- Venue
- Edited by Catherine Morris and Vincent Bonin
- Location
In Materialising Six Years editors Catherine Morris and Vincent Bonin have reconfigured Lucy Lippard’s challenging, original text. It was re-imagined as an exhibition, held at the Brooklyn Museum in 2012/3, then within this publication as documentation of works displayed in that show. The publication also contains a number of contextualising essays that link these two texts written almost forty years apart and an introduction by Lippard herself.
The publication that inspired this current work was titled…
Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972: a cross-reference book of information on some esthetic boundaries; consisting of a bibliography into which are inserted a fragmented text, art works, documents, interviews, and symposia, arranged chronologically and focused on so-called conceptual or information or idea art with mentions of such vaguely designated areas as minimal, anti-form, systems, earth, or process art, occurring now in the Americas, Europe, England, Australia and Asia (with occasional political overtones),
The text defined an emergent conceptual genre, tracking its development through the era (1966 – 72). Lippard’s approach to art criticism was as influential and experimental as any of the artworks she discussed. Within Six Years… was created an ‘imagined exhibition’. Lippard’s multi layered narrative existed through the dialogue between the text and images, their placement within the work shaping meaning – potentially working for or against the stated argument.
Lippard created and collected fragments of text and images, which combined trace the development of the conceptual form, alongside wider shifts in society at the time (what Lippard refers to as a ‘hidden narrative’ within in her recent reflections on the work). Six Years… represents a re-defining of the critic’s role as a potentially creative and heuristic in approach – as deeply immersed in experimental methodologies as the artists. The book allowed Lippard to act as curator within its structure (she had also curated a number of gallery exhibitions of conceptual practice – which the essays in Materializing Six Years describe in detail). Her process mirrored that of the artists’, frequently employing writing within the practice. Performances took the form of instructions on index cards, in this case, the exhibition become a book.
It is then, perhaps, an unusual choice by Bonin and Morris to rework this experimental piece of art criticism as exhibition. This disconnect was further heightened by the traditional approach taken within the publication- a number of essays (with occasional images) followed by the body of artwork documentation with accompanying notes. The images also are a vast departure from the work of Lippard: grainy, black and white, rough copies, are replaced with carefully lit, full page, full colour reproductions. Although these images are inarguably of a higher quality, they mark a clear shift from the subject of the text. The immediate intent of the artist and author has been replaced with a work that privileges the artwork and exhibition above that of the narrative and voice of the critic.
The arrival of conceptual practice in the 1960s was marked with a move from an object centred system of values, to an emphasis upon the idea. Ephemeral and often ‘unmade’ actions and ideas were expressed as artefacts, texts, or even instructions for the curator to carry out, effectively making the piece themselves. These methods tested the boundaries of practice and acted against any market value being placed upon them.
Within the context of the retrospective Materialising Six Years, the work seems less raw, in part due to the aestheticised depictions, and due to the nature of the subject as passed, part of the historic narrative. The energy of Lippard’s presentation came in part from the conceptual movement residing on the margins during a period of social upheaval; the potential of being a member, testing and redefining its boundaries. It is here the distance between the two texts is clear: Lippard was writing as witness, interpreting her recent past and present experiences as an exercise in critique re-imagined. The authors and curators have produced a retrospective within the museum space. Materialising Six Years functions well as an institutional narrative of an historic art movement – it is detailed and provides a good grounding in the context and period of the work – however, it feels as though an opportunity was missed for re-appraising the state of experimental art writing and criticism today, just as Lippard radicalised the form in the 1970s.
The title of the text itself is a curious one. To materialise the conceptual is to shift it, to re-interpret, to re-appraise. In creating this retrospective the writers and curators have chosen to explicitly recreate what never was (Lippard’s exhibition) in order to examine the text of Six Years… along with the conceptual movement of the time. The work succeeds in providing this appraisal and communicates a wealth of background knowledge alongside excellent photographic documentation – yet, it is depicted and analysed rather than materialized.
