Top 5 Examples of Olympiad “But Is It Art” Art?

Posted on 21. Feb, 2010 by Jim Sutherland in Living

OLYMPICS UPDATE

From tea parties as “social sculpture” to beer gardens as theatre – new twists on the classic definition of “art”

by Jim Sutherland

One of the pleasant surprises stemming from Vancouver’s Olympics has been the aesthetic sophistication. Things didn’t look promising back in Torino in 2006, given the contrast between the Italians’ amazing closing ceremonies and our kitschy yet overwrought log-cabin presence, but that was pretty much the last misstep. The Olympics 2010 architecture is solid, the logo, slogan and overall corporate identity work well and, hey, the mascots are delightful. True, the opening ceremony had its Spinal Tap moments, but the artistic direction and design were sound. And there’s also a lot to like about another crucial Olympic element, one that is often overlooked: the cultural component.

For example, consider the World Tea Party that’s running through March 21 at Centre A, a gallery of contemporary Asian art directly across the street from Pigeon Park in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. For these six weeks in March, the art will come down from the walls and the gallery will turn into a teahouse “animated” by Vancouver artist Brian Mulvihill, who created his first such event back in 1993. Mulvihill has since served tea at dozens of locations around the world, including to as many as 17,000 people – that was in 2000 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the Dalai Lama. So it’s a locally conceived idea that’s become a global institution: what could be more appropriate for Vancouver’s Olympics?

Right, but, as the old question goes, is it art?

Well, as Centre A curator Hank Bull explains, Mulvihill’s tea parties are an example of an increasingly common and important art variant known as “social sculpture” or “relational practice.” Obviously, art is not just painting and sculpture, which is how the term was largely defined until well into the 20th century. First, disciplines such as photography and film began to trickle in, and since the 1970s the trickle has become a flood. Today, a better definition of art might be: art is whatever artists decide to make or do.

Of course, artists don’t get to retain their arbiter jobs if their work doesn’t stand up, and the opinions of viewers as well as peers and critics ultimately decide whether it does — something to keep in mind should you find yourself at one of the art events in this week’s Top 5: Best Examples of “But Is It Art?” Olympic Art.

1. World Tea Party

According to its organizers, the World Tea Party is based on the idea “that humanity shares in the drinking of tea a spirit of generosity and understanding that both celebrates and transcends our cultural diversity.” In other words, this tea party is a “social sculpture” with an interactive aspect that makes it a suitable vehicle for a debate about the relationship between the Olympics and the Downtown Eastside, where the gallery is located. That’s the art argument. The tea argument is that there will be dozens of varieties of the mighty leaf (some of them “special” teas of the sort enjoyed in Chinese restaurants before the advent of relaxed licensing laws), served in dozens of different vessels, in keeping with dozens of different customs from around the world. Video: How to Make the Perfect Tea >>Victoria’s Silk Road tea shop

2. Kamp

In this presentation by the Dutch troupe Hotel Modern, puppeteers manipulate thousands of tiny concentration camp inmates and their keepers as others in the troupe roam around filming it all with miniature cameras. The action is then beamed onto a giant screen as part of the PuSh International Performance Festival. But is it theatre? It would be if there were dialogue, a plot and characters, but there are none of those – so maybe it’s closer to Is-It-Art?

3. Vectoral Elevation

Mexican-born physical-chemistry grad and electronic artist Rafael Loxano-Hemmer criss-crosses the globe creating large-scale interactive installations in public spaces. In Vancouver he’s installed 20 robotic searchlights along the shores of English Bay, where Internet participants from around the world are granted an opportunity to design their own kinetic light sculpture by manipulating the beams; performances are then captured on cameras as a lasting memento. So is it art or is it just really cool? Most in the art world would side with the former.

4. The Western Front Front

The Western Front Gallery happens to be situated in an early-20th-century building. And for the Cultural Olympiad, artist Reece Terris has installed a grander false front on this already existing false front — something of a commentary on the role real estate and real estate fluffing has played throughout Vancouver’s history. It’s not much of a stretch to call this art, particularly as the artist’s most recent show involved installing a six-storey apartment in the rotunda of the Vancouver Art Gallery. But if the Western Front building suddenly sports a “For Sale” sign, we’ll know it was really something else: home staging.

5. The Candahar

Inside a Granville Island theatre sits a meticulously detailed re-creation of an Irish pub; viewers can walk in and, oh, order a beer. A skeptic might object that there’s a pub just like that in pretty much every suburb, but those ones weren’t created from scratch by a bona fide artist named Theo Sims and don’t involve the participation of big-deal Vancouver artists Stan Douglas and Rodney Graham and writers Michael Turner and Timothy Taylor. So is it art, or is it just a pub? It’s definitely a fine place to argue the question.