{"id":643,"date":"2009-06-04T12:36:57","date_gmt":"2009-06-04T19:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/06\/a_shadow_of_the_old_is_not_a_m\/"},"modified":"2009-06-04T12:36:57","modified_gmt":"2009-06-04T19:36:57","slug":"a_shadow_of_the_old_is_not_a_m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/06\/a_shadow_of_the_old_is_not_a_m.html","title":{"rendered":"A shadow of the old is not a model of the new"},"content":{"rendered":"

I haven’t seen Ethan Hayes-Chute<\/a>‘s Hermitage<\/i>, which the Boston Globe<\/i> describes<\/a> as a  “life-size re-creation of a hermit’s two-story wooden cabin, made with materials salvaged from dumpsters, construction sites,” but boy howdy have I seen it. <\/p>\n

\"ethanhayeschute.jpg\"<\/span>Whiting Tennis<\/a> offered something similar a couple of years ago titled Bovine<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"whitingtennisbovine.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Some hard-scrabble hermit might have built either one from scraps and lived in it for decades, picking his nose and peeing out the door. Good luck to the guy. (I might be joining him shortly.) As art, however, both sculptures reek of frontier nostalgia and trade in wild West stereotypes. They’re shabby chic without the chic.<\/p>\n

Michael Darling bought Bovine<\/i> for the Seattle Art Museum<\/a>, where it is now, presumably, in pieces in a bin. (Make that a big bin.) If only Darling had waited. (Tennis’ for-the-ages piece here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The big daddy of this sensibility is Ed Kienholtz<\/a>. Hayes-Chute’s and Tennis’ sculptures are mites, and Kienholtz’s are mountains. <\/p>\n

Everybody recycles, especially now, when the idea of breaking new ground has itself broken down. Evoking the past is not the problem. It’s evoking it in a half-assed, me-too manner, hoping to hitch a dull wagon to somebody else’s bright star.<\/p>\n

In an exhibit titled Second Peoples<\/i><\/a> at the lamentably demised Tacoma gallery known as The Helm, the killer-good artist statement on the subject reads as follows:<\/p>\n

We
\nhave coined the name ‘second peoples’ to describe the people who arrive
\nlate on the scene, after the beginning, after the abundance, after the
\ntraumatic event, after everything’s been said and done, after, even,
\nthe end. <\/p>\n

We are the second peoples. Chances are, you are too.
\nThis is an exhibition dealing with what it means to be second. We
\ninhabit a landscape of iteration, reverb, elision, and generational
\nnoise. Our corner of North America – these mountains, that timber, this
\nrich land – belonged to someone else. Our popular culture-those TV
\nshows, that movie sequel, this new band that is so retro they’re
\ncool-belonged to some other time. Our art is that way, too: this
\ngesture to Donald Judd, that nod to Philip Guston, that Eva Hesse wink.<\/p>\n

We are interested in locating the coordinates of this second
\nposition. How did we end up here? What is our responsibility for what
\nhappened before us? What is our responsibility for the things that
\nhappen now in our names? Like Simone de Beauvoir argues in “Second
\nSex”, we think we should be free to transcend ourselves as subjects, to
\nnot be confined to existential leftovers.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Contemporary art is concerned with this alchemy, trying to
\nturn second-handedness into first-handedness, reversing the flow of
\nenergy, presenting not representing, creating value from valuelessness.
\nWe think this is a worthwhile activity. We also think it is a fraught
\nactivity. The work in this exhibition exposes some of the fractures
\ncreated by this ceaseless turning, and also dreams of a third position,
\na reification of our desire to escape, a momentary place to stop.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For a brilliant, 21st-century version of the Kienholtz aesthetic, go here<\/a> for a look at a Seattle Art Museum project by the brothers Oscar Tuazon and Eli Hansen. (It’s another Michael Darling<\/a> effort. He is who is in Seattle curatorial circles. In his field, nobody else comes near.)<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I haven’t seen Ethan Hayes-Chute‘s Hermitage, which the Boston Globe describes as a  “life-size re-creation of a hermit’s two-story wooden cabin, made with materials salvaged from dumpsters, construction sites,” but boy howdy have I seen it. Whiting Tennis offered something similar a couple of years ago titled Bovine. Some hard-scrabble hermit might have built either […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}