The Chronicle of Artistic Failure in America

The fourth project by a student in Jeanne Finley’s class on failure is by Kamil Dawson. Here is the original project proposal.

Kamil Dawson’s Failure class statement:

When conceiving the project for our Failure class, I intentionally chose to avoid commonly prescribed ways for “successfully” displaying artwork. Instead of searching out a “professional” gallery or exhibition space to show my art, I conceived an art based project that would provide a creative invitation to engage those within the California Collage of the Arts graduate community to make art that is unrelated to their current practice. The project and invitation would provide artists an opportunity within a free-form space wherein they could create art, eat, relax, and be entertained and inspired by who or what they find around them. The platform I used was the theme of what daughters do when their mothers are away, or a back to high school extravaganza. The thought was to inspire our early incarnations of creative freedom, mainly through high school themed social engagement with our peers and friends.

I advertised the event through flyers and e-mail posts to the CCA community and focused the event around an already existing communal space and gallery called Fish Space. Located within the graduate studios, Fish Space boasts a large fish tank, table, comfy chairs and couches, and naturally attracts circles of students that want to relax, eat, talk or read. The event was advertised from 5:00-10:00 on a Saturday, and people were asked to bring items from their high school years as well as art making materials to add to the event. To encourage art making I also collected a large stack of magazines from friends, supplies for creating collages, pens, pencils and markers for drawing, and large quantities of food and beverages for snacks and dinner. I opened the space up my moving the furniture in a circle and placed blankets on the ground for people to sit. I also rented three films for background entertainment. These included, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains The Same, and Snoop Dog’s Film Boss’n Up. A wall adjacent to the lounge area was also available for people to display the work they created.

I was very pleased by the initial setup of the space and the number of people that attended (around fifteen). To my surprise people were absolutely exhausted and wanted to mainly lie around and eat. I couldn’t blame them, as reviews were beginning the following week. Some people brought art pieces that they were currently working on, and by the end of the event, the actual work that was initiated and finished within the space and time of the event was done by a group of three four year-olds. Between watching the movies and running around, they finished a large painting- a feat that us adult artists were too tired, or too distracted to create.

Although the project failed in terms of creative expectations, (no art made it onto the final wall) people did have the chance to catch their breath and relax.

Samples of Kamil Dawson’s project:

The third final project by a student in Jeanne Finley’s class on failure is by Erik Madsen. In the original project proposal, the artist intended to document “my successes and failures in my attempts to make contact with certain galleries or organizations as well as send work to a juried competition.”

Erik Madsen’s Failure class statement:

As a part of the Graduate Seminar “Failure” at CCA we were to propose a public presentation of our work as well as exhibit at a some point during the semester. I proposed three different venues where I believed I could have the opportunity to exhibit work. My first FAILURE came when I had failed to read the fine print for the Musee Hamaguchi competition, which stated that March 16th, 2009 was the due date of a mail in registration form — even though in very large text it had read July 22, 2009 as the due date to receive the materials for the jurying process. My second proposal was to exhibit one of my large film scrolls at Artist Television Access, second FAILURE came when I decided to wait and submit a short video/film for their 4th Annual Film Festival due May 29, 2009 which is a failure because it will take place outside the context of the assignment. Much of my energy has been in wrestling with digital technology (namely Final Cut Pro) after telecining my 35mm experimental film to mini dv. My third FAILURE comes from basically bitting off more that I could chew — I have not yet submitted work to the Donna Seager Gallery as of yet ( itʼs been a busy semester with Reviews and all), and still need to document the work I will be submitting- and this will also happen after the course has ended.

My initial impetus in proposing these three potential exhibition was to stretch myself and to make this class more challenging — as I already was going to have two exhibitions during the span of the course as well as one other exhibition that I had entered after the term began. So my methodology was to flirt with FAILURE and to challenge myself to think (critically) about where I could show- as well as where I would like to show in a practical sense.

Despite all this FAILURE there has been some successes during the semester. I successfully have exhibited in three shows this year- Painterly Prints at the Santa Clara University Department of Art and Art History Gallery, Illusion Helps at Orange Alley Project, San Francisco, CA, and ArtRead at the Oliver Art Center, CCA campus Oakland, CA.

This class called FAILURE was indeed not a FAILURE, but an amazing journey that all six of us undertook against all odds and at one point there was speculation of the course being cancelled. In fact it was an email about its potential cancellation that alerted me towards this class and I’m grateful because there was no doubt that I would have seen some FAILURE if I would have remained in what would have been my second theory class. Some would have thought that I being the only male in the class would have been a FAILURE, or that none of us is a media student or that two of us were second year grads with their thesis and thesis shows hovering above them. I thought maybe going on our field trip to Mont Tamalpais with Gregory Gavin with less than a week before my review was courting FAILURE and in fact I was contemplating not participating. The trip was great and I believe that it was a major part of my SUCCESS in my review as well as getting me to relax and being more open to taking risks and not worrying about the FAILURE of not passing my review or all the baggage I associate with FAILURE or being a FAILURE. This class (all six of us) I believe has benefited from the process of discussing,acknowledging, as well as facing and overcoming FAILURE. And it is through that process that has made this class about FAILURE a SUCCESS.

Exhibitions of Erik Madsen’s work:

A print exhibition focusing upon the painterly print (monotype, monoprint, hand manipulated print..) Overall a very nice show where three different attitudes towards print are displayed fairly successfully and was probably a great complement to Kathryn Kain’s beginning printmaking class at SCU. I think the intention to exhibit work that incorporates both painterly and printmaking concerns was successful, I believe that the only failure in this whole process was that the postcards were not printed until the day of the opening, which may have hampered the opening reception a tad bit, but other than that I felt that the students, faculty and the public responded quite positively to the exhibition. We also got a small write up in the online art publication ARTSHIFT San
Jose.

Illusion Helps was an exhibition that was part of the graduate seminar Painting Focus with James Gobel. The idea was to have an exhibit that used some of our material that we used both for our class catalog as well as our marginal poetics presentations (ideas and concerns that are on the periphery of our studio practices). So the concept for the how was to plaster (what I thought was floor to ceiling) the walls with xeroxes of some of our source materials which I guess was supposed to serve as a type of unifier between so many different styles of work. Overall the experience was great but I think the failure in the exhibition was that the idea of the xeroxes being “pasted” was undermined and the overall aesthetic came across a little under realised and fragmented. The response the the exhibit was fairly positive and was a productive avenue for creating positive camaraderie amongst the CCA grads as well as an interesting venue to get my feet wet in terms of exhibition spaces in San Francisco.

ArtRead was an exhibition I entered as a means to promote the printmaking department as well as to create a dialog with some of the Print Faculty as well as the undergrads. I had two books Paper Knife (an accordion style) and Present Tense (a case bound style) accepted, both were comprised of lithographic images accompanied by text of some sort. I volunteered with helping to prepare the exhibition space during which I had the honor to converse with fellow print students and faculty as well as having the honor of meeting Betsy Davids, who is in my mind one of the most knowledgeable people in the area of bookbinding and book arts today. So overall this exhibition was a success in that had the opportunity to engage with people I haven’t met or rarely see due to the schizophrenic nature of the school and I took part as a grad student in promoting print and bookbinding.

The second final project by a student in Jeanne Finley’s class on failure is by Zina Al-Shukri. The original project proposal mentioned the intention of mounting a group studio exhibition of drawings and watercolors called What Happens Here Stays Here.

Here are images from the exhibition:

As announced this week, Jeanne Finley’s Failure class at the California College of the Arts has ended. Students have submitted their final projects for the class, and the Chronicle of Artistic Failure is proud to present these young artists’ final projects for the class.

First up is Natalia Gomez. She planned a project in film and video exploring “cyclical patterns of violence.”

Natalia’s Statement for Failure Class

The anxiety was almost nauseating as the day got closer. March 17th was the day I agreed to show my video in Richard Olsen’s class. He is an art teacher at Gateway High school. I dreaded the idea of presenting my video since I was expecting the worst — no response. I expected to fail. I expected to bore these high school students. I’d walk in there and sound like a discombobulated retard. I have always hated any form of public speaking. I’ve been the quiet one who just sits and observes, too many obsessive thoughts running through my brain, making it difficult to decipher what is going on around me.

As the day arrived, I decided to bring moral support. A friend from school decided to accompany me and write a short a response of her experience of the critique. I did not take any pictures in order to create a more comfortable environment. My social phobia was increasing by the minute as the time to present was getting closer. My leg was taking a life of its own in order to calm my discomfort.

The video I chose to present was my first attempt at stop action animation. I made puppet like figures which I took individual stills of and later compiled into a movie through Windows Movie Maker. The video is violent and chaotic. It is exploring the spiraling and cyclical effects of violent acts. I am interested in exploring the ramifications of trauma on the individual. I was worried on how the class would respond to my video. I was completely surprised.

Richard Olsen showed the video and the class began to share their thoughts. One girl spoke very softly and stated that the video did not need sound. The disorienting affect of the flashing and jarring movement of the camera created its own sound. The students were very articulate and comfortable with critiquing the work. One student noted how the flowers were used to represent the male figure that was starting the vicious cycle of violence. She believed that the juxtaposition was effective. One student grinned as he noted that I made flowers insidious. While the student shared their thoughts, the instructor kept showing the video. He showed it four times. Each time the students became more and more comfortable. They began to laugh as Richard noted the corkiness of the puppets movements. The legs bent and twisted in an awkward manner. One student said that it reminded him of sex. It reached climax as the flowered patterns excreted from one of the puppet’s mouth and then it slowed down as the video went in reverse. One girl noted that the video did not need the reversal. I could just end it once the flowered patterns filled the whole screen. One student asked me what the meaning was behind this video and Richard Olsen immediately stopped him and did not let me answer. He later explained that he does not want the artist to talk for the first half of the critique. This allowed the students to give you their own interpretation without being influenced by your own thoughts. This was great because I was able to see things in my work that were not evident before. The critique only went on for 15 minutes but it was the best critique I had experienced since my time in college. They were comfortable around me which made it easier to talk about the content of the video. This created a positive and effective critique. They did not ask for my stance in making this short one minute and 18 second video. They did not stop at the surface of my work and fixate on the violence but instead explored ways that made it work and not work. Richard Olsen and his class were articulate and supportive. Since that critique I have continued talking with Richard Olsen. I feel very comfortable around him and his sense of humor is fucking great! I would do it again even though I know I would still be an anxious mess.

Richard Olsen’s Response

Natalia’s presentation was rather perfect (alas, not a failure). I think she got a lot
out of it and my kids did as well. It was really an act of sharing and exchange. I was
impressed by her and, as the daddy-teacher, my kids as well. The actual event could be
broken down to a series of levels (we showed the piece 4 times, each following
discussion, each return to the video, resulting in a higher level of engagement) but she
had a friend with her who I suspect will talk about that. At anyrate, a most delightful,
informatative, and engaging event for all. With of coruse, the art work as the
catalyst. Alas (smile), a stunning success!”

Here is Natalia Gomez’s video, “showered”:

Photos taken in Richard Olsen’s art class: