OF ART DIPLOMACY
via Carrie Mae Weems, Joel Shapiro, Odili Donald Odita, Robert Storr
Of diplomacy engenders the result /
feel also the minds of those who passed thru there,
artists who made a kind of art which would not just decorate
respond by finding situations where their work can . . .
to invent something because it was necessary.
Difference and how we can look at things with the subtleties between them /
I wanted to make a space which would be expansive with color, explosive with color.
Performing for a very long time (my pictures told me),
love asking questions--I hope you don’t mind.
Of creating recall but indicative of . . .
my work actually has a narrative element.
Assuming the work grew up out of their own cultural experience,
cultural legacy that is trying to negotiate notions of a broader egalitarianism,
you don’t know what you’ve got until you’re close.
Barry Alpert / Silver Spring MD US / 5-20-11 (11 AM) - 5-25-11 (4:51 PM)
Initially drafted during a panel discussion I went out of my way to attend because I had already been intrigued by the work of the 3 visual artists, though I can't claim that the ostensible topic had ever been of major aesthetic importance for me. Still, I expected to hear each of them talk informally (although for a much shorter time than if it were a solo occasion), so I thought I might be able to write a multi-voiced text out of the situation. Odili Donald Odita did voice a significant definition which I was unable to incorporate into my text but which I will supply here: "diplomacy--the act of giving without return". Here's the official description of the event:
The Role of Art in Diplomacy
Panel discussion with Robert Storr, Yale School of Art, and artists Odili Donald Odita, Joel Shapiro, and Carrie Mae Weems. Moderated by Harry Cooper, curator of modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art.
This program is coordinated with the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies.
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