A return to form

I first saw Walead Beshty's work at the Tate Trienniel a couple of years back, where curator Nicolas Bourriaud had selected a number of his photogram works alongside his glass Fed Ex boxes as part of the exhibition. The show, which attempted (whilst not quite succeding) to propose a new stage in the trajectory of postmodernism - Altermodern - essentially brought together a large number of artists loosely connected by their work's capacity to address the globalised world we inhabit today. Seen in this context it is easy to see why Beshty was chosen, his photograms alluding to the X-Ray machines encountered at Airport security checks - indeed, this is how they are made, with negatives being passed through the machines and then prints being made from the results - and the Fed Ex boxes an obvious symbol of trade and globalised travel, their transit to and from exhibitions leaving visible traces in the gradual cracking of the glass boxes.

Beyond this Beshty's works addresses the wider questions of medium, specifically in his case the medium of photography. His work, particularly the photograms and also his other camera-less work made in the darkroom, forms part of a dialogue with a number of artists whose practice involves photography who are dealing with the question of medium and form, a seemingly outdated concern associated with Clement Greenberg and modernist painting. Yet it would seem that these old arguments are coming to the fore with photography (consider Michael Fried's recent book on photography), a medium that is by nature ambiguous and is perhaps still having to assert itself amongst a portion of the art world - indeed, the title of Fried's book, Why Photography Matters As Art As Never Before, almost parodies (unintentionally, of course) photography's contested status as an artistic medium.

It is this ambiguity of the nature of photography - what it actually is - that is perhaps leading to these formal explorations. Beshty states that photography is essentially a type of medium, "constituted by a dialectic of applied use and technological development" that is "in a state of constant revision". With the advent of digital technology posing fresh questions about the indexical nature of the photographic image and assigning analogue photography to a specific moment in history, categorised and reference-able, it would appear that these explorations of medium are only just beginning to be rethought.

How very 1994..

Relational art was a term coined at the end of the 90s by renowned art critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud as an attempt to classify a group of artists who had come to prominence during the decade. His book "Relational Aesthetics", a collection of essays on the topic which I am currently reading, goes to some length to describe this kind of art form, which he described in short as 'an attempt to improve the world we live in' through work that prompts interaction with its audience. The work he dwells upon ranges from performance to installation and photography and video, covering a particular group of artists he championed as carrying the torch, so to speak, for this new art movement.

Bourriaud has a history of suggesting or attempting to distill ideas and themes within art practice into a definable term, the most recent example being this years Tate Triennial, dubbed 'Altermodern', a phrase coined by the curator as the next stage of modernism, alluding to the idea that modernism and post modernism are dead and this new, alternate modernism can be seen as encompassing works that address our ever globalised world. In some ways an this could be read as an extension of his idea of relational aesthetics, although I don't feel it was an entirely successful exhibition or theorem. I do feel there is merit in his idea of relational art, however. Many of the artworks he uses as the basis for his theory are often based in quite humble and simple ideals - in the context of an ever increasingly technological world they return back to the very basic idea of human interaction and, for want of a better word, spirit, whilst never becoming detached from the context in which they are made. Felix Gonzales-Torres' billboards of empty beds at once engage the wider public with the most intimate setting of the bed he shared with his lover, whilst the fact his lover had recently died from AIDS gives the picture a haunting sense of absence and provides a wider context for the work. Another of his pieces consists of a gallery floor littered with sweets, the audience involvement in some ways creating the piece - its form dependent on the how much each viewer choses to take or leave.

After a decade of big money painting and the return of the 'art hero' (in part showcased by Tate's current Pop Life exhibition) relational art, or the art classed thus by Bourriaud, was an attempt to re-engage with ideas based in human emotion and the interaction we share with others (not to be confused with interactive art..). It strove to exist for a purpose, at times only existing for those present to witness or engage with it.

A couple of pieces by artists mentioned in the book that are worth checking out:

Pierre Huyghe - Streamside Day Follies

A short film depicting the staging of celebrations proposed by Huyghe in commemoration of the anniversary of the new town Streamside in New York state. Hard to find in full online, although a short excerpt can be found here - http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/huyghe/clip2.html

Dominique Gonzales-Foerster - Parc Central - Hong Kong

http://www.ubu.com/film/gf_parc_hong-kong.html

One of a series of films by the artist portraying various cities around the world, ambient, ethereal portrayals that suggest a dialogue between east and west and that question the Western World idea of there being nowhere left to journey to.