Last night at Art Lab at Dean Clough I presented a very brief overview of my current interests in dialogue, briefly tracing previous practice development to this point. I then opened the conversation out to the group and invited input about their own usages and focusses on dialogue starting with the two artists who had just presented before my slot; Robert C. Clarke and Jane Walker.
Rob talked about the crossovers between poetry and visual art and referred back to the collaborative work he and Jane have made interweaving Rob’s poetry and Jane’s line based works. He also mentioned the difference between dsylexic unedited versions and the edited versions he publishes.
We talked about the difference between monologue and dialogue and the nature of communication including non-verbal communication.
Chris Czainski talked about the constant dialogue with the canvas and iconography/ancient graffiti.
Literature studies being reduced to comparative literature was mentioned and the critical role and demise of arts education heavily discussed.
The notion of spectator as the opposite of engaging in dialogue was discussed in considering and defining what we mean by ‘dialogue’: Active engagement in a two-way conversation as opposed to someone spectating in a hierarchy.
We reflected on Art Lab being mainly artist-to-artist dialogue (although not exclusively as the event is open to everybody) and that artist-to-public dialogue is often lacking as well as artist-to-institution often lacking as well.
The democratisation of art, public engagement, the spaces we present art in, the oblique language often used in art and not calling art ‘art’ were emerging themes.
There’s lots here to consider already and it was a really lively and engaging conversation with everyone present contributing. When I set up Art Lab I had in mind that these open dialogue conversations would be part of the programme, but have recently been scheduling mainly artists’ presentations with Q&As. I think having a themed or ongoing discussion slot in each month’s programme might be the way forward. Perhaps this could be a “Talking about Talking” critical dialogue or theory slot.
Robert Donald’s regular slide archive presentations also do this to some degree (Robert has the most incredible slide archive and he selects a few each month to present on a theme or artist). Last night he presented some slides of graffiti and Basquiat and each month we focus on the work presented as well broader issues that come out of discussion about the work and artist/genre/art history.
Last night’s discussions and themes interwove and complimented each other creating a dialogue between the respective artists and themes evident in their work.
