I first became aware of Jimmie Durham's drawings because there was an exhibition of them put on by kurimanzutto. kurimanzutto is a gallery that originally existed nomadically, adapting its form to the spaces needed by the projects it supported. It was dedicated to supporting contemporary art from Mexico, the gallery’s itinerant nature allowed it to organize shows in unconventional places, which in turn freed artists up to experiment with different kinds of projects. The gallery now has a more permanent space in Mexico, a space that for Durham gave him an opportunity to show drawings, which was for him, a chance to show work that he professed to be not very good at.
The exhibition was composed of drawings made between 1989 and 2020. Many of these drawings sort of looked accidental, or more an exploration of drawing as a form of writing. They record interventions, often made on old discarded papers that had had a previous use and in this way, former narratives were allowed to continue, now read as traces or memories that existed between the cracks of Durham's interventions.
Jimmie Durham on drawing
Durham states that it is impossible for him to use drawing to imitate reality. but in many ways he disembles and in fact drawing was something he did throughout his career. It could be argued that he used drawing to record the processes of reality, rather than trying to document its appearance. Durham stated in relation to his drawing activities, “our civilization is basically made of scraps of paper, and we have too many that were used once and then became useless thereafter, as is most of our history, or as we wish it were ”.
Jimmy Durham: Smashing
One day I was in Glasgow visiting my daughter and I had a chance to go and see what was on at the then Glasgow Sculpture Studios. What was on was a film of Jimmy Durham, who was receiving objects given to him in a small office with a big desk. As he took these 'donations', he cursory examined them and then proceed to smash them up.
In his text ‘Creativity and the Social Process’, he stated that ‘our perception of the purpose of art, as we produce it, must be eminently practical’ (1993: p. 69) and that it should be produced in order to help people interpret their world so that they may be better able to change it in positive ways. (Ibid: 71).
Coming across Jimmy Durham in Glasgow was a welcome reminder that art can have a social purpose. Calling your work 'art' should I feel matter, and matter in terms of what sort of civilisation we live within and aspire to. Art I really think, matters and it can create this mattering through the weaving of the various entanglements it finds itself connected to. Hopefully, especially if the art is well made, it can be a transformational portal for those who wish to see the world as a dynamic process of universal creation. I have in a past post written about the etymological roots of our word 'art', pointing out that the Proto-Indo-European root of the word 'art' was the morpheme 'rt', which was associated with the dynamic processes of universal creation. Other words derived from ‘rt’ include right, rhetoric, worth, rite and ritual. 'Rt' was to do with ‘creation’ and ‘beauty’ as well as moral and aesthetic correctness; being concerned with what was 'right'. I always had a sense that Jimmy Durham was also concerned with what was 'right'.
Jimmie Durham: Self portrait 1986
A 1986 self portrait drawing was made as a cut out outline, attached to it was a mask, supposedly of his own face, with synthetic hair, feathers and shells for ears. Written on his image is a greeting, “Hello I’m Jimmie Durham, I want to explain a few basic things about myself.” “My skin is not really this dark, but I am sure many Indians have coppery skin.” and “Indian penises are unusually large and colorful”.
I'm not sure he actually was of North American Indian heritage, but he definitely used the idea of the Indian to open up territories of thought. That was the thing about Jimmie Durham, you began to think he was one thing and then you decided maybe he wasn't. He often left you in the dark, on purpose and as he did, you wondered what was 'right' and 'wrong' about what was happening.
Smashing is typical of Durham's critique of Western society and its obsession with the ownership of things. His work is often linked to his commitment to the recognition of Native Americans and theCivil Rights Movement. This initial focus then broadened to become a critical view of the hierarchical systems that govern society as a whole. In 'Smashing' he dressed as a civil servant and sat behind a desk. Then as people come into his 'office' and presented him with their things, he violently and systematically destroys each object. His actions when repeated over and over again, suggested a certain type of bureaucratic brutality, one that has often been employed by Western societies as a process that enables the powers that be to 'get their way'.
I sometimes despair over how our present society is constructing itself, sensing a return to fascism and as that happens there is correspondingly less and less interest in art. But I'm sure Durham also used to despair over whether or not his work ever affected anything or anybody. But when I was watching 'Smashing', I did feel a sense of righteous anger and relief that artists' works are still capable of making statements about what it feels like to be in a world that doesn't feel right.
I recently read Fremeaux and Jordan's text, 'We are nature Defending Itself' and it is an excellent read if you are despondent and feeling that activism can never succeed when faced with the realities of the wider world. Finding alternative voices is important during a time when one voice seems to dominate everything. I do try hard not to despair and I hope I shall continue to try to find ways of making images that help myself and hopefully others find a more mythic connection with the cosmos, as well as to find glimpses of wonder in the everyday. If my small contribution can keep just a tiny fire burning, then all is not in vain and hope as they say, 'springs eternal'.
A wing emerging from mud
In memory of Jimmie Bob Durham (July 10, 1940 – November 17, 2021)
References:
Durham, J. (1993) Creativity and the Social Process. In Durham, J.A. (ed.) Certain Lack of Coherence: Writings on Art and Cultural Politics, London, Kala Press, pp .69–71
Fremeaux, I. and Jordan, J., (2021) We are 'nature' Defending Itself: Entangling Art, Activism and Autonomous Zones. Pluto Press.
For many years I have kept an eye on what Sue Coe is doing, she is an artist who uses her image making skills to highlight various aspects of society's ills, as well as making direct political interventions based on her strongly held beliefs. Sue Coe has campaigned for animal rights for many years, both by making imagery and by taking direct action. She uses traditional print and drawing techniques and sees herself belonging to a tradition that includes Goya, Hogarth and Kollwitz.
Sue Coe
Coe’s art speaks of the socially oppressed, the disenfranchised and outcast, and addresses everyone, not just the art going public. Her images arrive out of the struggle to balance her politics with a humanist art that searches for a deeper meaning, something difficult to reconcile, especially when working directly with a political group, because a situation can arise which can often be seen by outsiders as simply instrumental to the Marxist ‘class struggle’ and by insiders as a failure to fully communicate a political stance as laid out in a manifesto or other political tract.
Sue Coe: Factory farm
I have often remarked on that barrier that stands between fine art and illustration. Sue Coe is an artist that straddles the two disciplines and asks questions as to the relative purpose of them. The censorious nature of commercial illustration forced Coe to make compromises when she tried to get her images into what she saw as relevant publications. She was interested in reaching a much wider audience than the traditional art gallery going one and was therefore forced to see if she could use the illustrational route as a way into the pages of popular publications. For years she used editorial work to make a living, but art directors tended to think of her as a kind of exotic outsider who had 'working-class rage’. Within a fine art context she was seen as merely an illustrator. The reality is that she uses a visual vocabulary rooted in art history. "Like Goya and the seventeenth-century etcher Jacques Callot she isolated vignettes of horror; like Daumier and Grosz she made totems out of the commonplace; and like Rivera and Orozco she froze the historical moment".(Heller, 1996)
During the 1980s Sue Coe became suddenly trendy and as the art world became 'politically conscious', (something it sometimes does, more as a fashion statement I sometimes feel), she was picked out as a rising star. An art world that she herself described thus, ‘The art world is a zipped-up body bag of what they call culture.’ (So I'm sure she was very aware of how fickle the art world's embrace can be). During this time she exhibited a huge 20 foot wide image, a brutal picture of a gang rape called 'Woman Walks into Bar – Is Raped by 4 Men on the Pool Table – While 20 Watch'. Critics during this time equated her with Beckmann, Posada and Siqueiros and the format of 'Woman walks into a bar' is clearly a reflection on the expressionist compositions of Max Beckmann. In 1987, Art News put her on its cover. and in 1994, she was honoured with a retrospective at Washington’s Hirshorn Museum. You can read about her early career here in an excellent Eye Magazine article. Since that time her art world career has been one of confusing indifference and sudden moments of interest, as the fickle finger of art fame has moved on to point in other directions.
Sue Coe
Most contemporary Fine Art practitioners tend to use a range of media to get their ideas across. Film and video are however usually the media of choice when it comes to working in an area that is politically focused. What this means is that the sub sets of skills required are different and when you look at an artist's work in detail you will notice that other people have to be involved in the production. An artist that has had a long involvement in this area is Harun Farocki.
Serious Games III: Immersion: Harun Farocki
For the video installation Immersion Farocki visited a workshop organised by the Institute for Creative Technologies, a research centre for virtual reality and computer-simulations. One of their projects concerns the development of a therapy for war-veterans suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Farocki is interested in the use of virtual realities and games in the recruting, training and also therapy for soldiers. Farocki explores the connection between virtual reality and the military – how the fictional scenarios of computer games are used both in the training of U.S. troops prior to their deployment in combat zones, and in psychological care for troops suffering battlefield trauma upon their return. In order for the work to be made a series of production stages and roles were needed, for instance, Harun Farocki was the director and scriptwriter, Matthias Rajmann conducted the research, Max Riemann was the editor working alongside Farocki, Ingo Kratisch was the cinematographer and Matthias Rajmann was in charge of sound.
'I Thought they were convicts' is centred around grainy surveillance footage from a maximum-security prison which captures the dramatic moment when an inmate is shot dead by guards. The shooting of William Martinez was one of many similar incidents at California State Prison, which became notorious for its brutal conditions. Farocki’s film focuses on the investigation into the shootings, revealing that guards intentionally set up fights between prisoners, allowing them to escalate before interceding with live ammunition. I'm interested in this work because of the way that drawing is used, the prison footage being juxtaposed with computer-generated drawings based on the movements of supermarket shoppers. In this way Farocki explores the power relationship between the observer and the observed, drawing parallels between the role of surveillance in the lives of prisoners and those of everyday shoppers.
I thought they were convicts: Harun Farocki
Workers Leaving the Factory in Eleven Decades: Harun Farocki
Workers Leaving the Factory in Eleven Decades, is displayed on twelve monitors simultaneously. When it comes to social conflict, the show place 'in front of a factory', is very significant; when it comes to a private life of a film's character, which really only begins after work, the factory is relegated to the background. In Fritz Langs Clash by Night (1952), you see Marilyn Monroe on the assembly line, coming out of the factory, and hear her talking about it. A movie star working in a factory evokes associations of a fairy tale in which a princess must work before she attains her true calling. What Farocki is pointing to here is that factories and the whole subject of labour are often relegated to the fringes of film history.
Deep Play: Harun Farocki
Deep Play is made up of various perspectives on the final of the 2006 World Cup. We see the 'clean feed', the television networks’ raw material, as well as individual players on both teams in close ups alongside abstract computer-generated representations of the flow of play. These drawings help classify and assess what's going on because they are used by trusted experts to analyse and evaluate all quantifiable events. Above all, what we experience is how the laboratory of football is able to exhibit the most advanced technology in the production and presentation of moving images. We see how eerily close the wishes of the consumers, the trainers and the police really are to each other. Just as they are in real life. Drawing in all these cases is woven seamlessly into the artwork, and it is common now to see drawing featuring as just one way amongst several others to carry information within complex communication packages.
Kara Walker: Endless Conundrum
Old technologies can still be made relevant, again it is context that reveals the political position taken by the work. Walker has used black paper cut-outs, which are usually fixed directly onto the gallery walls, since the early 1990s. Silhouette art peaked in popularity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and Walker has re-appropriated the style to create imagery that is often shocking and uncomfortable, addressing issues of race and gender, power and sexuality. Walker examines the influence of African tribal art on Modern artists, as well as looking at the wider appropriation of black creativity in Western art and culture.
Nancy Spero
Nancy Spero was making art alongside the beginnings of the Women’s Movement in the 1960s. Her large scale images were often emotional reactions to war as well as responses to emerging feminist issues. She rejected the use of paint on canvas as it was synonymous with misogynistic male painters. Instead she opted for a variety of drawing materials to create intense, raw, and illustrative political works. Of her 'War' series of images she stated, “ With the War Paintings, I had to figure out how to paint ‘manifestos’ against the war and the violence. From 1966–70 I worked fast and furiously. No more labouring over oil paint and canvas. I used gouache, watercolours, drawing inks, and paper.” It is interesting to remember how political the use of oil paint was and I could argue still is. One of the reasons this blog is about drawing rather than painting, is that painting is still saddled with many of its old associations with male privilege, media hierarchy, consumerist values and art world prejudice. Drawing hopefully escapes some of these associations because it is seen as less formal, is not as gendered, is more about thinking through ideas and is less collectable because works on paper have never been valued as highly as works on canvas.
Theatre Gates: Civil Tapestry (Dirty Yellow)
Using unusual materials to make your artwork can be a powerful way of engaging with history. A decommissioned fire hose is used to make this work, its formal arrangement, recalling American abstract art of the early 1960s, such as the minimalist abstractions made by Frank Stella. However, Gates’s work is actually about the violent hosing of civil-rights demonstrators by police in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. Gates uses money raised from the sale of his works to help in the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods. He works with architects, craftspeople, and unemployed labourers, buying and renovating derelict properties. Salvaged materials from the buildings are then used by him to create new artworks, in this way ensuring that the process is as important as the products. It is perhaps the engagement with process that is becoming the most important aspect of current politically motivated art practice.
The New York City artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, has been drawing portraits of women that have suffered street harassment. The posters are put up in the places where the harassment happened, obviously hoping to embarrass the harassers but also making people aware that there is a powerful movement engaged with making sure that social customs and behaviours are both challenged and changed.
If you want to know more about art and activism the link to this booklet is a good starting point. Why artistic activism?
On a recent Tuesday evening we went to see a music, sculpture and performance work at the Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds. The Matter of the Soul' by Kat Austen was something I had been looking forward to because it was a complex piece that was bringing together a range of practices in order to make a statement about climate change and global warming, issues that I'm very aware haven't been dealt with as much as they ought to have been by the arts community. However I was very disappointed in the final production, the various elements failed to fit together and I found the sound languages used incomprehensible and supporting visual imagery badly done. This was a real shame, and as far as I was concerned a wasted opportunity. At least the ambition was there and perhaps that was more important than anything else. We only have a few years left to prevent global warming becoming an unstoppable planetary disaster. As artists we cannot escape this, we have responsibilities not just to each other but to ourselves. Recent posts have suggested that we should be reframing our approach to everything we do when faced with this situation, but I have not yet really addressed something that is rather like the elephant in the room. It's so big we don't talk about it, it is the biggest thing in the room by far, but we are so scared of what it represents that we will busy ourselves with all sorts of distractions, rather than look at it directly. There are of course artists dealing with these issues, but due to the complexity of the issues involved these are more often than not artists working in collaboration. For instance, Livin Studio, an Austrian artist duo composed of Katharina Unger and Julia Kasinger, developed Fungi Mutarium. Fungi Mutarium is a prototype that grows edible fungal biomass, mainly the mycelium, as a novel food product. Agar, a seaweed based gelatin substitute acts, mixed with starch and sugar, as a nutrient base for the fungi. The fungi digests the plastic and gradually overgrows the whole substrate.
Livin Studio use drawing to highlight communication issues.
The Canadian duo FICTILIS, composed of Timothy Furstnau and Andrea Steves, have developed 'True cost market' a shop that confronts and tells its customers the real cost of its products and 'Wastewater Walk' which is a series of walks following the paths of human waste from toilet to treatment facilities in various locations. The walks are a playful way to promote awareness of the hidden infrastructure, environmental inefficiencies, social inequities, and psychological repercussions of modern sanitation systems, and to tie this awareness to shared, lived experience in the physical landscape. Different versions of the walk have included mapping exercises, water tables staffed by local water organisations, performances at stops along the route, and audio tours.
A map of nuclear sites from a FICTILIS research file looking at protest
Both these art groups are non traditional in approach, and they see problem solving as a thing they are happy to undertake, which is normally the province of designers; they are not involved with making art objects as such, they are more interested in an awareness raising process. You could argue therefore that this is bad art, but when there is the need for something to be done, I believe this doesn't matter that much and that gradually as more and more artists begin to work in this area, ways to make powerful, emotive statements will become more and more possible, because an audience will have been developed that can understand and respond to the types of work possible in this area. A wide range of approaches are being taken by artists to these issues and an exhibition such as 'Indicators: Artists on Climate Change' at the Storm King Art Centre, is a useful place to start if you are wondering what sort of approaches have already been made to this issue.
Adam Lowe and Jerry Brotton
I've looked in the past at how useful both model making and maps can be when trying to visualise things, but of course these technologies can be brought together. Adam Lowe and Jerry Brotton of Factum Arte, in their work Terra Forming: Engineering the Sublime, make relief models of maps of Earth and flood them. These models are designed to provoke discussions about climate change, the artwork encompassing the associated debates and symposiums that Factum Arte are developing. This way of working, whereby the physical artwork is just a small part of an overarching series of events, talks, marches, internet campaigns etc. etc. is becoming more the norm, as artists realise that the situation is urgent.
A strength that comes from involving art in this context is that it is not constrained by standard scientific methods and can more easily involve not just artists and scientists, but also citizens and many different types of change agents. As such, the arts can also challenge things that tend to be taken for granted, in an engaging and creative way. This can lead to new ways of perceiving, understanding and acting upon climate change.
The diagram above represents the number of art projects that have been recorded as dealing in some way with raising awareness around sustainability and climate change. As you can see these have now peaked but together they help others gain momentum in their various approaches. Each and every action, no matter how small, helps.
References
Sacha Kagan: Art and Sustainability: Connecting Patterns for a Culture of Complexity
Soil City A good place to start if like me you think soil is vitally important to a sustainable future.
Invisible Dust Lots of links to both artists and scientists
