overview
Lesson 1 | Summary
Activity Pages
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| lesson 1 | |
collaborators, dictators,
managers & soloists |
| activity | |
group process—the
many
faces of collaboration |
Collaboration in an artistic practice can take many forms and participants.
This activity explores the collaborative work of four artists who
describe their interest in collaboration in different ways.
Matthew Ritchie talks about his work
as a collaborative endeavor between himself, a computer program,
and assistants who help him fabricate and install his installations.
While Ritchie identifies his work as his own, he also refers to
it as a “shared integrity,” referring to the way that
many collaborators help realize his work by painting his wall drawings
and fabricating his sculptural designs based on his initial drawings.
Oliver Herring works with strangers to
create unscripted and spontaneous performances that he documents
through video, photography, and sculpture. Herring says:
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“If somebody
actually just walks up to you and says, 'Hey, do you want
to do something out of the ordinary?' there might be a little
reluctance at first. But deep down, you want to do it. It’s
adventure. That’s what brings people in front of the
camera. I also feel that when you’re in your own environment
that’s where you experiment, where you do all kinds
of crazy stuff. So I thought, 'Okay, let’s just see
what happens if I allow that to unfold.'” |
Fred Wilson's museum installations and
interventions call attention to the politics of museum display.
Allowing him to rearrange their collections, museum professionals
invite Wilson to re-present the way that museum audiences understand
and interpret the objects on view. Wilson says:
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“I have to
have good relationships with museums. I am entrusted with
their secrets. I begin by meeting everyone on staff and looking
at the collections, galleries, offices, and storage areas...I
am using everything about the museum in my installations,
and the meaning happens around how the objects relate to each
other...I try to bring the invisible into view.” |
Eleanor Antin describes herself as a
dictator and works in a very particular way with the dozens of people
who she involves in her staged photographs. Elaborately constructing
each photograph that she creates, her “The
Last Days of Pompeii” series depicts a cast of characters
who play wealthy Romans shown just before their ill-fated end. Shown
on one of her shoots, Eleanor works with costumers and prop-producers
as well as demands specific poses and expressions from each of her
collaborators.
Matthew Barney's feature-length series
of “CREMASTER”
films require the assistance of sound technicians, camera people,
costumers, etc. as well as sculptural props created by assistants
and specialists.
Although Laylah Ali creates her intimate
and finely crafted goache on paper paintings in isolation, a recent
collaboration with the choreographer Dean Moss
provided an opportunity for her to see her work cross into new disciplines
and media. Ali says:
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"It’s
really very different. I mean, it’s about as different
as I can imagine something being, working with dancers and
performance....I met Dean, looked at his work, went to a performance
of his and felt like we were thinking about similar things
in different ways. Not different at heart, but different in
approach. I didn’t think I could pass up the opportunity
to enter into a kind of creative collaboration with somebody.
Something like that doesn’t happen very often. I think
in a really honest way and I think Dean approaches it really
honestly. It’s a real gift to be able to join in someone’s
creative endeavor....Oftentimes artists are brought into performances
to make the backdrop, to provide the visual stimulation that’s
two-dimensional. But that’s not what this collaboration
is about, it’s more like, 'Let’s put our minds
together and see what this is about.' And that has been pretty
amazing. I think that’s one of the risks artists should
take every once in a while, to step outside of their creative
process and see what happens when you leave the confines of
your own way of doing things." |
Using the films, interviews, web clips, interviews, and slideshows
listed above, present the workinf processes of these artists to
your students and discuss the following questions:
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Describe the collaborative working
styles of these artists—how are they similar, how are
they different? |
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What roles do these
artists take on when producing their work with others? |
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What kinds of collaborators
are these artists working with? What kinds of skills or talents
do each of them bring to the artist's work? |
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To what extent is the artist’s
work still his or hers if parts of it are made by other people?
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How do you think these artists
might give credit to the people who work with them? On the
walls of the gallery or museum? In published material? In
other ways? |
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If students were working with
one of these artists, who would they want to work with? Why?
Would they want to collaborate as an artist? A participant
in the work of art? A skilled technician or craftsperson?
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Ask students to imagine a day or a period of time that they are
asked to work with Oliver Herring, Matthew Ritchie, Laylah Ali,
Matthew Barney, Eleanor Antin, or Fred Wilson, either producing
a work of art in their studios or in a gallery or museum where they
are installing their work. Have students use Art:21 resources to
research the artist, paying close attention to who works with them
and how. Then have students write a short report or narrative explaining
why they were hired to contribute their skills, their role in the
realization of the work, and their imagined experience working with
the artist. |
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