Otter, What is American Art? (a walk-through)

i am sorry I’m late

I tried to call you before but your phone was off…or maybe it was the heavy metal beams in this building that blocked the signal

in any case I’m sorry

things haven’t gone as planned

I tried to write something down so i would remember what we were discussing….

I was talking to Thomas the other day….I asked him if he had ever been outside the city …out in the country side…America…the gas stations…the convenient marts… Asphalt and muddled grass…the endless oceans of corn in the summer and the endless skies of gray in the winter…Thomas said he didn’t ever leave the city on his visits…that he was working….that he never took vacations and that his work was his vacation…he didn’t believe in vacation….he believed in Art…he seemed really quite anxious about this question….vacation and work and spending time outside of a city like Chicago… Work for him seemed like a very particular activity…. One that could be understood…clear…physical…

Work like this tends to make us feel good… Bound as it is to recognizable accomplishments…

i have been thinking about America a lot lately…American art….i was told by Helena that this was a nationalist idea…a national art…i was surprised by this…i guess i shouldn’t be…art from some place always sounds nationalist i suppose…but that s not what i mean…

I think Anna told me Peter that you were suspect of european artists that come to the states and make art…like maybe they fetishize America too much….I think i understand that…but what can you do ?…everybody is intrigued by a place they have never been before…america is kind of a place no one has ever been…it’s a process not a place….like America is always trying to become itself…a more perfect union (more or less) —that was the name of an exhibition here many years ago during the 2004 election season….i didn’t see it…didn’t research it before this talk… I am an american so i am not fully informed … Not fully formed….neither are you all…as you are here with me…Americanized…americanization……boom boom boom

American art……….American art…its art made of nuclear weapons and … the federal reserve bank…we set the aesthetic…we pick up the bill…hubris you say…ok its true…but again thats a very american trait….security through strength… If you see something say something..

I see hubris

World wide american art reproduces itself over and over and over again…

mass market…art into life into squalor….

1%

1% of america cares about 1% art

Otters don’t care…or maybe they do…maybe thats why they like to play baseball Peter

no no no that otter is European but that is specifically what makes that otter SO american …playful …full of play and ambivalent…Ok but what is American Art?

I am getting to that…. hold on…I was trying to tell Thomas about American Art the cornfields…Midwestern-ness and so on ….the scary night drives that are also kind of magic like a Coen brothers movie…or Wes Anderson ….when we were driving Thomas said the artist always pays the price

Does that make sense to you Peter?

Do you recall that Duchamp said bridges and plumbing were the highest form of American Art… i never said that…He lived in New York & Made important Works of Art…I am an America, live in Chicago and have made no Works Of Art…American Art does not exist…its still forming…constantly forming…its american-ness is how it forms and conforms…

But this isn’t an art history lesson…you know all this …this is a walk through ….a time and space to walk and meander together….not a chance for me -Zach Cahill- to explain the different qualities of American Art…you all didn’t come for that or did you? Maybe…maybe that is what you really want to know? What is american art…

… a more perfect union…a union……unions… Unionize

Ok so here’s the rub …the thing in question …the problem as I understand it…a question of materials…all american art is contemporary art and vice versa …art that has to do with our contemporary condition… that it replicates the elements of our contemporary life… That is American Art…Peter I think you understand this maybe…at least I think you do…

contemporary form not contemporary materials….the video data bank…we are all locked in it and of it… Everyone looks like video

No no no no no no ….. No

Remember the clothesline!

the point is this… if we are here together forming a perfect union then we are making american art maybe….anything else isn’t …its something else …..its something like mannerist art…which is interesting but not super-relevant…even though its hyper relevant

Hollywood… is that american art? it might be because Hollywood is completely irrelevant and out of touch and therefore indicative of its urgent relevancy…its not relevant… its american…nobody really fucking cares about Hollywood…not any serious person anyways… CCB called it Holy Wood the other day at the bank

religion ….here we go

Are you getting tired yet…that feels american….laundry is tiring

airing it out

Ok here we go

Laundry is holy

spirits on the wind

the space between the body and god

god is holy

Holy Christ

Holy shit

Holy fuck

So many terms attach to that which is holy

It is a mystery that makes itself known in moments of surprise Anxiety frustration ecstasy

There is something loose about that which is holy

Somehow you can’t touch it

somehow it is watery and weak

Like an otter running alongside the riverbank that disappears back into the water

Somehow water is slippery

Somehow it takes a form like a river inside a river bank

The holy-ness of water isn’t stable

Holy water

Weakness

I have been thinking about American Art lately (sorry I know I’m repeating myself)… How I need to get a better handle on it … Matthew said that’s the question: What is American Art … I replied and said No it’s not the question… its the answer and the answer keeps repeating itself… Around the globe every night and every day…. Satellites track this art form … They register the data…

You are right to ask….to question my position

Which if you look around…. is our position…any position is a provocation… We are pro-vacation

Our position amongst your buildings

Your dark bronze building with no eyes

Heavy and glum they look at us— they in their position… we in ours

The American Art position who put us into this position Peter?

How do we let go of American Art? Step out of the video data bank… Market forces… Slip the cost benefit ratios

Where are the otters Peter?

Where is the wind?

Peter all of this feels like a cartoon…. We never met …I was too busy…you were too busy…all the emails in the world couldn’t change that….but here we are in your exhibition at the Renaissance Society… Your solo exhibition… It’s an important exhibition and we are supposed to walk through it together you and I and the brave souls that showed up to hear about otters and laundry … Teddy boys… Bronze statues… Boxes and secrets…. Trumpets that never stop talking… That have no secrets because they give them all away…oh if only Disney was still alive

But we are here with them Peter… You through your Art work…and me just me… and them…

Together I suspect we are some sort of union ….I think it is a union… More AND Less

Peter…We don’t have to decide today… We can stand here together….feel spring return to our bones and

Let the light shine through the window of your exhibition

and all admit (please repeat after me-3 times)

I don’t understand American Art

I don’t understand America

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