Interesting things happened today at the Studio at Governor's Island. My work was politely and diplomatically dismissed by a curator. Far from upsetting me, I actually felt relieved. I wanted to gauge the reception of my work here. While I welcome all comments, I was keener to what criticism may come my way. In this way I know where my whole practice stands at the nexus of multiple points of view, especially in an art center like New York.
I never participated in these curator visits at the studio, which was an activity organized by certain residents who pooled their contacts and resources, until today. I just found it too uncanny, although I respect it, for a curator to charge 25$ for a 20-minute visit. Most of the Asian artists whom Ive spoken to found this arrangement idiosyncratic. Some gallerists and art consultants I was told, charge even more. I guess it is accepted market practice.
When I asked Jeff Leung to visit the studio last week, I introduced him to other artists in the building, and that gave me the idea to finally try joining their activity.
While my scheduled visit is for a 30-minute thing from 1:30 pm, the other artists took more than an hour an a half and I ended up being the last person to be interviewed and was given only 20 minutes as she had to catch the 5pm ferry. I found the whole matter unfair and a bit discourteous as I did clear up my day to accommodate the visit and got to the Island at 11am. I felt the other artists were a bit competitive that day, jockeying for more time. But I tried to understand the context: they needed it more than I do.
When my very limited time came and I explained that the nature of my work begins with an acknowledgment of tradition, the curator (whose name I will have to omit here, sorry) blinked and said she does not have any information of a) Philippine art or Southeast asian art and b) any craft-based and object-based theory that can help her understand my work. She then added that she does know about craft theory and the Japanese approach but she will "not go out and reach that far back", which was a polite statement for "I really dont want to make an effort to understand your work".
I said I understood perfectly that my practice is a bit far removed from the non-object based, project-based art that seems to be the prevalent approach today. She smiled, offered some references and was guided off the Island by my very good natured neighbors.
I was left thinking if I just actually wasted the day. One of the artists who organized the visit came up to me asked how my interview went. I told her it was unfortunately too brief and my work was too distant from her concerns so we did not connect. I added that I have resigned to the fact that I may not be able to find any contemporary curator in the city who can respond to practice. Even the curator was in fact saying, I should have gone to other States. When I was asked how did these episodes of misconnections make me feel, I simply said, it was disappointing but at the same time informative. It was not a pleasant experience to be dismissed, or be accommodated only out of condescension. I had a number of that within the four months I spent in New York.
That does not sit well with me. But what can I do?
Next time I will have to be cautious in presenting my work, and will have to pay attention to the public I wish to address. It is really a good thing that I am shipping my works all to Singapore by the end of the month. I don't think they belong here, anyway. Despite all our thoughts that art should be universal, my experience is living proof that works, often find their own viewers, their proper audiences.
That will be what my position is when I present my work in the Open Studios in two weeks' time. It will be great if someone does feel resonance to my work, but I wont make an effort to convince people. I guess that's that.
So I fell into a conversation with Ezra Wube and I asked him about the challenges he faced when he decided to move from Ethiopia and practice his art in New York. I admired his narrative of how he started with trying to keep himself rooted still with his Ethiopian lineage but soon realized that the conditions of being a migrant included the choice and the chance to untether yourself from the burden of homeland and reinvent yourself as an individual in the City. As he did this, his work began to shift from traditional oil on canvas paintings to video, sound and installation. But it was a matter of contingency, as he realized his paintings were not being noticed and presenting himself as Ethiopian would not really matter. And of course, video and installation where tools that were inexpensive, very mobile and quite easy to present. But now he realized that he feels being in limbo, without a sense of belonging to either his native Ethiopia or New York.
I remember on the feery trip to the isalnd that morning I was surprised to find out that the curator chatting with the rest of artists and I overheard them talking about their travels to Asia, especially to China and Korea. They were complaining of the difficulties of communication, especially the way Asians avert their eyes during conversations. They found this to be very weird. I wanted to interject and say "in Asia it is rude to stare into one's eyes unless one is very quite familiar with the other", as there is a prevalent notion of "saving face" among the people. But will they even listen? I walked past them, each fawning over stories of how they were able to travel to Asia and interact with such a people.
I guess they are not the descendants of Colombus and the conquistadors for nothing. And I am just a visiting Pacific Islander, a bit kooky, but just the same: an Other.
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