The End of Failure

The End of Failure

The End of Failure

Curated by Katrina Lamb

Louis V.E.S.P.

140 Jackson St., #4D, Brooklyn, NY, 11211

Opening Reception: April 29, 2011, 7:30-10:00 p.m.

Performances by Ross Moreno, Christian Oittinen, and Ryan Wilsie begin at 8:30 p.m. Television For Ghosts, by Shalo P., will conclude the program at 10:00 p.m. as the doors close, and will continue into the night.

Featuring (in alphabetical order):

Ross Moreno

Michelle O’Brien

Christian Oittinen and Kellie McCool, http://cmoworks.com/

Shalo P, http://thatsforsure.net/shalo.php

Anna Pratt, annaprattjournalist.com

Jeff Ray, jeffrayart.com

Chris Sollars, http://667shotwell.com/ChrisSollars.html

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, http://www.mattildabernsteinsycamore.com/

Anne Yalon

Ryan Wilsie, http://boogrlips.blogspot.com/

Michael Zheng, http://michaelzheng.org/

Hosted by Louis V.E.S.P. in Brooklyn, The End of Failure features a group of contemporary artists and writers whose work operates with failure at its core. I invited participants in the exhibition to consider what place failure has had in their work at different points in their lives, and what their relationship to failure is today.

From liminal modes of artistic production to conscientious socio-political positioning as a daily performative act, “failure” has been adopted throughout recent art history as an alternative strategy for making things. I would argue that failure as a creative strategy emerged with the advent of the Avant-Garde in the mid-nineteenth century. It seems worth taking a moment to note that while failure, as a theme, can be located in a much longer and broader historical landscape, Avant-Garde movements including Dadaism, Surrealism, Conceptual Art, Anti-Art, and the Situationist International comprised the first wave of artists that created methodologies revolving around the purpose of rejecting bourgeois class values. Beyond artistic production, these groups worked to form practices that reflected a completely new way of operating in the world.

In more recent art history, many practices first introduced in these Avant-Garde experiments have become assimilated into the expansive array of methodological options available for our use and new interpretations of. Failure has been championed for its reputation as a strategy that carries radical connotations—one that implicitly rejects mainstream values and measures of success and creates a way to turn attention to things that may be otherwise ignored or erased.

Failure (Documents of Contemporary Art) (Lisa LeFeuvre, MIT Press, 2010), Beautiful Losers (directed by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard, Sidetrack Films, 2008), A Conference on Failure in the Arts (hosted by University at Buffalo’s Department of Visual Studies, February 2010) and P.S. 1’s event An Afternoon of Failure (April 2, 2011), are just several from an inventory of recent publications and exhibitions dedicated to the subject of failure in contemporary art.

While failure has been promoted from side note to superstar status by such exhibitions, I have been increasingly plagued with doubt and concern about the way that failure has had undue influence on my peers’ as well as my own work. For too long, I fear that we have become entangled with failure as a highly seductive strategy without maintaining active engagement in the process, or in the implications of these projects.

Please take note:

1. The work by folks in The End of Failure is among my favorite anywhere—I am by no means suggesting that we should retreat from seeking out working methods that repel mainstream notions of success and failure. I do, however, feel that we carry a responsibility to articulate what our past efforts around failure were about—it seems especially important that we not rely upon a vague or unspoken (“poetic”) assumption of failure.

2. I want to make sure, as well, that the concerns and reservations that I have about failure will not be misconstrued as a sentiment that pits failure with more minimalist or conceptual work, and post-failure work with well-crafted things. What I care about more than anything is creating spaces where artists are allowed to be smarter.

3. For all the wrong reasons, I tried to avoid boring everyone involved in The End of Failure by talking excessively about the structure of the project (administratively, politically, socially, aesthetically). This is one major failure on my part. I feel quite strongly about the need to make the space to address the institutional structures that we operate within, and derive support from; because such issues are part of a fair number of the contributors’ work, the conversations happened, but in kind of an awkward way.

The aesthetically and ideologically diverse work in The End of Failure reflects the kind of complicated possibilities within and connected to failure--and its absence. Through text, interviews, audio work, blog projects, video pieces, installation, a public art project, and live performances, the artists frame their relationship with failure on their own terms.

Many heartfelt thanks to everyone involved. All of you do such astoundingly beautiful work. Please be in touch.

-Katrina Lamb, April 2011

miss ya already

xmas

FATE Abstract

Fate: Rethinking Art Criticism (Abstract)

For the panel Rethinking Art Criticism, I will argue that as we move into an era in which the internet, social networking, blogs, e-newsletters, and interactive databases have replaced many traditional art magazines, this transition is part of a much broader paradigm shift within contemporary art and culture, and that art college curricula, starting at the Foundations level, must reflect these changes.

As the delineations between fine art, commercial art, visual culture (and the roles of the players therein) are currently in question, the In-Question nature of this paradigm shift poses a unique dilemma in regards to developing curricula that will retain its relevance for a duration over students’ careers and lives. At the core, this dilemma points to the need to impart students with the tools to become not only object-makers, but also critical thinkers.

In-Question:

-What range of writing and research skills should be expected at the undergraduate level for fine art students?

-As academic and professional boundaries between Art Criticism, Art History, and Visual Culture Studies overlap, is there any permeability between these disciplines and Fine Art/Studio Art?

-Does the notion of “The Artist As Critic” still hold relevance, or is The Artist Critic no longer a category that need be differentiated from other art writers?

-On what grounds do we accept a piece of writing as being at “a professional level,” or a “publishable” level in a post-print world?

-What place does poetry and experimental have in art criticism?

-Can art schools be trade schools in the 21st Century? Who decides what that means?

-How do we find language to talk about craft?

-Which “Art World” do we, or should we, prepare students for?

-Is self-censoring and group-censoring a form of art criticism, or does criticism always refer to the written dialogue that proceeds the art object?

-Are studio and group seminar critiques a form of Art Criticism, or are these critical discussions held between art-makers something different?

-How does the study and praxis of Fine Art/Studio Art play out within the international Art World in relation to the writing about it, at present?

-As boundaries between academic and creative disciplines are destabilized, what may be the place of interpretive or critical language within the “global visual economy”?

-How does the interplay between visual and verbal language impact the specificity of a non-verbal piece of art?

-What do historical models and aspirations of universal communication have to do with contemporary art and criticism?

Jewelry

excerpt from Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World

"Able Condor, Action Express, Active Improvement, Adventure Express, Air Warrior, Allied Response, Amber Star, Anvil Ghost, Arabian Gauntlet, ARRcade Fusion, Arcade series, Ardent Ground, Argonaut, Artificer, Artful Image, Artful Issue, ASCIET, Asterix, Atlantic Drive, Atomic Music Principle, Auburn Endeavor, Aurora, Avid Recovery, Baltic Series, Baltlink, Baltops, Barracuda, Bartisan Hinge, Bass Rock, Battle Griffin, Beady Eye, Bell Buoy, Big Red, Black Hat, Blue Flag, Blue Harrier, Blue Hungwe, Blue Tiger, Boron Mercury, Bowline, Brave Heart, Bright Horizon, Bright Star, Brilliant Foil, Britannia Way, Bullseye, Burmese Chase, Burning Bush, Buzard, Cajun Combat, Cape Petrel, Carpathian Exchange, Central Enterprise, Centrasbat, Chalet, Churinga, Circuit Mayflower, Classic Owl, Clean Hunter, Cobb Ring, Combined Endeavor, Condor, Conifer, Constant Harmony, Cooperative series, Cope Thunder, Coronet East, Coronet Nova, Coronet Regatta, Coronet Yankee, Cossack Express, Cossack Steppe, Counter Guard, Courageous Bat, Crab Apple, Cross Check, Cross Ski, Cygnet series, Datex, Delphin, Desert series, Destined Glory, Devil’s Hat, Diagonal Glance, Diamond Cutter, Dimming Sun, Distant Frontier, Distant Thunder, Dogfish, Dogue Akdeniz, Druid’s Dance, Dynamic series, Eager Sentry, Early Victor, Eastern Sailor, ECHELON, Elder Forest, Entgrou, European Mountaineer, Excalibur, Extract, Falcon Sound, Final Nail, Fincastle, Fingel, Fingel’s Cave, Flying Fish, Flying Rhinot, Frisian Flag, Full Moon, Gardenia, Gaulish, GI Joe, Giant, Glacial Enigma, Global series, Glow Worm, Gobi Dust, Golden Sands, Granby, Grand Prix, Green Flag, Griffin, GULFLEX, Hairspring, Hard Flint, Have Eagle, High Court, Himalayan Bluebell, IADS ADEX, Ince, Infinite Courage, Initial Link, Interpret, Iron series, Island Spell, Istar, Jackel Cave, Jagged Course, Joint Winter, Jolly Roger, RTFEX, Jumbo, Juniper Cobra, Kangaroo, Kelp, Kingfisher, Lark Song, Linked Seas, Lion Sun, Lin’s Pride, Lone Eagle, Lone Kestrel, Lone Star, Long Look, Looking Glass, Lucky Sentinel, Mace, Magic Carpet, Magic Roundabout, Magestran, Majestic Eagle, Mallet Blow, Maple Flag, Maple Tour, MARGOT, MCOP, Med Shark, MEDFLAG, Medicine Man, Mercury, Mono Prix, Moon Penny, Mothia, Mulberry Tree, Mystic Star, Native Trail, Neo Tapon, Neon, Neop Spark, Neptune’s series, Nightjar, Northern Light, Northern Lights, Northern Watch, Oak Apple, Odette, Oracle, Orient Express, Pacific Kukri, Pacific Protector, Panther Cub, Peaceshield, Pet Worth, Pine Apple, Pinemartin, Pitch Black, Pond Jump West, Power Drive, Prairie Warrior, Principal, Premier Link, Prominent Hammer, Provide Hope, Ptarmigan, Purple Star, Purple Strik,e, Quick Lift, Quick Stand, Red Stripe, Raynard Chase, Rhino, RIMPAC, Rock Work, Rocky Lance, Rolling Deep, Roving Sands, Royal Patrol, Rutley, Saffron Sands, Saif Sereea, Sailfish, Sandy Coast, Sanso, Scope Sand, Sea Series, Senator, Sensor Pacer, Shant Doot, SHAREM, Sharp Point, Silver Weed Ruckus, SIT, Slovak Express, Snipe, Snow Falcon, Snow Shoe, Snow Drop, Soothsayer, Sorbet Royale, Southern Crusade, Southern Knight, Southern Watch, Spriochaete, Spontex, Stardex, Starfish, Starwindow, Steeplebush, Stoney Run, Strong Resolve, Suman Warrior, Suriot, Swabian Crusade, Sweeney, TAPON, Tartan Eagle, Tartan Venture, Telic, Temple Jade, Thirsty Panther, Thor/Odin, Tier III, Tiger Lake, Timbuktu, Torpedo Focus, Totaliser, Tradewinds, Trailblazer, Trial, Trident D’Or, Troutman, Turtle Heritage, Turtle Truss, Tyne Tease, Ulan Eagle, Ultrapure, Ulu Rajah, Unified Charger, Unified Spirit, United Shield, Urban Encounter, Ursa Minor, Utah, Vampire, Vigilant, Viking, Warlord, Western Vortex, Westpac MCMEX, Wet Gap, Winged Star."

-Text excerpt from Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs, and Operations in the 9/11 World by William M. Arkin, p. 234.
Used this as lyrics for the song Code. Find it here:
http://www.myspace.com/mskatrinalamb

the end of failure

After days and months dedicated to falling short of meeting any obligation, we will cross paths in our discrete trajectories, within the elliptical expressions of reversals, underwater worlds of incredible and thorough loss.

Failure. Do you remember when we used to run with this word, owning it as prize-winning job title and life strategy?

Artistically and academically, thrilled by its abject potential, we mined failure for all it was worth. We glorified living in flats with leaking ceilings, prided our attempts to flunk out of Painting 101, and bonded over beers stolen from the next table over. The possibilities seemed endless, visually manifested through scribbly line drawing, undocumented (ephemeral) public interventions, and deliberately pseudo-anti-gallery processes. We were the founders of post-conceptual working methodologies. We collapsed the space between intent and action, rejecting content and meaning; whatever the new project was “about” was beside the point--what mattered was how it made you feel or how it functioned, in-context; we fore grounded extremes of social isolation and its antipode, and worked in earnest to tease out universal aspects of the human condition through vigorous processes of elimination.

Crucial to this endeavor was an art scene that implicitly supported our efforts by providing access to bottomless drinks and comp tickets to anything in town. In recent years, this model of aggrandized poverty and excess has been replaced by one of moderation in every aspect of life. The worth of this extensive collection of shortcomings, wrongdoings, and disappointments that we worked so hard to attain is, given more contemporary concerns, lost upon our parents and potential employers. Concerned mentors and career-savvy peers who saw this coming politely refrain from criticism and gently forward web links to employment sites and coupon days.

The End Of Failure

Katrina Lamb

Summer 2010.

____________________________________________________________________________________

from A SHORT PLAY ON FAILURE by Harry Aclund, 1999.

Andrew Mackenzie-Oh timelord, we have heard your cries from the future. We are the oracles you called. You have succeeded in distorting time.Andrea Garner-Yes, Lord knows how blind you have been: all here are from the past, like it or not.

Timelord- Then you are not real.

Chorus (sing)- A Ha. Are we real. Real or false. Are we real. Real or false.

Timelord- By Davros what are these voices -- my failure is confirmed, Am I real or false? My success is a fraud, it is not possible at all. My failure is my inevitable tragedy.

Chorus (Sing)- But we are here, we are real, you are false.

Nickie Smith- Yes we are here for you, we have come for you, to rid time of you. We come in the image of friends, but Davros sent us to destroy you; your success is your downfall; your success is to be our end. you could say your failure.

(she strangles him)

Timelord- My success? my success is my downfall. I have run out of time....

(dies)

Narrator- And so we witness the madness, and the death of our hero - a self-proclaimed failure, who's success was his downfall, although he (tragically) only knew this on his death. He was surely a sacrifice for the stability of time itself at the command of the mighty Davros, but we are running out of time too, and our moral tale must close upon this sadness.

Chorus (sing)- Our tale must end, our tale must end,

this sadness is so overwhelming,

the Lord of time is dead, the lord of time is dead,

this sadness is so overwhelming,

or will he fight the mighty Davros on another day,

in another time.

(THE END).

Body Scan. Exercise For Integrative Healing #1 (Demo).

SATURN RETURNS

jewelry for hookers, friends, lovers, and strangers, pt. II

Material Transactions And The Stuff That Gets Stuck In The Psychic Filter

Paring down, excavating, and cultivating, with no plan on the horizon and a slowly shifting psychic landscape.

Scratch that. Make that a blur of a shifting landscape out the window of an airplane flying too fast to be in a holding pattern with no immediately clear destination; and in this dream of memories happening before the events remembered, a friend gave me a ticket and I forgot to ask where it was for. And then I asked, and she said we haven't decided yet, but California fell into the ocean so we probably should vote. We're just in coach so our votes don't really matter that much but let's think about it anyways. And we are sitting and thinking about where we would go, driving without current licenses in unregistered vehicles in tandem, circling around rural areas trying to get back to work and it is already 6 p.m. and it is hard to remember which direction the last leg of the commute was and I headed east by mistake and lost her again, and am in Yosemite and can't afford the entrance fee, so I loiter and place a call to try to figure out where to go now, it was an honest mistake but not a very convincing one. Thought this could never happen. I remembered so differently.

I thought you said California was gone. Oh No that was just a holding pattern.

In with the 30s/Out with the 20s

In..................Out..........
An attempt at moving into a new decade.


Vulnerability.......Gullibility
Hope...............Fantasy
Acceptance.........Resignation
Rock................Emo
Coolness..............Guardedness
Discretion..........Dismissive
Open plans...........Open book
Finality..............Certainty
1:1...................1:100
Collards.............Spinach
Cash................Cards
All Metallic.........All Black
Golf Umbrella.........Bubble Umbrella
Moving Forward.......Moving In
Mail Art.............E-mail
Floral Work...........Bouquets
Doodling...........Serious Drawing
Conceptual Drawing.....Journal Drawing
Preferred Collaborators...Preferred Spaces
All Hours.............Regular Hours
Variation............Moderation
House Guests........Live-Ins
Solitude............Loneliness
Communication........"Updates."
Gas money............Grocery money
Empty Wallet..........Stolen Wallet
Fate..................Charisma
Uncertainty...........Solipsism

scrabble