I wanted to begin with the topic of - don't groan - methods and methodologies.
method is is a way of doing something with a prescribed outcome.
following a tried and trued method works every time.
and I've used zombies as an analogy: that zombies are all method wth the singular
objective eat brain. there's no discussion from the zombie perspective
you know, what are the ethics are eating brain? but if there were zombie academics
they might propose and begin a discourse in which no brain would be eaten except
in the discussion. figurative not literal. but we can also describe Henry Ford's
innovation in the manufacturing of automobiles as as a method. capitalist
production method. so the workers have their job on their line the objective is
to make cars. there's no discussion because it's assumed that the car equals
Progress equals good. end of story. the workers may feel like zombies on the
line but they go home, that's their time. methodology on the other hand is an
attitude towards information and data - a thinking through. 'living building
thinking' was my assignment, not then titled. and it - as Carol said to address
the expressionist collection here which is many agree is the most comprehensive
one and in Canada. it began in 1961, fifty-five years ago
but there was no objective for comprehensiveness at the time. and indeed
there wasn't a gallery space to show works of art, there was a kind of
provisional ante room to the slide library in the original
Mills libraries. so the beginning the beginning was a convergence of
like-minded people who had interests different areas of the university. but
within 15 years it had gained enough critical mass for the National Gallery
of Canada to tour an exhibition across Canada from this collection, which was
organized by the director curator of the Art Gallery of York University
Michel Greenwood. in approaching this assignment I had to consider what had
come into the collection in the last almost 40 years and working through
methodologies was necessary. in our history, method, master and Method is
spoken of when discussing Renaissance in Western art. how an artist as an
apprentice learns. The how of making things rather than the what. subject matter is
half of the wat the other half is the interpretation but it's not for never
for artists to determine, although artists think do and activate then and
now. art history is where I'm going to get into deep water, to me is a
methodology, okay. it's an ideal one for an art historian or theorist because
there is no custodial responsibility. right. it's all thought. one thing follows
another on a page to argue for, no matter how complex that arguing for may be. the
curator of an exhibition may use art history as a guide or a theme known
themes are an exhibition method. but a loans exhibition, for example you're
borrowing things, are dependent on what is available and can be compromised. that
is idealized but not fully realized. And
like wise if it's drawn from a collection, a compromise as well, as no
collection holds a full body you know a full example of every nook and nuance. so
another methodology kicks in and that's the sidestep, either to - or to substitute-
this stands in for this. so I went through the Museum of Modern Art 2011
publication German Expressionism the graphic impulse. 832 pages. now I could
use that as a method guide and fifty percent of this exhibition could have
been drawn from that. but I had to pose a better question for myself and that is
what do I know about Expressionism and thinking through it. so rather than
raiding the MoMA is a ready-made, I decided to pry open Expressionism.
because if if it was German alone it would begin in 1905 and end in 1937. 1905
Die Brucke, examples are upstairs. 1937 Degenerate Art, Entartete Kunst, but Nazis
remove all of this. that's a historical fact. so this could also include the
acknowledged precursors those who influenced and then land on what is
generally agreed on as neo Expressionism in the 1970s or 80s. and the smartypants
historian might argue it actually ends in 1919 because the original impulse for
the expressionist movement ends there, but that's not the case. and
in talking to artists over the years I know that that period also feeds their
thoughts and their imaginations. and some direct examples are included here
for example, I'm standing in front of Joyce Cairns,
Scottish artist, this is 1986, 60 years before max beckmann. if you look at the two you
will see what Joyce has drawn from Beckmann. however Joyce doesn't consider
itself to be an expressionist artist and neither did Beckmann. but in this prying
open they can come together and there's a reason for it okay. the other
methodology and that's the exhibition as a spatial experience. so walk into the
space it's not a book on a wall page after page, it is vistas, called an
arrangement. sometimes this is degraded down to so-called exhibition design.
however I think it can also be a modeling and this may be in one way a
curatorial model. that is take a picture snap a picture post it i've self modeled.
hopefully it's not that because the job is to step aside from all of this and
let the work do its work. my reading - i start with reading - i had two stacks of
books you know one here one here what have been considered analyzed and that I
continued with prime documents that is what artists had said had written that
the work of art is also a prime document. what I came to was not a field of
historical examination bordered by you know some kind of fence of time, type and
style, but something akin to standing at the edge of an ocean or a desert. and
there many there are the same in many respects - vast unknowable and fraught
with danger. both are eternally the same and ever-changing.
but we fear the unknown natural forces when can pick up the sand of deserts, the
sandstorm, I've lived through sand storms and the ocean
can become cruel. we can think of both of them as a challenge to pass over to
arrive at the destination, but the journey itself can be revealing. if
you're prepared to take the risk. sand or ... some of us have
seen castaway. looks like paradise something stops you and I want to go
over there it's the vast unknowable ocean that said
he could die. I'm going to take this risk. so there's no conclusion here but there
is a beginning and an end as there must be in 100 works on the two levels from
possibly 500 to choose from. or let's say alternative beginnings and alternative
ends and thinking through hence the title 'living building thinking'.