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Written Assignement_The Western Front Society_"Exhibitions Curator"
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How does laziness coincide with a creative whim?
by CLAUDIO CRAVERO
IN PRAISE OF LAZINESSWritten Assignments - Exhibitions CuratorThe Western Front Society, February 2014
This relationship with time has roots that are traceable to the ancient concept of Otium, a Latin abstract term denoting an occupation principally dedicated to intellectual pursuit and to immersing oneself in thought.
Through a selection of works by international artists, this exhibition will provide the visitor to the Western Front Center with a series of ‘narratives’ which explore laziness as two sides of a single coin. These works mostly can be seen in the context of ‘artist-in-residence’, because an artist’s residency constitutes suspended time: a pause outwardly perceived as a moment of unproductive laziness. On the contrary, however, it is a productive period, encompassing a relocation (journey), an exploration of the self, and interactions and creative experimentation with, and in, a space.
In Praise of Laziness will seek to bring the abstract concept of laziness to a rational and creative plane operating within the broader field of cultural ecology, in line with the Western Front Center and in collaboration with the Media Arts Curator.
IIn the context of the Western Front Society of Vancouver, In Praise of Laziness will present a multiplicity of situations wherein the notion of laziness is considered not simply in light of its commonly accepted meaning of inertia and apathy, but rather as an intentional suspension of time.
p. 1. ABSTRACTHow does laziness coincide with a creative whim?
p. 2. CONCEPT Laziness as Otium, and the ‘ThreeTimes’ of artist’s residency
p. 4. THE PLOT OF THE EXHIBITION: The artworks and ‘the third time’
p. 5. THE ARTISTS
Deirdre Logue, Eye Popper, 2012, Dvd Video, 0:58
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In Praise of Laziness immediately resonates with In Praise of Idleness, an essay by Bernard Russell (1872-1970). Published in 1932, the English philosopher and mathematician’s text places emphasis on the importance of useless knowledge over practical knowledge. Russell draws inspiration from the Roman philosopher Seneca, who employed the term De Otio as a synonym for a withdrawn life. More recently, the English writer Tom Hodgkinson (b. 1968) employed laziness as the main theme in his programmatic manifesto The Idler (1993).
Equating laziness to Otium, then, means broadening one’s understanding of the term to allow for multiple interpretations. Despite its etymological origins, Otium is often used pejoratively in contrast to officium (office) and negotium (business). But the term has a variety of meanings, including leisure time in which one can enjoy, resting, and contemplation.
According to Otium, laziness can be a ‘temporary time of leisure’ and it has intellectual implications by way of involvement in activities that are considered valuable or enlightening from an artistic perspective.
In relation to the Western Front Center, and its role as home to a public gallery with different programs and a research and production residency, laziness relates to the suspended time of the artist’s residency.The concept of an artist-in-residence program should be understood as a travelling experience rather than as a permanency. Contrary to popular belief “according to which an artist’s residency is a sort of holiday spent sipping green tea”,1
this experience involves a relocation and a process of construction (material and immaterial) of spaces. These actions are supplemented by the further component of time. The term of a residency can be established, initially (the first time), based on travel plans (i.e. the return ticket).The residency is characterized by a second time punctuated by various phases. Among them:
- The moment of meeting and entering into a relationship with the host center;- The moment of encountering that which is new, and consequently adjusting to the space;- The moment of conception and experimentation;- The connection with the territory.
For these reasons, artist’s residencies are - more so than production-based - primarily ‘time and thought-based’. Or, rather, ‘Otium-based’.
A third time, however, also exists. It cannot be measured or quantified, as it relates to the long-term effects of a residency after its formal conclusion.Finally, as much as the sphere of action of an artist’s residency may vary from place to place (influenced by the nature of the residency, the mission and the available tools), it is always the result of a delicate balance between space, people, and time.2 These aspects interact with each other and, over the course of experience, develop by way of a process of losing oneself and finding oneself, contemplating where one is and, only in retrospect, where one would like to go.
1. BELLINI, Andrea, interview with the director of The Contemporary Art Center, Geneva, Switzerland 2013, in Artibune.com (http://www.artribune.com/2013/07/tutto-piacentino-a-ginevra-grazie-ad-andrea-bellini)2. SIENKIEWICZ-NOWACKA Ika and SOSNOWSKA, Agnieszka, in RE-tooling RESIDENCIES: A Closer Look at the Mobility of Art Professionals, A-I-R Laboratory, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland 2011
LAZINESS AS OTIUM, AND THE ‘THREE TIMES’ OF ARTIST’S RESIDENCY
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Paul de Guzman The people are the city, 2013, public urban intervention at the CBC Plaza in Vancouver
Darsha Hewitt The Mini Ungineer’s Notebook, 2011 (work in progress), hand drafted booklet
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The works chosen in the context of In Praise of Laziness offer a snapshot of situations experienced over the course of the residency, and subsequently elaborated upon and formalized using various means and in accordance with principles of interdisciplinary art practices. The artists involved in the exhibition include ex-residents of the Western Front Center in Vancouver as well as participants of other international artist-in-resident networks who have been called upon to return - at a distance of time - to the process of their ‘laziness’.
Thus, the objective of the exhibition is to reflect on the third time by way of the close network of relationships suspended between here and elsewhere. These connections have the potential to weave together geographies and create unusual spaces within which to perceive ‘where one is when one feels lazy’. This is why the third time constitutes the other side of the same coin; it represents dilated time: open, free from rules and, above all, creatively precious and worthy of praise.
In this way, the works will constitute the means through which to stimulate the imagination, privileging the projection and identification of the viewer in relation to creative potential of laziness.
This particular temporal and geographical dimension is presented in certain themes central to contemporary artistic research:
The relationship between body, science and environment;
The new forms of global geography;
The idea of temporary and permanent community (such as those created amongst the artists over the course of the residency);
The role and function of the artist in this first decade of the century.
THE PLOT OF THE EXHIBITION:
THE ARTWORKS AND ‘THE THIRD TIME’
Brendan FernandesEncomium, 2011, live performance
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THE ARTISTS
TORIL JOHANNESSEN1978, Harstad, Norway, he lives in Bergen
DARSHA HEWITT1982, Montreal, Canada
DEIRDRE LOGUE1964, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
BIK VAN DER POLLiesbeth Bik,1959 and Jos van der Pol,1961. They have been working together since 1994and live in Rotterdam, Netherlands
BRENDAN FERNANDES1979, Nairobi, Kenya. He lives in BrooklynUSA, and Toronto, Canada
JASMINA METWALY1982, Warsaw, Poland, she lives in Cairo, Egypt
DINA DANISH1981, Paris, France. She lives in Cairo, Egypt, and Amsterdam, Netherlands
MELANIE GILLIGAN1979, Toronto, Canada. She lives betweenLondon, UK, and New York, USA
PAUL DE GUZMAN1974, Vancouver, Canada
MASSIMILIANO AND GIANLUCA DE SERIO1978, Torino, Italy. They live in Torino and Lisbon, Portugal
Relationship BodyScience EnvironmentGlobal Geography
Temporary Permanent Community Role and Function
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Melanie Gilligan Popular unrest, 2010, film (5 episodes), 67:00 , still video
Bik Van der Pol The crime is almost perfect, 2014, publishing project
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Dina Danish Tongue-Twister studies, 2013, performance for three performers and a director; all are seated
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Jasmina Metwaly From behind of the monument, 2013, HD video, 15:28
Massimiliano and Gianluca De Serio Seven works of mercy, 2011, DVD movie, 83:00, still video
