Art Collectors’ Conversation
This is a paraphrased summary of an event hosted by the Fort Collins Lincoln Center in conjunction with the Artist Studio Tour and Sale, held June 25-28, 2015
The conversation was moderated by Jeanne Shoaff, Lincoln Center Gallery Coordinator at the City of Fort Collins
The art collectors included:
York – a Biotechnology Software Engineer
Michelle Venus – from KRFC, organizer of the “Support Local Culture” radio program
Tom Campbell and Dawn Putney – married owners of Toolbox Creative
J: Can you explain why you began collecting art? Is there a rhyme or reason to it for you? Do you have a desire to create a lasting legacy? or do you have a specific vision for your collection?
Y: I collect sculpture. It really is just about finding things that I find interesting and keeping them.
DP: We visited the Dali museum in Florida, which was started by the donation of one couple’s collection. I liked the idea of collecting together. We began buying art from local artists that we’ve met, and from our travels. Our first pieces purchased together were two small inexpensive works purchased directly from the artist, right off the street. I think we paid $12 each for them. We like to meet the artists, this creates a deeper connection with the artworks for us. They are reminders of good memories. We are emotionally attached to the pieces.
TC: We buy things because we want to spend time with it. The amount of money invested has not been that large, so I am a bit reluctant to be called an “art collector”. We buy things because we like them, the investment quality or potential increase in value is secondary.
MV: It is easy to buy art. I, too, collect local artists, and friends’ work. Often the decision is a spontaneous one, although I do consider the choice carefully as I will be living with the work for a long time. In fact, I recently sold an artwork at a garage sale that reminded me of an old boyfriend. I just didn’t want to have to look at it any longer.
J: Michelle, you bring up an interesting point. What do you do if your tastes change? or you run out of space?
Y: This “receipt value” versus the aesthetic value is an interesting issue. It doesn’t matter how much a piece costs, it’s whether I like it or not that matters. I consider three things when buying art; 1 – Do I want to see it everyday, 2 – Will it fit in my house, and 3 – Can I afford it? I began saving up and collecting larger pieces as I saw a better value in the “cost per ounce” in the larger pieces. I have worked with artists to set up payment plans, and have paid for things over time to be able to collect the sculptures I liked. I have started putting things outside, too.
TC: We move things around in our house. The most loved pieces are in our favorite rooms. We will hang other works at our office, so we still have space for more.
MV: Most of my early pieces I purchased were not very expensive so there is not an issue with removing it from the collection. I’ll put things in storage, some with great care, others less so.
J: What have you learned from artists? Do you have any advice for them?
Y: The value of a work of art is equal to what someone is willing to pay for it. The price point of our local market is much lower than other areas in the world. If things are not selling it may be worth re-evaluating how you price things.
MV: I respect whatever price an artist is asking for their work. I understand everything that goes into making art works, and how much time is invested to bring the artist to this point where they are now, what they are creating.
TC: I think it is good to offer works at a variety of price points. This allows folks with different financial situations to still begin collecting art. Artists need to have conversations with the collectors, find out what they like and why. Make a connection.
DP: I feel bad that we ask artists to donate works to auctions. I feel guilty when I buy a work of art at a charity auction. The artists deserve to be compensated for their work.
MV: We need to support our local galleries as well as our local artists. The Fort Collins community is very accessible to the arts, more so than Denver I think. The studio tour is the perfect opportunity to buy art, and connect with artists.
Y: Often people see art collections as this “big thing”. It is important to remember it all starts with just one purchase. While it is important to wait to find just the right piece, if you buy one or two pieces a year, over time, your collection will grow.
STEINA – Orka Combined
I was lucky enough to witness this amazing video installation at the Colorado State University Art museum in the fall of 2011. Unfortunately, at the time, I was unfamiliar with this artist, and didn’t appreciate the significance of the work until now.
Catalyst introduced me to the 70’s era Steina Vasulka, a young vivacious Icelandic, living in NYC, playfully experimenting with the newest technologies of those times. In Sound and Fury (1975) she has placed two cameras in a ‘duel’, the self reflecting machines programmed to record at alternating rhythms, witnessing, creating and recording the duality that exists in everything. The artist has a disorienting dance with herself, Steina moves about between the two lenses, her experimental movements becoming a performance. The work began as a test, Steina states in this video interview, (see ~22:00) she had no intention of exhibiting the work, however, the results of her experiment were so surprisingly delightful that the work had to be seen, the phenomenon of seeing both sides at once, an early meta moment of the ‘selfie’. The media teaching the artist what it could do.
Orka Combined was a new interpretation using some of Steina’s earlier works, recycling and layering the videos, creating a new exhibit. The university gallery had been transformed into a full sensory immersive environment with several videos projected on large round screens, taking up the majority of the space. The viewer is invited to enter and “meditate on the relationship between our bodies and the cosmos”. Steina has combined the complicated high tech machines, cameras and computers, with life’s most basic organic elements, the close up images of earth and water, making “matter matter”, her work, less narrative, more a focus on human experience, and appreciating each second for what it brings. The short videos, the darkened room, the close spaces, the large scale environment, all theses elements encouraged the viewer to experience the work with their full bodies, the rhythmic sounds and switching clips mimicking the patterns of our own circulation and respiration. The work makes “the digital imagery behave in the manner of human memory: able to pack loads of info into the small space of the mind’s-eye,” and lures the visitor into the “sensual mysteries” of our physical world. (Quotes from exhibition essay by Los Angeles Times art critic, David Pagel)
Steina states, “to show what cannot be seen except with the eye of media: water flowing uphill or sideways, upside down rolling seas or a weather beaten drop of a glacier melt. The idea is that perhaps the audience could feel a part of this creative trance, living for a moment in a mental world where they have never been.” The work takes you there.
Here is a link to a video installation work that is similar to what I saw.
Sound as Art | Art as Noise
From the MoMA Catalyst class:
“John Cage talked about all sound being equal, whether “musical” or not, people thought he was a musical prankster. Nowadays, we see sound becoming more and more prominent in the arts, not just as a musical form, but in the visual arts: in museums, galleries and festivals. Do you agree that sound (and noise) can be appreciated as an artistic medium for studio artists? Does it make sense for visual artists to embrace sound as a sculptural form? Or should sound be relegated to the musical world, the sole province of musicians.”
Absolutely, sound is art. There are really no boundaries any longer about what can be art. Sound in particular is quite an enjoyable and touching addition to creative projects, or powerful when on its own. If an artist uses sound as medium, any sound, recorded, created or experienced live, then that sound becomes art. The audience may not be as familiar with artworks that feature auditory stimuli, but their bodies are prepared and ready to integrate the experience into their art voyage. It is just a matter of listening.
0.1.1.0. – the duality of the digital medium and video art : thoughts on Global Groove
Having been looking at Nam June Paik’s “Global Groove” (1973), made at the adolescence of the video art age, there is apparent an overriding rhythm to the medium. 0 then 1, or 1 then 0. It’s here or there.
In Paik’s Global Groove, he is critical of the medium (TV) while utilizing it (video) at the same time. There is a push pull with history and modernity, classical and contemporary times, an old vs new game as old as humanity.
John Cage also references his observation of this duality with his sensation of two distinct sounds he experienced in a silent room, which he was led to understand as two integral manifestation of his body. “The high sound is that of the nervous system in operation and the low sound is the blood in circulation.” (John Cage) He has recognized the duality that exists within all bodies.
There is a very experimental quality to these early works, as the artists are playing around with the medium to see what it can do. Many of the early works are not saying much beyond the medium itself, and sometimes feel gimmicky. In Global Groove, there are the interruptions between the clips, and the Pepsi commercial as an actual intermezzo, one an overt commentary on the television watching habit of channel switching and the other stating the now obvious omnipresence of advertising. I often wonder if these visual candy pieces are no more than a psychedelic drug age phenomenon. [They do still continue however…but that’s another post (I’ve read the syllabus).]
I am especially lost at the end as the cellist justifies what she is doing and then politics enter into the work. As the Catalyst course instructor Randall Packer has stated, Paik is examining the “effects of the medium on our psychic condition”. It seems pretty bleak to me, circa 1973.
I have barely begun to mine the idea that is swirling around in my head, I will follow it along and further explore these ideas of duality in future posts, mentioning artists including Joan Jonas, Bill Viola among others.
Be sure to come back, y’all.
Cofrin Contemporary 