Logbook Entry #2
I requested a space to work on my capstone, as I realized this is something that will help me to spread out my capstone work throughout the week. It needs to be a separate space dedicated only to this project so that I can really focus on it. I got this idea because in the Practice Seminar, the visual arts students can request personal studios and the theater students can reserve rehearsal studios, so I figured I could at least use one of the many empty desks near professors’ offices (for example in A6).
This week I have worked on narrowing down my topic for the exhibition, as it was still a bit broad. I began by looking at my list of artists I had been considering and thinking about which ones spoke to me the most, and why. My mentors pushed me to make a list of my ideal 3, and even a secondary list, and from there explain the topic. By narrowing down to three artists, inherently there will be themes and more specific questions that rise to the surface. This week I focused my artist research on:
- Walid Raad (specifically his Scratching on Things I Could Disavow series)
- The Gulf Labor group
- The GCC Collective
Here is a link to the content I gathered on Raad and the GCC Collective. After researching the Gulf Labor group, I began thinking that they might be a good idea to include- for one their artwork does not really work with the work of Raad and the GCC Collective- it is much more along the lines of poster-art (think Gorilla Girls). Can their art/ project fit into the institutional critique category if it is so clearly activist art?
I realized that the link between these thee artists/artist groups was their focus and criticism on the region. Raad and the Gulf Labor group focus specifically on the museums being built on Saadiyat Island. Looking at artists who are looking at, questioning, and criticizing our neighboring institutions (as well as our very own institution at times) made me realize that I am also questioning our role (as NYUAD) here, in this particular context. How do we/ have we faced the labor issue? How do we engage with the art world here, and now that we have a gallery here, how does contemporary institutional critique relate directly to our context here- as a western institution in the Gulf, in the UAE, and as an institution involved in the arts?
I also looked back at my final paper I wrote for my Foundations of Art History II course I took last semester. This paper traces institutional critique historically and discuses the newest phase of institutional critique- in contemporary art. I used quotes from this essay to create a timeline to keep in mind as I research artists and analyze their work.
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