On Snow
02.05.10 | BS Gallery | Iowa City, IA
There are many reasons to organize an exhibition space in your home. It has allowed me the freedom to participate in our local art world, to be a part of a creative, and more honestly, social outlet for the Iowa City community. It's interesting to revisit my initial ideas for what BS Gallery could or wanted to be: "explorers/exploiters of the line between the white cube (neutral space) and domestic habitat." While this role of explorers seems to be a worth while and fun venture, the truth of it is -- we are a private space that has been adhering to, or perpetuating the traditional, commercial, and institutional model. Designate the art space: basement. Neutralize it: paint it white, hang walls. Promote it: facebook, emails, posters/postcards. I say all this not as bad news, but as truth, as hopeful direction.
Nicolas Bourriaud, in his seminal book, Relational Aesthetics, created a vocabulary for identifying works or projects that are based upon the inter-human relations which they represent, produce, or prompt. On Snow, a screening of video culled from a healthy pile of online-email linked submissions, has more to do with Bourriaud's idea of relational aesthetics then it does with some notion of curation or some sort of personal statement. As the host of an event like this and as an imagined attendee, I think it's in our best interest to be concerned with taking advantage of the occasion, to develop the relationships we have around us. These conversations and experiences represent, produce, and prompt -- I accept my position as anchor person, emcee, or presenter. In the spirit of hopeful direction: we will watch video, projected from the window of my bedroom, on a pile of snow in the BS Backyard. On Snow, is for us.
-Caleb Engstrom
