The Dregs at the Art Gym
Imagine that you’re dead.
Now imagine that two artists come along and create your legacy for you. Sifting through what’s left after your estate sale, they display the 154 travel soaps you collected over the years. They make collage murals of your old birthday cards, your notes-to-self, your photos. They even sew things out of the fabric of your mother’s lingerie.
And more. They make commentary about your life based on the leather harness they discovered among your things. They say that only the death of your mother, whom you lived with until she died, freed you to be who you always were.
Brandy Cochrane and Paul Middendorf’s Beloved Mother from The Dregs
Brandy Cochrane and Paul Middendorf did just this with The Dregs, a show which is up at the Marylhurst Art Gym right now.
And it makes sense that Cochrane and Middendorf might make up the story of a man using the artifacts he left behind. All estate sale junkies do the same, and this would-be super sleuth behavior is part of the fascination of going to a sale. Moreover, cutting up and rearranging the remnants in compelling ways could certainly make for an interesting art piece.
But Cochrane and Middendorf go a step further. They name the man they did this to, disclosing details like his street address and where he went to grade school. And revealing his identity in the context of their creations looks a lot like libel to me.
Of course, even if Cochrane and Middendorf had not used their subject’s name, The Dregs would still be a portrait. And as such it raises interesting questions about portraiture as a genre:
How important is the subject’s complicity in the making of a portrait? Does it matter that their subject did not give them permission to make art about him?
What does revealing the subject’s name add to a piece like this one? Can portraits be interesting if they’re not associated with a specific person?
Is a portraitist responsible for a subject’s image and reputation? Or is telling a good story all that matters?
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CATEGORIES: - Philosophy - On portraiture - Featuring artists - Reviews -
(3) Comments / Commentaires: The Dregs at the Art Gym
Yes, this is thought-provoking. We must always be respectful to people, even if they are dead. (Maybe, especially, since they can’t defend themselves.) Why did they have to use his real name if they were just making up stuff?
I also think that making up the story and revealing the man and his address is beyond a poor ethical decision, I feel it is a poor artistic decision.
One of the things I love about your work is it makes no judgments on the people you portray. It does not tell, it shows and what it shows is completely up to the viewer. The work is compelling in its revelations to the viewer though it does not hit us over the head or tell us what to think or take away from the pieces. I enjoy art that explores something (a topic, idea, theory or philosophy) and brings me along for the ride.
For me, that is the beauty of really good work, it not only reveals the subject or the artist but it reveals you to yourself. This work, though very interesting in concept, suffers from its artists’ lack of trust in its audience. We do not need to know who this man is for the work to make an impact. We do not need to really know if the story is true or made up. And we really don’t need to be told how to see it.(Which is what this overly defined context does.) We need only to have those moments with the work to see the world through the artist’s eyes to gain perspective and introspection on our own feelings and journey.
That’s my 2 cents!;)
Lynne Duddy...
Gwenn, I think you raise some very important points here. Afterall, no one expects to have their life on display without their consent and just because they are not around to call you on it, doesn’t mean that it’s ok to expose that. There are things. Secret things that all of us hold in our lifetimes. Things that we never expect to reveal to strangers, only those we love and who love us back. It’s that love, and trust, and understanding that make all of our crazy, wonderful, fetishes and flaws so tender and so personal. But I guess once you are dead… will you care?
Thought-provoking and good-for-the-soul post. Thanks.
Love,
--- -- - --- - ---- - - --- ----- -- -Lynne