Open Engagement: Art After Aesthetic Distance
Open Engagement: Art After Aesthetic Distance will take place October 11, 12, and 13 in Regina, SK. Hosted by the University of Regina
With keynote artist: Harrell Fletcher
www.jendelosreyes.com/openengagement
Artists continue to challenge our traditional ideas of what art is and does. A recent emphasis on art as service, social space, activism, as interactions and art as relationships may signal a paradigm shift. These practices raise many questions: what is the social role of the artist? What should art do? Who is art for? Writers such as Nicolas Bourriaud, Suzanne Lacy, Carol Becker, Grant H. Kester, Miwon Kwon and Claire Bishop are among those thinkers who have described and investigated the trend toward art works that open spaces, invite in the everyday and offer to create new and temporary communities and structures. Art after aesthetic distance implies that we are now in an age of aesthetic nearness in which art and life are considered less as inhabiting different spaces, and more as roommates.
Open Engagement: Art After Aesthetic Distance is a three-day conference focused on relational art practices. We will strive to find new models of communicating the work, theory and writing that surround relational art. This conference is situated in the space between theory and practice, where participants will also engage in artworks. Among the self-reflexive topics to be explored include: How can art openly engage with public space? With art audiences? With everyday life? How can we openly engage with one another? Working together can be difficult, trying and fraught with conflict. Working with a group can be simultaneously the most challenging and rewarding experience one can have in life. Making sincere connections to each other can be just as hard, but those relationships are the foundation of our personal lives and social networks.
The goal of Open Engagement is to bring together like-minded individuals to confer on subjects of common interest and forge lasting connections. This is an intense, immersive, around the clock experience. It is a conference, mini-residence and workshop. Participants can partake in experiences that connect them with each other, artists, art institutions and the local arts community. All aspects of this event contribute to the discussions and explorations of the themes of the conference. Out-of-town participants will be billeted with a member of the local arts community. Hosts will take participants to and from the conference and participants will make meals together, share meals together, and are encouraged to thank their hosts by leaving a created trace.
This is relational aesthetics, post-Bourriaud: striving for art that desires for something real to happen, not just the imitation of something real; something that is everyday, rather than just implies the everyday; communities that are sustainable, as opposed to the temporary and momentary. What happens when two people really connect? What happens when art really connects? What could we do in our daily lives to form connections and build communities? What can we do in our practices? What could we do in the environments that we inhabit, and work in, in addition to the spaces we exhibit in? Can artists in their daily lives show possible ways of living? Can art be the alternative? Can art be the answer? In a time when it is easy for people to feel disconnected, what can art do?
========================================================
More Information on Open Engagement visit:www.jendelosreyes.com/openengagement
Jen Delos Reyes,
[email protected] ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Jennifer Delos Reyes-conceptual director/artist
Warren Bates
Kristy Fyfe
Brette Gabel
Derek Hamers
Steve Matwichuk
Andrea Young
Jeff Nye
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Jennifer Delos Reyes-
Conceptual Director, Artist, Program Committee Team Manager
Jennifer Delos Reyes is a Master of Fine Arts Candidate at the University of Regina. Her theoretical and studio research interests include: relational aesthetics, interactive media and artists’ social roles. She has exhibited videos, installations, and site-specific participatory work in New York, Illinois, Manitoba, Halifax, Ontario and Saskatchewan, and had recently completed an intensive workshop Come Together: Art and Social Engagement at The Kitchen in New York. She was involved in the arts community in her hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba where she was one of the founding members of The Outworks Gallery, an artist run centre and arts space. She is currently involved in the local arts community in Regina as a member of the VAC at the University of Regina and the creator of an online arts events listing for the Regina arts community. She has received awards from the University of Regina’s Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Faculty of Fine Arts, the University of Manitoba, the Order of the Knights of Rizal, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Warren Bates- Lead Conference Assistant and Volunteer Leader
Warren Bates is a University of Regina student pursuing a BA in Literature. He is a born leader who instinctively, naturally and warmly is able to communicate ideas to groups of individuals and inspire participation and excitement. This natural predisposition is greatly enhanced by his involvement with Improv Acting. This summer Warren was a leader at a national improv camp where he devised and executed group improv games and activities.
Kristy Fyfe- Business Relations
Kristy Fyfe is a Business administration student at the University of Regina majoring in human resources. Kristy has always been interested in the arts, and has been involved in theater, photography, performance and creative writing. Kristy in interested in finding the cross section between business and the arts and applying new strategies to old working models.
Brette Gabel- co-organizer
Brette Gabel is currently attending the University of Regina, completing a degree in Theatre Studies with honors and a minor in Visual Arts. She is studying new ways to adapt film techniques in the horror genre for the stage. Her work is primarily performance, design and textile based. This May she produced, directed and designed a play titled Emily: a horror play and she has contributed work to Terminus-1525 in the Consistent Variable Project II. She has shown textile work in various group shows in Regina. Currently she is curating a show for the Fifth Parallel art gallery in Regina and is the resident designer for Hecktic Theatre.
Derek Hammers- Post-confernce Publication
Derek Hammers has been working in the cultural industry for 3 consecutive years (Saskatchewan Publishers Group - 2004 and 2006; Saskatchewan Arts Board - 2005). During this time, he has worked with many areas of arts education programming including public awareness, facilitating events / Artssmarts conference, publication of a curricula guide for arts education purposes (grades K - 9). Recently, Derek assisted the Saskatchewan Publishers group in designing evaluation models/ outcomes measurement survey as well as the drafting of a business plan for the organization. Derek's experience with arts education programs is far reaching and multi-faceted. Derek plans to apply his experience to a career in the book publishing industry. Derek Hammers is currently a 4th year English student with honors; he will be done his degree by fall 2007.
Jeff Nye- Contemporary Theory and Practices
Jeff Nye is a Master of Fine Arts Candidate at the University of Regina. His theoretical and studio research interests include: contemporary painting, interactive media, time-based art, and artists’ social roles. He has exhibited paintings, installations, and site-specific work in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec, and had presented his research at the International Conference on Arts and Society in Edinburgh, and at the Shifting Borders Conference on Visual Culture at Montreal’s Concordia University. Jeff has taught painting and drawing at the community and university levels. He is a co-curator of the University of Regina's President's Art Collection. He has received awards from the University of Regina’s Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Faculty of Fine Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is currently working on an on-line, interactive painting experiment, the Dialogic Studio project.
Andrea Young
Andrea Young tries at lots of things. She cooks but seldom cleans, is a student who learns but doesn’t study at the U of Regina. She lived for a while in Hawai’i did some Hula and loved it. She is learning to play the ‘ukelele and hopes to one day be able to sing and play at once. She works tirelessly and loves it. She is a dedicated dancer whose greatest fans are her fridge and toaster ( and a girl named Katrina who just gave birth). She likes bicycles, prairie, glaring sun accompanied by wind, snow forts and music. She takes neat photos and gives them to no one. She gives long winded explanations (so look out) and likes science-fiction sets made of cardboard. She lives with a puppy named Falcore e. Feldman, ( who looks like a polar bear, but doesn’t eat seals), a cat with no name and a crooked tail and her friends Courtenay and Ben.
Go To www.jendelosreyes.com and Open Engagement:Art After Aesthetic Distance and www.HarellFletcher.com
