Jennifer Rubells - “Engagement” Installation and Drinking Paintings at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London.

Jennifer Rubells - “Engagement” Installation and Drinking Paintings at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London.

The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept- Sol Lewitts.[1]

The idea of contemporary culture and society providing artists with the main idea for a work is an interesting concept, but it is how they have utilised their starter points and combined a number of elements together that not only comment and critique, but also question their role as art within the ever evolving art world. There is no other topic as current at this time as the Royal Wedding, everyone is talking about it or is exposed to it in some way, through conversation, advertising and the media. It is interesting then, that Jennifer Rubells chose the grand event which was the “engagement”, and from the initial press release photo of Prince William and Kate Middleton presenting the sapphire ring, has created a highly sociological art piece that interacts with both, “participant” and viewer on many levels. Simultaneously presenting echo’s of historical, influential artists’ techniques, which thus place the piece highly within all context areas of current contemporary art.

We could describe the layout of the piece as a virtual magazine type of set-up. We are enticed to look into the Gallery space and are intrigued as to what the statue of the Prince on a plinth could be representing as an art piece. One could think of it as a sculpture maybe? They would be correct, but the beauty of this piece is that it withholds so much more as regard to being art. Once you have entered the gallery you are fully committed to finding out what the artists is trying to instil in their viewer. We are to become a part of the artwork in a personal, psychological and fairground type of encounter, where in fact we are offered to create our own sub work by taking a photo of yourself and your friends in the arms of the prince. The piece is primarily social, encouraging interaction and consumption. This pinpoints one of the works main contextual standpoints, its connotations with institutional critique. Rubells, who is known for her institutional critique type works which centre upon food and consumption within the gallery, not only links social intervention of viewers with regards to the sculpture, but she also links “drinking paintings” which utilises the viewers social interaction along with, historical knowledge about certain beverages linked to the Royal family. The viewers are also inherent in the artworks evolving creation and performance when it comes to creating the splashes upon the canvases, of which the taps protrude out of, dispensing the drinks.  It also questions the art galleries institution, is it showing art or is it providing alcohol? After all the gallery is free to enter and the distribution of free alcohol forces one to question the space in which we are a viewer of art or are we invited to carry out our own sociological engagements within this art institutionalised space. Another artist that we register as having a similar reference in relation to the audience being participants in the work and within institutional critique is the American artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, famous for his social, laid back installation works which have included art as an event. In 2007 he served vegetarian curry to gallery visitors at David Zwirner[2]. Tiravanija has been critically praised, primarily by Nicolas Bourriaud in his works on Relational Aesthetics. Bourriaud is a French Curator and art critic who is known not only for his defining, and affirming text on Relational Aesthetics, he has had considerable impact upon the art world with his founding of the contemporary art magazine Documents sur l'art which ran for eight years. Bourriaud describes the term Relational Aesthetics as “a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space”[3]. The main focus of this statement is that Bourriaud suggest that art is devoid of simply object, but instead favours the idea that it art can consist of transitive information from artist to viewer in the form of social context. This makes sense as the world of art covers a wide spectrum when considering its institutions. The art of relational aesthetics breaks down any formal barriers as to how art should be utilised and more importantly its form and distribution.

Relational Aesthetics is an element within Rubells Engagement piece, it is open ended in its offering and role as art. It questions, the acts of life and art, or life as transitive art and all that lies in between for human, social beings. However we can go one step further and say that the piece also incorporates a form of abstract Process art within its context. This applies greatly to the second room of the exhibition which presents the “drinking paintings”.  Harold Rosenberg explains in his book the “American action painters”, 1952, the ethos behind such art. “At a certain moment, the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another, as an arena in which to act- Rather than as a space in which to reproduce, redesign, analyse or express, an object, actual or imagined. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event”[4]. This certainly applies to Rubells drinking paintings. Rubells herself is influenced by the pioneer of process art Jackson Pollock and his use of rationale and creative journey in his work. We see an assimilation of technique between Pollock and Rubells formation technique. They seem to be endless in their creation process, of course an end product will occur in given time, but this just emphasises the process element of the works. The participants of the “engagement” are invited to contribute to the work by simultaneously indulging in the beverages which have both practical and contextual meaning. The participant takes a cup disposable cup from the dispenser adjacent to the canvas, and upon turning the tap which protrudes from the centre of the canvas, the viewer already notices that palimpsest-like splashes have previously been made and that this is the intentionality of the work. Therefore by partaking in this inherent motivation of contributing to the work, the expression of the act can be seen as a gathering of many different personal additions to the process, which further instils the purpose of the work in the audience.

Jennifer Rubells whole process concerning the “engagement” piece is extremely thought provoking. She is another example of artists being provided with the creative trigger motives for her work by the media and her current surroundings. We shall consider “engagement” and how appropriation in art has taken its role in the creation of the exhibition. 'When I first saw the official announcement picture, what struck me was that Prince William's position felt very sculptural,'[5] says Rubells. 'I immediately understood that there could be an opportunity for people to engage with this sculptural element.' Rubells idea was created from another source of information, the press released engagement announcement portrait pictures. When artists appropriate something they borrow some form of visual material in order to recreate works. This also ties in with the rather duchampian idea of the found object, and in Rubells case in this exhibition we can see the taps are ready-mades placed onto a canvas; they are existing objects in the world which have been utilised by being put into varied context for artwork, giving it an entirely new identity. Just as found objects are given new roles within art, used to convey certain messages and integrate with other materials in a work, the participants also is given a role, or at least offered in this case the fantasy role of a future princess. On this matter Rubells says 'As a woman, I look at that photograph, and wonder what it would be like to be in that position. I'm the last person in the world to look for "prince charming", but I'm still curious. It's an instinct that's in all women, and the interaction gives you a chance to validate that instinct, rather than to judge it.' The contexts involved with this artwork are very dynamic and seem to interconnect within the field of contemporary art genres and theories. Engagement, just like the gestural nature of Duchamp’s Fountain, has performative qualities, which also ties in with the photographs of Jackson Pollock’s method of painting with regards to the drinking paintings and also when considering the role the participant take when acting the princess in the arm of a prince.  The root word “image” need not be used only to mean representation (in the sense of one thing referring to something other than itself). To illustrate this point even further in her book Six years dematerialization of the art object, 1973, Lucy Lippard quotes Mel Bochner’s essay on “Excerpts From Speculation” (1967-1970)- “To re-present can be defined as the shift in referential frames of the viewer from the space of events to the space of statements or vice versa. Imagining (as opposed to imaging) is not a pictorial preoccupation. Imagination is a projection, the exteriorizing of ideas about the nature of things seen. It reproduces that which is initially without product. A good deal of what we are “seeing” we are, in this sense, actually imagining.”[6]

When considering contemporary art, we have two fundamental elements which once brought together, appoint the works nature as conceptual art, reality and representation this is what Rubells instigates within this artwork. The artist did not set out to wholly just create a sculpture of Prince William, or display representations of the drinks on offer; the concept goes beyond the limits of conventional tradition in art. It is centred on play, a tool for entertainment which has been privileged as art by the artist and institution. The contexts in contemporary art are often ambiguous to the viewer and to try and compartmentalise the art, artist and corresponding genre is inconceivable. The role of the media in regards to Rubells piece has had a remarkable standpoint in forming the viewers conceptions of the piece, it somewhat spoon feeds some of the notions we have about the pieces role in reality and further instils a sense of what is art? What is the nature of art in our contemporary age? Is it purely original or does the media have an important part to play who facilitates the artist? The Royal wedding as a whole is centred upon social events, street parties, buying memorabilia, watching it on TV; it is the build up to the event which people relish in, the sense of British culture of the Monarchy. However we have to question, is art today and certainly in this exhibition, adding to the notion of celebrity in art? Is the wedding really about improving the dynasty of the monarchy for artists, or has it become so commonplace that they are bound by duty to comment on such events in their work? This decentred haze in which art finds itself in today is certainly encapsulated by Jennifer Rubells engagement exhibition.

Bibliography:

Bruce Altshuler, Shamita Sharmacharja, A manual for the 21st century art institution, Koenig Books, 2009.

Hugh Honour, John F. Fleming, The Visual Arts: A History, Revised Edition, Pearson Education, 2009.

Herschel Browning Chipp, Peter Howard Selz, Theories of modern art: a source book by artists and critics, University of California Press, 1968.

Lucy R. Lippard, Six years: the dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972, University of California Press, 1997.

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[1] Lucy R. Lippard, Six years: the dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972, University of California Press, 1997. Pp75.

[2] Bruce Altshuler, Shamita Sharmacharja, A manual for the 21st century art institution, Koenig Books, 2009, pp125.

[3] Hugh Honour, John F. Fleming, The Visual Arts: A History, Revised Edition, Pearson Education, 2009Pp931

[4] Herschel Browning Chipp, Peter Howard Selz, Theories of modern art: a source book by artists and critics, University of California Press,1968 ,Pp569.

[5] http://www.stephenfriedman.com/#/exhibitions/past/2011/jennifer-rubell-engagement

[6] Lucy R. Lippard, Six years: the dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972, University of California Press, 1997, Pp186.