the following passage is a proposal i submitted for an juried exhibition in long beach, ca. unfortunately, they did not like it:
For the Calarts MFA exhibition I Want a New Object, I mimic my fellow classmate Megan Sant's painting and sculpture. There are three reasons for this gesture:
1. The first reason and the original impulse to mimic:
Throughout art history (pre-Modern) artists had learn how to make works by copying masterpieces. In craft, the master and apprentice model of learning was essential. Of course such pedagogy and learning process has disappeared gradually, because artists no longer make commissioned works for kings and queens, or the pope. Original thoughts and styles of the artist became what we understood as value in the dawn of Modernity. Now we have the MFA degree, more popular than ever. For two years the candidates are told to strive, push limits, and come up some sort of original thesis about a certain something. During that intense period, and close proximity to each other's studio, artists can easily influence each other without knowing. My project is to mimic Megan Sant's painting and sculpture because I feel natural affinity toward them. I want to emphasize the ideas about influence within the MFA programs by bypassing all the details and subtlety, and go straight to making a copy of something I like, like a cover band, a tribute.
2. The second reason has to do with group exhibition:
I want to make a piece that addresses the nature of group exhibitions, and my concerns are twofold. First of all, each artist's space within a group exhibition is usually limited. Artists do not have the opportunity to show the full range of talent and ideas through multiple pieces of work. He or she has maybe one or two pieces to explain what he or she is about. Secondly, a curated group exhibition means that the work chosen either fits in a certain agenda/theme the curators come up with, or the work has direct or indirect relationship with other artists' works in the same space. Thus the meaning of the works shift accordingly by placement and proximity. It maybe formal, ideological, referential, medium-wise, what have you. Curators choose them because this way discourse and dialogues is generated. The mimic project, for me, is the best way to deal with both of those things. Since I cannot full express my artistic endeavor by presentation of one or two pieces, I should simply avoid attempting such thinking completely. Then the project should, to the best that I can, address the nature of group exhibition. With the desire to underline the context, I want to directly address the work next to mine by reproducing it.
3. The third and final reason:
In genre such as music, the act of playing a cover of someone else's song or score, is often considered as a form of admiration, fan-fare, and is thus received as sincere. Perhaps in those cases one can talk about the degrees of interpretation of the original score or song, but the conversation is never about authenticity or irony. In the art world, originality has everything at stake. It is never okay to mimic or to plagiarize another artist's works. (even though sometimes we see similar works, but it's always hush hush) In the exhibition I copied Megan Sant's painting and sculpture because I simply love them. To start this project I asked for Megan Sant's permission, and she agreed. It is a collaboration work, in a strange sense. Anyhow, I knew from the beginning that I was drawn to this project because this is where, for me, sincerity and irony can collapse onto themselves and create some kind of narrative about representation, authorship, power, and learning.
My guideline for the GLAMFA exhibition...
Since this is a different group show, a new context all together, I have made some changes to my original concept, and here is the adjusted instruction and process for this particular exhibition:
1. My aim is to mimic an art piece, not to copy it exactly. It does not even have to be made in the same material. For example, if the work is a painting, I do not want to copy it brush by brush. It is about representation, but not via photographic one to one relationship. As long as it has resemblance to the original object/image, it is good enough to be a look-a-like, and to perform its function in the space.
2 The mimic would be constructed at ¼ size of the original work.
3. My mimic and the original work must be exhibited in the same space. It is important to have the audience encounter repetition in the gallery
4. Selection of the original artwork: This time the work I will be mimicking would not be one of my MFA classmates, and very likely it would be some one I never met before. And since I would not know the selection of the artists before hand, there is no way of knowing what art piece I will be mimicking, so:
5. After the final selection is finished by the curators of the show, I then, would pick something to copy, base on my criteria and taste. I would then have to explain myself and get the artist's approval for this project, of course.
6. Mimic the work I have selected. Then install in the same space as the original artwork.
Thanks for Consideration, please contact me with any question and concerns
MHJC