On the whole I agree with Ryan. Twentieth Century art would have been a
lot less interesting if it hadn't had manifestos and artists putting on
self-promoting shows manifesting the manifestos. So it does seem to be
overkill to put the issue in ethical terms. Tasteless, maybe, but not
"immoral".
I had a small example of this in connection with a news feed site that
I've been working on. I limited the feeds to organizations. Ignoring
the explicit statement that my site is a new media project in
development, I got an email from an artist who suggested that "perhaps
you want to peddle it to institutions", who then sent me the url of a
feed advertising his own work, among others. Alas, who here is the
peddler? Irritating and tasteless, but not immoral.
Cheers,
Myron
[log in to unmask]
Ryan Griffis wrote:
> One comment, coming into the conversation way late...
> Alessandro (as well as others) brought up work in editorial
> capacities, and it seems to me, as someone who has also operated as
> editor/artist/curator in various forums, that curating can easily be
> thought of as an editorial activity. And for anyone who has ever read
> an edited compilation or anthology (esp academic texts), such books
> are practically guaranteed to contain work by the editor(s). Artists
> who curate (at least those i know), almost exclusively organize
> shows/events around topics that are extremely close to, if not
> completely derivative of, their own work and interests as an artist.
> In the (idealistic) end, i think the goal is to generate discourse and
> conversation about something. Professionalism (or careerism, if you
> will) that involves self-promotion and nepotism certainly can't be
> ignored as a problematic. But that doesn't seem like something a
> curator/artist should be that worried about from a creative
> perspective. The career CV police can catch the redundancy if it's there.
> But to couch this discussion in the language of "ethics" seems a bit
> dramatic. What's really at stake here?
> Happy New Year,
> ryan
>
>
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_____________________
Myron Turner
http://www.room535.org
http://www.mturner.org
http://net18reaching.org/cityscapes
http://net18reaching.org/artrss
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