{"id":660,"date":"2013-06-22T04:06:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T04:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/?page_id=660"},"modified":"2013-08-22T15:33:04","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T15:33:04","slug":"this-gift-is-a-problem-for-you-to-solve","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/sample-page\/this-gift-is-a-problem-for-you-to-solve\/","title":{"rendered":"This Gift is a Problem for You to Solve"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Gift is a Problem for you to Solve<\/em><\/strong>
\n Curated by Sarah Walko: RED Gallery, Savannah, Georgia<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“What you are regarding as a gift is a problem for you to solve<\/em>.”
\nLudwig Wittgenstein, as reproduced on a glass by American artist
\nJoseph Kosuth.<\/p>\n

Gift giving is both authentically human and universally problematic.\u00a0 This action binds communities together.\u00a0 It can also alienate, enslave, and upset the given order of society.
\nThis exhibition explores gift exchange in relation to artwork. The exhibition will focus on the idea of art as the exchange conduit, occurring through an object rather than as an object.\u00a0 The gift as conduit calls into question the position of art within our society.\u00a0 How do gifts complicate notions of value? Does giving constitute a blur between art and commodity? How does giving create a bond between an artist and an audience?\u00a0 Is the “gift economy” which Marcel Mauss famously discussed the base of all art? Mauss identifies the elevation in a gift’s value as it becomes reciprocated.\u00a0 The same process happens when an audience explores a work, taking the time with an object to investigate what it is offering. The artist gives a code, a problem, a subtle blanketing which can initially be foreign. Through the process of reciprocation (investigation) the gift gives its secret-a bit of advice, a compliment, a small beautiful notion, a blunt statement. Artwork is a vehicle for a gift. Reciprocal gift exchange, points to the fact that a person must be willing and ready to receive a gift before an exchange can be complete.<\/p>\n

A gift, as something bestowed upon you, can refer to the \u201ctalent\u201d of the artist,\u00a0 intuition or inspiration, which often, the artist does not take credit for. As D.H Lawrence states \u201c Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me\u201d. Artists often speak of work after completion as a feeling that it was not them, as one person, as the person standing before you, who completed the work. This aspect is another form of exchange conduit; not just the work, but the artist. Therefore two elements of through ways for idea exchange are occurring. Artists make these objects to serve as important in themselves however, the purpose is that the object is not the end but rather the middle. It is the body of the paragraph but not, the conclusion.<\/p>\n

Last, beginning with an assumption that a work of art is a gift, not a commodity, a discussion of the difference in an object which is given and one which is bought arises, especially in an all consumed capitalist society. Works of art exist within two \u201ceconomies\u201d, a market economy and a gift economy.\u00a0 Only one of these is essential, however: a work of art can survive without the market, but where there is no gift there is no market. Also, if an element of something is that we cannot buy it; we cannot acquire it through an act of will, it remains outside the realm of our control.<\/p>\n

The work of artist Jay Gould is a parable of sorts. He creates seemingly complex charts and images with very man-made production\/function oriented aesthetic. But then the images themselves, are records of performances, and acts of beauty. The jump in between this rational presence and its presented \u201cfunction\u201d is in reality a presentation on the struggle to understand the rational in reality. The \u201ccharacter\u201d of the artist in Gould\u2019s work reclaims a scientific order. These scientific concepts are then melded with the photographic medium as both records of exploration and offered explanation.<\/p>\n

Annette Lemieux\u2019s Vehicles of Elevation explore the gift exchange through absence and presence of the vehicle of the body. Her \u201cCircus Equipment\u201d piece and her \u201cPlatforms\u201d both create the visual of a lifting a body off the ground, a hovering body. However, the lifting occurs conceptually, within the mind of the audience. Also the connotations of what these objects are, circus equipment and platforms create a charade image, an absurdity, creating a back and forth in the viewers mind between the absurd on the ground, very human and very flawed, and the lifting, the elevated, the magic and the disappearing act of what is beyond this entire act.<\/p>\n

This Gift is a Problem for You to Solve is an investigation into gift exchange in artwork as well as a offering in itself for the audience to question this proposed philosophy stated concisely by Wittgenstein.<\/p>\n

Between the desire
\nAnd the spasm
\nBetween the potency
\nAnd the existence
\nBetween the essence
\nAnd the descent<\/em>
\nThe Hollow Men- T.S. Eliot<\/p>\n

BACK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Gift is a Problem for you to Solve Curated by Sarah Walko: RED Gallery, Savannah, Georgia “What you are regarding as a gift is a problem for you to solve.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, as reproduced on a glass by American artist Joseph Kosuth. Gift giving is both authentically human and universally problematic.\u00a0 This action binds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":2,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-660","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1326,"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/660\/revisions\/1326"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sarahwalko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}