Guest Post: Vanessa VanAlstyne
Posted in Museum Expansionism, Presentism, Technology on 01. Nov, 2009
“I want to be in New York City,” said my friend Paul Slocum, who ran a predominant new media gallery in Texas called And/Or. I’m definitely thinking about what he just said. No one is born in a small market that doesn’t dream about being able to move to New York or Los Angeles and thrive. It’s romantic; the whole art world is full of that romance stuff, and so few of us do anything but dream about what could be.
I look out the window and see the storefronts around the gallery space, thriving a few years ago, now mostly empty, with little hope now that the art events will feed them with people. I don’t think Paul knows what he gave to everyone around him, but with the economy, and the limited amount of people in his field working around him, he felt it was time to move on.
If it wasn’t for And/Or gallery, I’d never have seen a physical Corey Archangel piece, I wouldn’t know who Micheal Bell Smith is, I would have never encountered JODI in a gallery setting, and I wouldn’t have thought YTMND’s could actually be transformed into a quirky show. If it wasn’t for his small gallery endeavor, I don’t think the digital art scene in Texas would even be what little it is. Paul worked like a shaman, spinning the air of technology around himself and drawing us all into his web of laptop death matches and 8-bit chicanery. He is always calm, calculating, and smart, and the few months his gallery has been closed have felt like a black hole ripped open in the fabric of our little regional continuum. I feel like those of us who are staying behind are holding our breath and wondering if the promise of budding art communities in smaller cities – once a hot spot of attention – will continue to have any relevance now that the patrons of the big art markets are feeling the money pinch.
The rest of the country is feeling it too; weekly you hear about another gallery shutting its doors locally or in one of the larger markets. The people who tell you “hey did you hear XYZ is closing” look at you with watery, fear-soaked eyes, like they want a solution and just don’t know what to do. The answer isn’t that simple. As long as the United States art community refuses to do anything but hold onto the traditional gallery setup, which lofts anything displayed in a few overpriced and barely livable cities, things are going to take a very long time to recover. The investors who fuel the art market just aren’t going to invest when times get tough. Galleries and artists seem to respond to this by just bearing down and hoping that if they can forge the long winter, things will be fruitful again when the ice thaws.
I can’t help but look at And/Or’s doors closing, its contribution to the small scene it was in, and wonder if more people would be willing to just put together shows right now, in any space – virtual or physical – if this would help push more artists through this difficult time. Paul’s space was never doggedly traditional, and he paid for it with a day job and by living in a closed-in area in the back, but what he did that was amazing was expose otherwise isolated people to new things. He brought in artists from around the country and world, and I don’t think this is something local collectives, online collectives, or progressive people should be unable to do. After all how many artists have Flickr accounts, YouTube channels, twitter, etc? How many artists are just an e-mail away? If the art world wants to thrive instead of just falter, it needs to start thinking about working together in less ordinary, and more extraordinary ways.
Vanessa VanAlstyne is a digital artist in her third year of an MFA. You can see more of her work on her website, her blog and follow her on twitter.
Interesting comments Vanessa, The art gallery market sure is changing.
My company has been in the 3d animation and design business since the early nineties and in the last 3 years we have been developing a product for the art market.
We have just launched a unique interactive 3D management system for the creation and display of art exhibitions online.
Galleries are using this to better inform and engage their clients and expand their audience to include the growing numbers of younger buyers who don’t frequent galleries because they are too busy or feel intimidated. Instead they take the gallery experience home and enjoy it there.
Once they are particularly interested in a piece of course they will come to the gallery, if they can as nothing beats seeing an artwork in reality!
I also see the possibility that galleries will be able to represent more artists this way, and who knows, because it is so much cheaper than retail space, may even be able to charge the artist less commission.
Some galleries like to have their real gallery space duplicated online, and others are happy to choose from the available gallery spaces.
Our local University is considering including this software within their Curators curriculum next year and has inquired about replicating their 4 gallery spaces in 3d.
We have lots more plans for the future too, taking Gallerycentric to the iphone is next on our list, then augmented reality…….and lots more
The website is http://www.gallerycentric.com if you would like to check it out.
I am going to have a look at your work online for sure : )
For the last couple hours I’ve been trying to work out some kind of a response to this that doesn’t sound pompous, suggestive, or Pollyanna-ish. I don’t think it can be done, at least not by me. My desire in most overwhelming circumstances like this is to suggest a solution of some kind. While not necessarily grounded in the reality of the situation it is an inherently male response I think. So I will restrain myself from lecturing on possibilities and follow up instead with a few truisms I have found in my short time as an artist.
First, I believe the artist leads rather than responds. If we are going to survive anything we should remember this. We are not beholden to these institutions they are beholden to us.
Second, the pluralism inherent to contemporary art, thought, and politics may make the kind of unified movement needed for such a paradigm shift impossible. If we cannot agree with or motivate ourselves towards a single purpose, how then could we cause a change that would be meaningful? (even the methods would not be unified)
I like the idea of alternative spaces very much (something about fighting the powers that be which appeals I suppose)and would love to experiment with them if you are interested. But I think in order for it to succeed as a movement we might need the weight of someone more established to get the ball rolling with any force.