From an interesting article on NPR’s 13.7 blog: “Language-based cultures are continuously evaluated and modified; hence humans are by definition born into unanticipated contexts. The stress engendered by this feature of our niche is minimized when a culture is stabilized by “tradition,” and maximized when cultures are amended in increasingly rapid timeframes, as is currently the case.”
…Just had kind of a ‘woah’ moment thinking about painting relative to that paragraph. Full article here.
MW Capacity 
interesting piece. i love the concept of culture in all its forms pictured as niche construction. the question i’m contemplating is what – for painting in particular – does the idea of niche construction bring to painting in terms of a trans-niche hierarchy of value… what i mean by this is that it feels like the notion of niche is democratic and almost amoral, while persistent cultural elements tend to take on a certain kind of authority. thus all of the oil painters here participate in the authority of oil painting, finding our own niches within the larger niche of, say, painting or representation or, to get more precise, some axis of perceptual painting delimited by leland bell and fairfield porter. or ferdinand hodler and antonio lopez garcia. or any other number of artists.
do these niche and sub-niche constructions translate in terms of value, or are we just talking to the people in our troop? can a chimpanzee in her niche appreciate a beaver in his? probably not. but we can, and do. so are certain painterly niche constructions more apt to be accepting of the value structure of other niche arenas? are some going to be less so? is there a way to use this idea to help in translating the values, or is that simply a manifestation of the values of the niche into which i’ve been initiated?
the sort of lens I’d been seeing the issue through is the health of the niche that allows a diverse forms of expression, or all these sub-niches that you’re talking about, Matt. That it’s not a take-for-granted conclusion that it’s okay within the niche to have these debates about values. Looked at this way, the value then is in having the debate versus not having the date.
Zooming in to the level you’re digging in to, I have a harder time weighing relative values of different sub-niches. It seems like different moments might call for different rankings. The value being that there is the debate (so cross-niche talking would be valuable) and that the structure of the debate is adaptable.
If anyone can wrap their head around weighing and translating values of different niches, I’d love to hear it.
been thinking about this a lot… what about the niche constructions that seem to delimit or “collapse” possibilities versus those that seem to allow a variety of permutations to bloom out of them?
for instance, it seems to me (and i could be entirely off on this) that the realm circumscribed by sarah sze and jessica stockholder is sort of crystallized. i don’t mean this entirely negatively, only that it could be hard for, say, a graduate student to modulate the form and materials within a continuum expressed by the cross-referencing of sze’s and stockholder’s work in an effective way. whereas artists are constantly re-confirming and re-approaching the painting mode of fairfield porter and others. these niche constructions within painting seem to allow for a variety of angles toward or spin-offs from the characteristic formal appearance of the generative work.
perhaps painting favors derivation more than other forms? perhaps being derivative is a general value of the “representational painting” niche construction, one that allows greater and greater variety and specificity to bloom from it. almost an evolutionary algorithm or something…
film, photography and ceramics also seem to provide ample opportunity for cross-pollination.
this stands in stark contrast to some other forms, doesn’t it? could someone seriously take on the form, or even the general direction, of deborah butterfield or petah coyne or tony smith and not be taken to task? even cezanne lends himself to students more readily now…
thoughts?
To speak a bit beyond the niche of painting, The art world is by far one of the most sub-divided social constructs that I can imagine. The division is so great that I think many individuals in specific domains/niches (academia, auction house, museum, gallery, collector, curator etc) become blind to the relationships which exist across the spectrum of this massive construct.
With regard to the issue of value or authority amogst these divisions, I think that power structures exist within all of these levels with the art market preoccupying the thoughts of many niches, while curatorial/historical/theoretical ; commentary/practice affects much of the remaining groups. It’s something of a separation of interests between the producers and the consumers with very few bridging the gap between this divide (not to mention the high/low distinction).
To speak idealistically of education, I believe that it is really the place of educators and learning instituions to engage these divides which exist between varying niches and in some way breakdown the barriers. For instance, within the realm of art practice (particularly painting), I don’t believe that there should be any hierachy of importance from one medium to another (oil/acrylic), rather I believe that artists/painters should explore the best form for their concepts to take shape. Furhtermore, I think that all art can be strenghtened through an interdisciplinary approach. I don’t think that any of this limits or devalues the place/niche of painting, on the contrary i believe that it expands and grants painting a new realm of exploration, But then again,if one is invested in the romance and purity of painting(whetehr figurative or abstract), I think this niche is one of the strongest and most timeless of all.
How’s that for some longwinded BSing!
I tend to see Sze and Stockholder (less so) within some hybrid realm of sculptural installation, which is actually being explored by quite a number of artists: Tara Donovan, Rebecca Ward, Phoebe Washburn, Zilvinas Kempinas, esther stocker, cornelia parker, leandro drew, Franklin Evans (recent) etc
I can definitely see where the sculptural / installation realm might be more difficult to define particular niches, but I think altogether it is a very fertile and expansive realm for the cross pollination of disciplines.