Archives for March, 2012
Iain Baxter&: Sixth Intervention
Posted: March 30, 2012Dear Adam
Here is the clean copy for a scarcely preserved work.
With this contribution/intervention my project can now expand to develop an evidence-based curatorial connoisseurship in line with the nonconformist (critical) standpoints of movement, immobility, creativity and crisis.
Yours ever
David
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September 30, 1969
3:00 PM – telephone message received [Gerald Ferguson, NSCAD, Halifax] from Iain Baxter:
TELEPHONE
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Iain Baxter&: An Archive Projection:
Posted: March 23, 2012Iain Baxter&:
An Archive Projection:
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“The world may, at any moment, take a turn
and become less vulgar and stupid. The great
artist must not miss this opportunity.”
Wyndham Lewis (1914)
“Art as anti-environment becomes more than
ever a means of training perception and judgment.
Art offered as a consumer commodity rather as a
means of training perception is as ludicrous and
snobbish as always.”
Marshall McLuhan (1964)
■
Joan Lowndes, a professional art critic based in Vancouver during the 1960s and 1970s, remains consistently informative through her concise development of certain key observations regarding the early stages of Iain Baxter’s experimental (investigational) work as an independent artist. A contribution to The Province (one of two daily newspapers published in Vancouver), dated May 16, 1969, records the then-current Baxter milieu. With precision, she records the following documentary evidence:
Color slides of 16 of Iain Baxter’s works form the cover of the May-June issue of Art in America, which grapples with what it calls impossible art.
This growing phenomenon, it says, is “impossible for collectors to collect, for museums to show, for dealers to handle, for critics to appraise.”
It is outsize, ephemeral, and a threat to the beautiful object of tradition. It is just right, however, for the wide-ranging intellect of an Iain Baxter, since it uses as its material the world itself.
Examples of Baxter’s work are photographed in two of the categories of impossible art listed by Art in America: waterworks, such as chrome poles in the Columbia Glacier which are carried down to the river below as the snow melts; and nihilworks – works which destroy themselves.
He could also have been included in the thinkworks. The entry by which he, along with only 11 other artists, will be represented in Montreal’s Survey 69 is of this order.
It is a word which he telephoned to the jurors, artist Ronald Bloore, New York critic Lucy Lippard and Vie des Arts editor Andree Paradis.
It is very simple but it is a secret. Visitors to the exhibition, which will open in a few days, will see small labels on the walls of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts telling them to ask the guards for the work of the N.E. Thing Co. The guards will thereupon utter the word.
It may start a happening, it may provoke puzzlement, irritation or laughter – the delighted laughter of release, for in a world where we are overburdened with information, so little now can catch us by surprise. You go to a gallery expecting something visual: Baxter offers something oral.
His most recent oral work was premiered at the May 9 meeting of the Architectural Institute of B.C., which he had been invited to address.
His wife Elaine, who is vice-president of his company, press agent, general co-ordinator, demonstrator, model, seamstress for his cotton inflatables and a consort able to follow him in his wildest imaginings, got up and shouted “Shout!” The meeting broke up.
She remarked to me, a little hurt: “But Iain is really serious about his ideas.”
■ Correlation 1
May 19 – June 19. Exhibition and catalogue. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia,1969. [Symposium: June 17, 1969, at the Simon Fraser University Theatre via Telephone hook-up from New York, Ottawa and Burnaby.] Organized by Seth Siegelaub.
Including:
N. E. Thing Co. Ltd. V.S.I. Formula 3. 1968/69. 35mm, Anti-halation Microfilm:12’ long x 1 1/16 “ wide. [180 photographs taken every 2º (0º – 360º) with a 1000 mm lens and 180 photographs taken every 2º (1º – 359º) with a fish eye lens. Alternately edited.] The work was available in the Microfilm reading area on the second floor of the Social Sciences Library, and could be seen during the exhibition from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily. [“TRANS-VSI: Transmission of Visual Sensitivity Information”: term to denote the flow of Visual Sensitivity Information from place of transmission to place of reception – via any communications medium – like, telecopier, telex, phone, telegram, letter, videophone, conversation, Telestar, television, etc. A number of these transmission devices embody the possibilities relay, cognizance and interplay. This is at the moment bringing into play the cultural impact situation we are experiencing and will experience more so when this flow of SI develops universal and provincial overtones. We shall then be experiencing global SI or “culture” through the ends of all our highly developed senses and along the lines and at the receptors of our electric systems.” (Iain Baxter / NETCO statement, 1969).]
Robert Barry. Telepathic Piece, 1969. [“During the exhibition I will try to communicate telepathically a work of art, the nature of which is a series of thoughts that are not applicable to language or image.” [During the exhibition the artist had tried to telepathically “communicate” a work of art through “a series of thoughts” that were “not applicable to language or image.” At the conclusion of the exhibition, information about the artist’s contribution was announced in the catalogue.]
Sol LeWitt. Simon Fraser University Wall Drawing. 19 May – 19 June, 1969.
[Artist’s directions: “On the north wall of a room, using a yard-stick as a straight edge, draw a line three feet long in any direction. Draw parallel lines (2) to this line until the end of the wall is reached, in both directions. The lines should be as close together as possible and still be distinct from one another, and as light as possible and still be visible. On the east wall, repeat as on the north wall, and then draw another three foot line bi-secting one of the first sets of lines and perpendicular to them. Parallel lines are drawn to the first line until the end of the wall is reached. On the south wall the procedure of the north and east wall are repeated. A line is then drawn intersecting the right angle formed by the first two sets of lines. This line is also three feet long. Lines are drawn parallel to the first line in both directions, until the end of the wall is reached. On the west wall the procedure for the other three walls is repeated: a line is drawn perpendicular to and bi-secting the set of lines introduced onto the south wall. This line is also three feet long. Parallel lines are drawn to this until the end of the wall is reached.” [Pencil: Eagle Mardo 174B and Eagle Mardo 174 HARD 2H. Rendered by Rosemarie Gagné and Malcolm Ramsay. Location: Communications Centre Room, 5040, Library Building.]
■ Correlation 2
Trans VSI Connection: NSCAD-NETCO: Sept 15–Oct 5, 1969. Exhibition and catalogue. Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada. [An exchange of “Visual Sensitivity Information” between the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and Iain Baxter – via telephone, telecopier and telex.]
Including:
Oral Work: Received 6:20 PM, September 15, 1969 by telephone from Iain Baxter.
[Information: obtainable from Margaret Keay, a designated NSCAD representative.]
Block Salt On Tidal Flat. Telex: September 17, 1969. [N.E. Thing Co., Projects Dept. Instructions: “Block salt is placed on tidal flat at low tide. If possible the salt block should be f a colour similar to the colour of the tidal zone soil. Photodocument every stage”.]
Yes, But On The Other Hand, No. Telex: September 24, 1969. 1:22 pm.
No, But On The Other Hand, Yes. Telex. September 24, 1969. 1:55 pm.
■ Correlation 3
Konzeption/Conception. Exhibition and catalogue. Leverkusen City Museum, Germany. October 10 – November 30, 1969. Organized by Konrad Fischer.
Including:
N. E. Thing Company Limited: Project: Wash Floor (1968). [Artist’s instructions: ‘Wash floor of any art gallery or building (one big main room) immediately before show or business opens; photograph it; floor not to be washed during exhibit on or for three weeks if a business until 1 hour before the event is to close. Photos taken every day (close-up and wide-angle); portfolio will be published of photos after and during the work photos will be put on wall daily.”]
■ Correlation 4
Art by Telephone. Exhibition and catalogue (33 1/3 LP record). Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago: November 1 – December 14, 1969. Organized by Jan Van der Marck, Director.
Including:
N. E. Thing Co. The ACT. [‘The ACT (Aesthetically Claimed Thing) department of that company is involved in keeping a thorough and detailed global record of all the objects, persons and events that have been awarded a seal of approval by the N.E. Thing Co. Iain Baxter will send the museum photographs of his travels by Xerox telecopier. At regular intervals he will provide the museum guards with an N.E. Thing Co. word to pronounce to visitors upon request.”]
Hans Haacke. Catalogue entry: “In this exhibition he has assigned an area in which the temperature is below that in the rest of the galleries.”
Richard Serra. Catalogue entry: “For this exhibition he has asked that an empty movie projector be pointed at a white wall. A color film was made of the blank image and the resultant movie is projected on the wall next to the original image. Says Serra: ‘The medium is the subject rather than the light.’”
Robert Smithson. Catalogue entry: “For this exhibition the artist has asked that a truckload of cement be poured down a steeply inclined hill. Photographs taken on location document this event.”
■ Correlation 5
955,000. Exhibition and catalogue. Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, Canada): January 13 – February 8, 1970. Organized by Lucy Lippard.
Including:
N.E. Thing Co. [Iain Baxter, President], 1419 Riverside Drive, North Vancouver. Catalogue entry: Transmissions of Visual Sensitivity Information: via 1. Xerox Telecopier – North American Transmissions. 2. cn-cp Telex – North American and Global Transmissions. 3. Electrowriter – North American Transmissions. 4. Hospitality Suite – location to be announced.
Carl Andre, Timber Piece [Line of Timber series], 1965-1969. 28 units @ 1’ x 1’ x 3’. “I make art out of things which cannot be framed in any other way.” (Artist’s statement, 1969).
Keith Sonnier. Catalogue entry: “‘Projected & Reflected Light.’ ‘Spot In. Spot Out.’ Daylighting, Flood lighting, Search lighting, Signal lighting.
■ Correlation 6
Art in the Mind. Exhibition and catalogue. Allen Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio.
April 17 – May 12, 1970. Organized by Athena Spear.
Including:
N.E. Thing Company Limited, “Nothing Project”. [First presented: Edmonton Art Gallery, Place and Process (exhibition), September 4 – 28, 1969]: Nothing is impossible. Nothing is something.
On Kawara. “One Million Years”. All the Information of Mankind on Earth.
Lawrence Weiner. Obstructed. [Collection – Public Freehold.] Catalogue entry:
“The only statement to be printed piece is:
The artist may construct the piece
The piece may be fabricated
The piece need not be built
Each being equal and
consistent with the intent of the
artist the decision as to condition
rests with the receiver upon
the occasion of receivership
I trust this shall pose no difficulty.
As to construction please remember … there is no correct way to construct the piece as there is no incorrect way to construct it. If the piece is built it constitutes not how the piece looks but only how it could look.” [Lawrence Weiner to Athena T. Spear, 25 February, 1970.]
■ Correlation 7
Information. Exhibition and catalogue. Museum of Modern Art, New York. July 2 – September 20, 1970. Organized by Kynaston McShine.
Including:
Iain Baxter. “Telexed Self Portrait From Memory”, 1969. [Text sent to Kynaston McShine, Associate Curator of Modern Art, MOMA, New York. April 21, 1970.]
Joseph Kosuth, Artist’s statement in catalogue: “Every unit of an (art) proposition is only that which is functioning with a larger framework (the proposition) and every proposition is only a unit which is functioning within a larger framework (the investigation) and every investigation is only a unit which is functioning within a larger framework (my art) and my art is only a unit which is functioning within a larger framework (the concept “art”) and the concept art is a concept which has a particular meaning at a particular time but which exists only as an idea used by living artists and which ultimately exists only as information.”
■ Correlation 8
Network ‘70, 1970. October 7 – 24, 1970. [Organized by Iain Baxter / N. E. Thing Co. (North Vancouver), in collaboration with: the University of British Columbia Fine Arts Gallery (Vancouver), Herb Gilbert – University of British Columbia BFA programme (Vancouver), CalArts (The California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California), Henry Gallery (University of Washington, Seattle), NASCAD (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax), Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, Washington), and MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York).] Thirty-seven items were sent and received.
Including:
Iain Baxter / N. E. Thing Co. This statement will be is being has been sent by Telecopier. 1969 (original transmission).
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“Just as a second plane is only possible
behind a first one, the territory of beauty
begins on the outer edge of the real world.”
Jose Ortega y Gasset (1914)
“My main drive is a responsibility to society.
I think that’s because I never expected to be
an artist.”
Iain Baxter& (2011)
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Baxter’s “spoken” work in the 1969 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibition (described above) was reinstated / regenerated as part of an autumn 2011 exhibition curated by CAUSA (Collective for Advanced and Unified Studies in the Visual Arts) at Artspeak, Vancouver. In its new context, a single (invisible) work was amplified by the presence of two contemporaneous texts – each briefly concretized (with both care and skill, by a craftsman sign writer). Being both conceptual and social in its orientation, the “invisible” aspect of Baxter’s work sustains (if developed to its maximum capacity for signification) a reconstructive potentiality that articulates / interrogates the tangible dynamics of any actual (occasional) subject-object relationship.
As in Montreal (and elsewhere, as noted), visitors to Artspeak were prompted (by means of an ordinary wall label) to “inquire at the office” for details of a further (undisclosed) work – Baxter’s oral contribution to the exhibition. The ongoingness of that work (as curated by CAUSA, October 29 – November 12, 2011) will be emphasized in Vancouver (until further notice), via telephone – during regular Artspeak office hours. Contact: (604) 688 – 0051 (Tuesday – Saturday, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.).
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“Humans cannot be known by uncreative
thoughts, because by their very nature human
beings are creative. One must re-create if one
wants knowledge. With today’s passive thinking
one can only understand the periphery of the
human being, one has to ignore the inner being.”
Rudolph Steiner (1924)
“It may be that art remains the only refuge
from a technological order where all can be
calculated, formulated, regulated.”
Wylie Sypher (1968)
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David Bellman
Research Curator
March 20, 2012