unfinish

* Here's the link to yesterday’s NYT article by Holland Cotter about the “Feminist Future“ Conference held @ NY MOMA last week: Feminist Art Finally Takes Center Stage. It’s heartening and relevant to our My Place discussions.

* Jessica Brier, TART intern and CCA Curatorial student, has written a wonderfully succinct and accurate description of Anne’s My Place project, herewith:

My place between 12 and 2pm . . . celebrates the work of artist and writer Moyra Davey and curator Marcia Tanner. This project is a cross-generational, interdisciplinary experiment that asks us to rethink what the ‘gallery’ space is and the kinds of experiences we expect there by creating an environment of equal exchange. The gallery has been transformed into a living room where people experience a small slice of Davey and Tanner's work, and each day is different. In this project as in all its endeavors, TART pushes the boundaries of exhibition-making and provides a unique contemporary art experience for San Franciscans.
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Here are two more quotes I came across today among the 110 emails awaiting me. The first is from an announcement for the 20th transmediale festival opening January 31 in Germany. The title is a bit hyped up, but I like the description, which applies to Anne’s project as it nears its own open-ended “unfinish”.

The 20th transmediale festival runs under the theme 'unfinish!'
unfinish! demands the re-opening of processes that are deemed closed. unfinish! questions finality and claims that any given situation is full of potential. unfinish! investigates artistic processes that are open to change and reversal of decisions. unfinish! is the battle cry and the curse of digital work that knows no conclusion, but only consecutive versions. A paradigm of digital culture? Are you ready to unfinish your world?
The second was contributed by a participant in a prolonged discussion of what new media curators are paid (not much, especially if like me they’re freelance) on the listserve: CRUMB: New-Media-Curating. His name is John Hopkins, and this is his definition of “spiritual” (as opposed to material) success:

As an artist, I would define spiritual success as the experience of opening an expressive pathway between the Self and the Other which allows for the open exchange of life energies. This kind of success is not dependent on numbers affected (beyond a single Other). In an open connection of this sort, the two parties engaged both may walk away from the encounter inspired. With more energy than before they had their encounter.

By this metric, My place between 12 and 2 pm @ TART is already a spiritual success, and it ain’t over yet.

- Marcia
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