Last Thursday, I went to the Museum of Art (MOA) here on BYU campus and listened to Milena Kalinovska (on right) converse with the MOA's curator of modern art, Jeff Lambson. Kalinovska is a well-known curator who currently works with the Hirshhorn Museaum in Washington, D.C. She told us about her career--coming from Czechoslavakia to London and and then to America. Her pull in keeping the audiences' attention was mainly due to her pioneering of Contemporary artists; questions at the end seemed the most helpful and interesting as she gave advice on how to edge your way into the world of recognized artists and curators and what people are looking for in art.
Something that I felt relates well to American Humanities is her mentioning of an artist many years back at the Hirshhorn. I couldn't find his name online and didn't pick it up when she said it. Oops. During that time, controversy over what constituted desecration of the American flag was a hot topic: was just a slight touch to the ground burn worthy? This artist took the issue and added to it--often rephrasing an issue in extreme terms helps to clarify the situation...or just confuse it more. He took wrapped candies that were red white or blue and put them in a heaping pile. Visitors of the museum were invited to eat a piece on their way past it. Was this eating of the flag or eating of the candy?! If an artist tried to recreate this, it would be less significant now. What a beautiful example of art as a commentating medium!
As seen in the example above with the visitors eating the art, one of the themes I picked out from Kalinskova's conversation (and from what I, myself, have seen) is that Contemporary art is becoming more and more reliant on audience participation. Kalinskova said "art is very generous--accessible for all." This is where American art has come. The gap between high art and folk/pop art is narrowing. She also said that "we want to interact with the art." This made me think of the MOA's exhibition, Mirror Mirror, that had a camera which would record the viewers face and added it to a collage of other human faces on a screen underneath. I loved that! Art is also becoming increasingly decentralized (Facebook for example); thus, artists have a broader range of what they can to do and where they want to do it.
Along with advising the student artists to give the audience a chance to participate and interact, Kalinskova also advised young artists to keep moving to keep there name out there. "You don't have to stay in Utah." They have to GO make something of themselves. I found it interesting that she gave this advise. Artists can't make something of themselves in ordinary Utah?
Thanks for reading!
