in the email today... Deadline 1May 2001 No Fee Curators: Patrick Merrill - Mary Cecile Gee Kellogg University Art Gallery Cal Poly, Pomona Pomona Ca. 91768 909 869 4301 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.csupomona.edu/~kellogg_gallery/ Ephemeral A call for proposals: We are interested in soliciting proposals from artists who find themselves exploring the heart of ephemerality (or even its brittle peripheries). We want to hear what other artists are thinking and how their thinking can be translated into that most ephemeral phenomenon of the art world - an exhibition. The exhibition will be curated from submitted proposals and by invitation. We see the basic reality and experience of human death as a primary component of the ephemeral. To be human is to be mortal, thus subject to death. As a metaphoric structure, mortality defines the ephemeral. It is this basic metaphor that underlies all of humanity's conceptualization of the ephemeral. We will all die. Everything we have ever known will eventually disappear and be forgotten. This truth of our individual "ephemerality" is the source of purpose in our life efforts. This truth informs our existence palpably, whether we choose to confront "death" directly or not. Our interaction with mortality chronicles our most immediate, lasting, sometimes irreconcilable, relationships to the ephemeral. The following is a partial list of ideas we are exploring - some related directly to art (its practices, materials, and psychology); some connected to that essential vitality called life. 1. Performance art, as an artistic strategy, is pure ephemerality. The only "object" generated by this action is the experience of the performance as it is retained in the memories and modified by the life experiences of the audience and of the performer(s). 2. Musical performances are also unique expressions existing along a temporal line with memory their only remnant. The score and memory are the only vessels for music. One cannot experience music and analyze it at the same time. We are interested in compositions whose themes or ideas are grounded in this very ephemeral nature of music. 3. The use of certain materials predicts ephemerality through self-destruction. They rot, oxidize, de-solve, corrode - epitomizing varied definitions of beauty and distress as they pass through each phase. We will consider pieces that express their transitory nature, in duration, as pieces of the work are given away or disappear. 4. We want to encourage pieces and ideas couched in the very fugitive materials of reproductive media: analog video, photography, ink jet prints, (for that matter) any digital media. 5. We've considered the ephemeral nature of appearances and the human fashion industry - in all its permutations and cultural reverberations; the advent of plastic surgery as an "art form"; the ephemerality of historical trends, tastes, and desires (i.e. the most coveted body types, hair colors, and the size of organs); the evolution of technology's assault on human ephemerality with our ever-increasing life-spans and our destiny-defying efforts to master mortality; the realities of the cyborg, cloning, and the predicted obsolescence of the human body. 6. Politics is integral to art. What we know as "art" is an accumulation of objects and artifacts culled from a plenitude of other objects and artifacts according to the pride and prejudices, the tastes and perspectives of the intellectual, the critic, the curator, and to a much lesser extent, public popularity. Those who make the selections have controlled the composition of exhibitions and books; they have directed the ideas that would be presented, lauded and preserved throughout history. But what has been left on the cutting room floor and why? 7. What has survived natural and human disasters through mere accidents of fate? The greatest museum collections cull, and are culled, through acts of fire, flood, war and even greed (this is reflected in the modern museum practice of de-accessioning). 8. What drives artists to create when less than one percent of all the art made in the world throughout human history survives in any form? Is it the pursuit of immortality? What can it mean to leave a "trace"? What will happen to your art after you die? Like you, we are brimming with questions and have a desire to dialogue. We want to know the why, the what, and the how. Initially, in the context of your proposals, we will impose no restrictions other than the ones the physical space itself imposes, but artists should be open to negotiations and editing as we proceed through the development process. Although this show certainly promotes examinations of works grounded entirely in process, please make an effort to be as specific as possible. We encourage artists wishing to propose installations, performances, or site-specific pieces to call and have an initial discussion before you propose these types of work. Please send a written text explaining, in full, your philosophy, intentions, and the content of your proposed piece. Please enclose slides or other visual documentation in support of your proposals in your package to us with, the usual, SASE.
