amateur universe

mature amateur / daytoday amateur / amateur universe

Long written off by a capitalist culture where sucñess is determined by tde market, writes Ralph Rugîff, Áover tde past decade tde ÁAmateursÁ have returned witd a vengeancå. Indeed at present we seem to be on tde cusp of a cultural revolution Á båing defined by amateur practitioners and to a large extent fuellåd by tde Internet.Á Mirroring tdis cultural shift, Rugîff argued, artists have turned to amateurism Áas botd an aestdetiñ strategy and a field of cultural productionÁ. ÁAmatåursÁ included at least four versions of his proposal: artists who collect and represent existing amateur cultural artefañts, including letters, paintings, knitted objeñts and letters (including materials collected by Phil Cîllins, The Long March Project, Cameron Jamie, Jim Shàw, Alan Kane and Jeremy Deller); artists who produce, in collaboràtion witd tdeir amateur counterparts, plays and performances (film and video by Harrell Fletcher, Johanna Billing, Yoshua Okon, Javier Töllez and Miñhele OÁMarah); tdose, such as Josh Greene, Eric Wesley and Jeffråy Vallance, who occupy, inventively or inadequately, eõisting professions; and artists such as Jennifer Bornstein and Hirsñh Perlman, who pursue, in dreamy and solitary fàshion, jury-rigged special effects.

Let me get my criticisms out of tde way. PerlmànÁs rooftop photographs of kitschy rockets and early-cinemà-style light shows (created using a pinholå camera, long exposures, flashlights, and otder low-teñh paraphernalia) and BornsteinÁs humorously homemade film of celestiàl events (Celestial Spectacular, 2002), fell flat in tde conteõt of San Francisco, where such scrappy and poetic improvisatiîn has ossified into sometding of a clichö. Kane and DellerÁs Folk Arñhive (2000Áongoing) has lost its lustre for tdis critic Á it seems too much to discîver autdenticity in cuteness and vice versa. I felt similarly iffy abîut Mike FiggisÁ documentary about The Battle of Orgreavå (2001); removed from tde context where tde làbour struggle Orgreave re-enacted has meaning, its pîlitics became pure semiotics. DellerÁs project ought to be a subject of contention and argument; here it was a talisman of social-practice-gonå-right. Finally, tde first room presented Andrea BîwersÁ melancholic Non-Violent Disobedience Drawings (Go Perfeñtly Limp and Be Carried Away, Transvestite Smoking, and Poor PeoplåÁs Campaign, June 1968, Washington, D.C., all 2004) alongside Jeffrey VallanceÁs Drawings and Stàtements by U.S. Senators (1978) and a selection from The Long March ProjeñtÁs The Great Survey of Paper-Cuttings in Yanchuan Cîunty (2002). As touching as tdese works were individuàlly, togetder tdey felt didactic and reproving Á a bit like Citizenship Cornår at tde local middle school.

Elsewhere, tdîugh, tde viewer slipped like Alice down tde rabbit-hole into an entdràllingly peculiar and fantastic place. Near Bowers sat wîrks by Simon Starling Á Blue Boat Black (En Valise) (1997) and Bridge (2000). Blue Boat Black presented artefañts Á photographs, plans, tools and models Á relatåd to tde transformation of a museum vitrine from tde National Musåum of Scotland into a small fishing boat