Tara Donovan at the Des Moines Art Center, June 19-September 13, 2009. The exhibit originated at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston and also stopped at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati
July 14, 2009 by Chris
Tara Donovan at the Des Moines Art Center, June 19-September 13, 2009. The exhibit originated at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston and also stopped at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati
Her work always seems such a generous amalgam of conceptual and visceral, of imagination and incarnation. It’s so inclusive of all experience that it has a “oneness” to it (aack! did I say oneness?). It addresses so many different art experiences, yet becomes such a singular experience.
Yes! (I’m having a tough time coming up with must discussion-starting for this, so I’ll just agree.)
[...] Des Moines: Tara Donovan at the Des Moines Arts Center, through Sept. [...]
Actually, I’m thinking about Carla’s semi-embarrassment talking about the “oneness” of Donovan’s work. And also, when I’m thinking about this work, I keep coming up with a work that I’m embarrassed to use, even though it’s inarguably true about Donovan’s work: “transcendent”. The experience I have with the work is so beyond the physical reality of styrofoam cups and plastic straws. But I just don’t like to say transcendent.
So, since I’m thinking that we’re not going to dig up any controversy here—I’ve never met anyone who is really put off by Donovan’s work—I’m thinking that a contest is in order. A contest to come up with the most-true-but-embarrassing-to-use dated art jargon in regard to the artwork of Tara Donovan. Who’s got something for me?
I wonder if she would get along with Tom Friedman?
Dated jargon 1 = psychedelic
Dated jargon 2 = macro/micro
Dated jargon 3 = artist
primordial
such a collective spirit to the work (bonus points for pun, please)
Hey, I said primordial seriously the other day, didn’t I?
Anyway, I can’t see any cups or straws here or any recognizable objects. Am I not seeing it right?
I have many words that I can’t bear, but oddly, transcendent is not one of them. She is transcendent.
And “artist” is dated? What is the new artist?
I think I’ve said every one of these ‘cliches’ seriously in the last six months. Oops.
re: the recognizable objects: in the show she had at the St. Louis Art Museum, I saw a museum docent bring a group to stand about 6 feet in front of one of her plastic straw things. The docent had people try to guess what they were looking at. People guessed, glassed-in smoke, holograms, all kinds of stuff. And then one kid moved around to the side and finally said straws.
I hope this doesn’t lead to an era of self-editing. It would take me forever to verbalise without using all the ready, if jargony, terms.
I apologize if does lead to that. I think I was angling for more of an acceptance of the jargon, maybe even a feeling of ‘the guilty pleasure of using the jargon’, and not to create any guilt. The ready, jargony terms are dead, long live the ready, jargony terms.
Once in a while, there is no escaping the cliche. It’s worth admitting it.
I attended my first wine tasting with a full-bodied cynical body armor. That is, I went with my own sort of reverse snobbery. I was ready to poo-poo the whole talking-about-flavors thing. And yet, by the end of the evening, I had developed a new-found appreciation for the importance of cliches. They are essential. Mostly so that we can find how the special cases deviate.
I read this the other day and it seems pretty relevant to the conversation here:
http://edwardwinkleman.blogspot.com/2009/07/coined-and-minted-open-thread.html
Right, (Winkleman), no one mocks baseball announcers for using the same sort of nicknames for different plays, pitches, hits, etc. But it’s different. There’s much more of a one to one correlation there: An ace IS the best starter on a team. Cheese IS a fastball. Plus it’s comforting to hear the announcers use these expressions; it’s part of the game.
Not that baseball isn’t the thinking man’s game and wonderfully complex, but it has far far less of the problems of finding words to describe its visible manifestations than art does. No?
I’m not arguing against using so-called cliche phrases, just saying the comparison to baseball jargon is not so useful.
I just went to see her exibit today at the Des Moines Art Center.It just made me smile and want to reach out and touch all of it. It is wonderful
I have this fantasy of driving to Des Moines to see the Tara Donovan show, then to Chicago just to see Olafur Eliasson show, then back to Des Moines to see Tara Donovan again, then coming home. I don’t have the time or money. But doesn’t that sound like a nice vacation?
Or just to live somewhere half way in between? That would be pleasant, too. Lots of minor escapist fantasies in my head these days.