project, The Cremaster Cycle.

Another former panelist who created much excitement among the crowd was Hello Kitty‘s founder Yuku Shimizu, who sat on “The Power of Pop Iconography” with Tom Sachs and Steve Powers. As creator of one of the most iconographic contemporary characters on the market, Yuku (who does not speak a word of English) caused quite a stir when she began offering toys with a new character to attendees who asked questions to the panel.

The wild success of the previous conferences has roused the interest and support of contemporary commercial titans Microsoft and ABSOLUT. The two-day event is co-presented by Microsoft’s Zune Arts Program with additional support from ABSOLUT. Zune is Microsoft’s music and entertainment brand that provides an integrated digital entertainment experience, offering portable media players and a Zune marketplace for artists to share, connect, and build creative friendships.

ABSOLUT has become one of the most recognized and requested premium spirits in the world and has generated steady success with their infectious advertising campaigns that continuously converse with contemporary culture and media. ABSOLUT has collaborated with Jean-Paul Gaultier, Tom Ford, and Louise Bourgeois, as well as having an ad appearance on HBO’s Sex and the City.

With such visionary commercial enterprises supporting the event and such a vast array of inspirational and creative minds coming together to generate a multi-disciplinary conversation, this discourse is sure to blast a very loud and progressive “sound of now,” one which will be enjoyed and discussed by many.