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“Canceled”: Art, Censorship and the Possibility in Failure at The Center for Book Arts

View of “Canceled: Alternative Manifestations and Productive Failures,” 2012

via Artforum Critics' Picks:

“Canceled: Alternative Manifestations and Productive Failures”

THE CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS
28 W 27th Street, 3rd Floor
April 18–June 30

06.04.12

Author: Zachary Sachs

04.18.12-06.30.12 The Center for Book Arts

Richard Prince v. Patrick Cariou, a fair-use case currently in appeals, threatens to set a dangerous precedent for the legality of appropriation. The initial ruling against Prince in 2011 included—in a surprisingly draconian injunction—an order that the works be destroyed or never displayed publicly. Cases like this can make an artwork seem considerably less interesting than the machinery of art and institutions that revolve around it. Greg Allen’s YES RASTA, 2011, a deadpan bound volume that reproduces depositions in the case, is one of the sixteen quasi-documentary, quasi-performative works on display in “Canceled.” The exhibition courses through several decades of art’s challenges to censorship, from the Los Angeles Police Department’s late-1950s persecution of Wallace Berman’s work and exhibition (“pornography”), to the imploding of Manifesta 6 in 2006 (Cypriot politics), to David Wojnarowicz’s recent expulsion from the Smithsonian’s “Hide/Seek” exhibition (an “assault on the sensibilities of Christians”).

Some remarkable artifacts come to the surface in this extensive trawling: a one-of-a-kind collaged mailer from the artist Cameron to Berman; Hans Haacke’s personal copy of his monograph Werkmonographie, which documents his inspired struggle with the Guggenheim in 1971. (The muscular neutrality of Haacke’s work made him seem a particularly stylish David wielding nothing more than Concept against Goliath’s vested interests. Here you can find the best joke, from the Guggenheim’s rejection letter to Haacke: “The trustees have established policies that exclude active engagement toward political and social ends.”)

At times the curatorial conceit can be a bit baggy: Seth Siegelaub’s books-as-exhibitions from the 1960s are a form of rejecting the gallery’s physical space, but they have little rapport with the conflict that animates most of the other selections. The curator, Lauren van Haaften-Schick, suggests in an accompanying essay that that the exclusion of contested artworks from exhibitions represents “ultimately productive failure,” which reminded me of the chestnut “fail better” from Samuel Beckett’s last novel, Worstward Ho (1983). Beckett was fairly black about about one’s prospects in the end (hence that title)—“Canceled” leaves one with a much more generous feeling about the possibility of failure.

Found Art (Tribeca) Unmonumental 358

Found Art (Tribeca) Unmonumental 357

The Case for Appropriation: Rob Storr

Chris Follows kindly excerpted Rob Storr's talk from my panel at SVA in February. (Feel free to copy the embed code, as I did here, and distribute where appropriate). The video recording of the full panel (and Q&A) can be viewed on SVA's iTunesU site.

 

The Case for Appropriation: Rob Storr

Submitted by cfollows on 30 May 2012 - 6:38am on process.arts

 

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Rob Storr provides a clear introduction and overview of the historical and contemporary issues around artists and appropriation. These are similar tensions to what the open educational movement in terms use are reuse and open educational practice are experiencing in teaching practice and general OEP practice.

Please see ( http://process.arts.ac.uk/content/egoer-and-ip-oer-case-study-example-open-arts-practice ) where I talk about EGOER (not worrying about being/practicing online, just go for it) & I give a brief example of an IP, IPR case study/experience.

Also see The Case for Appropriation: full video here- The Case for Appropriation, a panel moderated by Joy Garnett at the School of Visual Arts 

Rob Storr is an artist, critic, curator and in 2006 was appointed Professor of Painting and Dean of the School of Art at Yale University. He was curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 1990 to 2002. Mr. Storr has taught at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, at CUNY, the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies, Rhode Island School of Design, Tyler School of Art, New York Studio School, and at Harvard. He has written numerous catalogs, articles, and books, and is the recipient of many honors and awards, too many to name here. He is currently Consulting Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and in 2007 was chosen commissioner of the 2007 Venice Biennale, the first American invited to assume that position.

Zoe Lister-Jones in The Wall Street Journal: The Evolution of the 'Best Friend'

Photo By Myles Aronowitz

Zoe Lister-Jones, left, with Greta Gerwig in 'Lola Versus'

 

NEWSgrist pal, the multi-talented Zoe Lister-Jones, (who plays the character "Lily" on NBC's Whitney, and recently played on Broadway in Teresa Rebeck's Seminar), is profiled in today's Wall Street Journal. Zoe's new movie, Lola Versus, her second project with co-writer/co-conspirator Daryl Wein, and starring indy queen Greta Gerwig, opens in theaters June 8th. Their first independent film, Breaking Upwards, picked up by IFC, was made sans studio for $15,000. Lola Versus is their first studio-backed feature.

 

The Evolution of the 'Best Friend'

By RACHEL DODES

The Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2012

In the new romantic comedy "Lola Versus," a 29-year-old woman struggles with dating, stars in a bizarre experimental theater production called "Pogrom," and supports her increasingly self-absorbed best friend during a painful breakup. And she's not even the main character.

The role of the quirky best friend, a rom-com staple that goes back at least as far as Shakespeare, is often a clever narrative device employed by writers to provide exposition and comic relief. But in "Lola Versus," due in theaters June 8, the character of Alice—played by Zoe Lister-Jones—does that and then some: She finds love while the main character, Lola (Greta Gerwig), lights out on a path of self-destruction.

"We wanted to subvert the genre," says Ms. Lister-Jones, who wrote the screenplay with her real-life romantic partner, director Daryl Wein. "In most romantic comedies you are fighting for the girl to end up with the guy. Here, you are fighting for [Lola] to end up with herself."

In the past decade, female friends in romantic comedies have been taking on increasingly prominent roles, reflecting the fact that many women are delaying marriage until later in life. In these films, "female friendship supersedes heterosexual romance," says Leger Grindon, a professor of film and media culture at Middlebury College and the author of a 2011 book about the genre.

In the process, "the friend" is becoming a meatier character in many movies—in contrast to more traditional supporting figures like Rupert Everett's gay best-friend character in "My Best Friend's Wedding," or Joan Cusack's Cynthia, the wisecracking co-worker of Melanie Griffith's Tess, in the 1998 film "Working Girl."

Audiences have also become more accepting of less-than-perfect female leads, making their best friends seem comparatively sane. In last year's hit "Bridesmaids," Maya Rudolph played Lillian, the blissfully engaged best friend of Annie (Kristen Wiig), the protagonist who was unemployed, dating a sleazy man and ultimately forced to move in with her mother. Flawed lead characters are also showing up more often on television.

"Why do you think people are watching 'Girls' on HBO?" says Michael London, a "Lola Versus" producer who also produced "Sideways."

Ms. Lister-Jones has ample experience playing the friend. On the sitcom "Whitney," she has a recurring role as Lily, the best friend of the show's eponymous main character, played by Whitney Cummings. (Over the course of season one, Lily gets engaged, abruptly calls off the wedding, and later finds out that her ex-fiancé is bisexual.)

Initially, Ms. Lister-Jones had planned to play Lola, because she and Mr. Wein anticipated that the film, their second, would be made on a shoestring. Their last collaboration, 2009's "Breaking Upwards," cost $15,000 and was a hit on the film festival circuit. But after Mr. London came on board with Fox Searchlight, bringing an estimated $5 million budget, "the access to talent was totally different," she says.

The lead role of Lola went to Ms. Gerwig, an indie movie favorite from films like "Greenberg" and "Damsels in Distress" who herself appeared as the best friend in last year's "No Strings Attached," starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.

For Ms. Lister-Jones, playing the friend did have its benefits. Because her character didn't have to "carry" the film, she had more leeway to be unhinged. Alice takes drugs, ranging from marijuana in spray form to OxyContin, and overindulges in self-tanning, arriving at a club looking like a member of the cast of "Jersey Shore." She also provides advice to her sad-sack friend, telling Lola that she rounds her age up to 30 on dating websites, so she can get what she refers to as "the cougar advantage."

A supporting role "can be a challenge, in terms of humility," says Ms. Lister-Jones. "But it does give you room to experiment with character work."

Write to Rachel Dodes at rachel.dodes@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared June 1, 2012, on page D4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Evolution of the 'Best Friend'.