Groundwork—A curatorial introduction

Critical Distance Centre for Curators, 2021

The following discussion with artists Alana Bartol, Ileana Hernandez Camacho and Ts̱ēmā Igharas uncovers each artist's impetus for their featured works in the exhibition Groundwork and how they respectively confront the complexities of extractivism. As embodied action is the driving catalyst for the works presented in the exhibition, the discussion also broaches the role performance plays in their respective practices, and how it can be used as a medium or strategy to bring focus to alternative ways of relating with land and thinking about our environments.

Humanity’s life on Earth is taking a concerning direction: the years to come will be shaped by issues such as the devastating effects of climate change or the chaotic consequences of mass migration. In order to be able to alter in any form the course of events that are currently forming a devastating future for the planet and humankind, there is a need for an individual recognition that the things-of-the-world matter to us, personally. This understanding can emerge in us if we go beyond the hegemony of the ego that is driven by the current, production, gain and profit centered mindset. In the book, Ground zero. The transitional space of contemporary art I argue that the space in which we, as individuals, can revisit and alter how we are in the world, are spaces of ‘ground zero’, empty spaces that are beyond the structured Symbolic reality that we take for granted and live as our life. In the research it is demonstrated that certain contemporary art practices are able to invite the beholder into this state of ‘ground zero’ in a very particular way. Some contemporary art does this so effectively, that the beholder is drawn into themselves not only cognitively, but also emotionally and even physically. There is an engagement with one’s entire being beyond the control of the ego. This book explores various aspects of this most important experience.

Editorial for Unlikely issue 2 (2016) (http://unlikely.net.au/), which focused on the theme of artistic fieldwork: This issue of Unlikely explores creative practice beyond the studio. What opportunities for the creation of new knowledge are “out there, in the field”? What new methods for artmaking are born when artists venture outside the art world - or indeed, take the artworld itself as field? How do documentation, reportage, and writing help make field work visible and intelligible? How do artworks define their own fields?

HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory

This is an exhibition of fieldwork art adapted to the page. It is set out following the typical stages of an anthropological research project and presents works that were both made through fieldwork and exhibited as art. The strategy is one of "blending" and playful displacement by way of objects that highlight the dual identity and practice of the anthropologist/artist. Working with artworks that were made with spoken, written, or printed words and texts extends this approach of practical rapprochement between the fields to explore how decisions about genre and material are related to the variable configurations of the field of publics and of the two spheres of activity.

In the context of a course on spatial theory and the built environment, in January 2014 I invited fourteen student artists and art historians to work together on a creative project in a specific site. While all participants were collaborators with one another, the main collab- orator I asked them to consider was the site itself. Our site was a place of escape: a luminous, generous, fire escape stairwell located on the eastern flank of the Engineering- Visual Arts Complex of Concordia University, Montreal. KPMB Architects designed the “EV” as a flagship building for Concordia’s growing presence in Montreal’s downtown core. As such, the designers prioritized soaring interior volumes and accessible gallery spaces. One might not expect the building’s fire escapes to have received similar treatment, but they did. These stairwells are places of austere, brutalist beauty, as well as being portals to magnificent views of the surrounding city. But despite their location in a faculty of fine arts, and all that these stairwells afford, spatially and visually, these marvellous sites are rarely used for art. we asked how we could collaborate with a space to which we had daily, easy access, but was not ours to change? Despite the prohibition against any kind of obstruction or “storage” in the stairwell, might there be ways to engage with the space that allowed for its temporary, meaningful transformation? And how might these actions change us? These are the questions that this small book, and the projects within, begin to answer. With Hannah van der Est, Ellen Belshaw, Maryam Mohajerani, T. Neale, Nima Navab, Vincent Eric, Katrina Jurjans, and the linked co-authors.

De Arte, 2003

"The Ground" is an experimental text about my current work in the context of contemporary economic and social conditions and in relation to contemporary art movements. It is published in Cultural Politics Volume 10.3 Cultural Politics (ISSN: 1743-2197) is an international, refereed journal that explores the global character and effects of contemporary culture and politics. It analyzes how cultural identities, agencies and actors, political issues and conflicts, and global media are linked, characterized, examined and resolved. In doing so, the journal explores precisely what is cultural about politics and what is political about culture. It investigates the marginalized and outer regions of this complex and interdisciplinary subject area. "The Ground" along with all other visual artists' projects in this journal are available free access online, with color reproductions: http://culturalpolitics.dukejournals.org/content/10/3/320.full

de arte, 2003

2020