Heather Nicol
What’s The Use
November 7 to December 15, 2002
The John Paul Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan School of Art and Design
Curated by Heather Nicol, with artists Ann Agee, Roger Andersson, Suzanne Bocanegra and Morgan Puett, Ken Butler, Paula Hayes, Ben Kinmont, Robin Kahn, Chrysanne Stathacos.
This show explores the notion of use in aesthetic experience. Many artists since Duchamp have altered the everyday object by placing it within the art viewing arena, often distorting or otherwise stripping it of its original function. "What’s the Use?" investigates the flip side of this phenomena, where, in our fast-paced lives, the art experience doubles up and attempts to fulfill some other need as well. While the masses have been "serviced" by certain artists in the public domain, this exhibition focuses on projects of a more personal, private nature. Stepping aside from more familiar expectations of art (the purely aesthetic/formal, the introspective or psychological, the politically informative/activist, etc.) in an often playful way, the artists here may be asking of the art object, "What have you done for me lately?".
November 7 to December 15, 2002
The John Paul Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan School of Art and Design
Curated by Heather Nicol, with artists Ann Agee, Roger Andersson, Suzanne Bocanegra and Morgan Puett, Ken Butler, Paula Hayes, Ben Kinmont, Robin Kahn, Chrysanne Stathacos.
This show explores the notion of use in aesthetic experience. Many artists since Duchamp have altered the everyday object by placing it within the art viewing arena, often distorting or otherwise stripping it of its original function. "What’s the Use?" investigates the flip side of this phenomena, where, in our fast-paced lives, the art experience doubles up and attempts to fulfill some other need as well. While the masses have been "serviced" by certain artists in the public domain, this exhibition focuses on projects of a more personal, private nature. Stepping aside from more familiar expectations of art (the purely aesthetic/formal, the introspective or psychological, the politically informative/activist, etc.) in an often playful way, the artists here may be asking of the art object, "What have you done for me lately?".
