26 Planet of the Arts / March 1997

VV Practice

Contemporary photographic installation practices

lienation and postmodern art prac-

tice have more bite the closer an

art student gets to wrapping up the

4 year apprenticeship known as an
Emily Carr Institute diploma.

The question of bringing one’s abilities of
inquiry, conceptualization, and technical real-
ization into the wider world takes on a lot
more weight when this question blends into
the issue of making it as an artist. By making
it, | mean gaining sufficient recognition for
one’s art practice
through a body of
work such that
money comes your
way often enough to
buy food, pay rent
and purchase more
art supplies.

The perceptual,
analytical and con-
structive aptitudes
that are fostered
among apprenticing artists for four years go
into overdrive when the matter of life after
art school looms directly over their heads. ’
The anticipation of spiritual famine from
being employed outside one’s field of cre-
ative endeavour sharpens the mind and the
senses wonderfully. (See Melody Young's
What Are You Going To Do When You
Graduate? on page 50.) Impending loan
repayment obligations add further urgency.

Taking on an art project that has one foot
firmly planted in the workings of the art
school and the other foot sticking out into
public space creates a situation that allows
artists to move back and forth between risk
and support, despair and hopefulness, indi-
vidualized initiative and the collaborative
realization of culture.

Yes - living, breathing, tangible culture.
And probably not anything that looks or
sounds like MTV.

To what degree can artists
Participate more fully in
the building of culture in
a positive way?

The Graduation Show at Emily Carr
Institute carries with it something of the
same range of dynamic tension between risk,
support and the rest of it. But the
Graduation Show is very much handled as a
terminus, an obligatory getting-off point.

And so the Graduation Show, at least in
its present warehouse format (see IIze Bebris’
The Continuing Saga of the Grad Show on
page 55), does not offer the same frame-
work of possibility that can be generated by
a studio course that
brings the lives of its
Participants togeth-
er all day for 13
weeks and that
maintains the real
‘prospect for people
in the course to have
further curricular
and social interac-
tion with each other
in future semesters.

The Graduation Show is about closure,
departure and the loss of community. A
studio course that engages its students to
create art projects within public space is
about the broadening of community beyond
the confines of the studio, while still having
the classroom to go back to; it is also about
the corresponding extension of practices
beyond studio apprenticeship and into a
journeywoman’s or journeyman’s practice of
engaging a public audience.

One of the courses at Emily Carr Institute
which frames itself in relation to the journey
into public space and a corresponding return
to the sanctuary of the classroom is
Photographic Installations.

The course was most recently conducted
in the 1996 fall term under the instruction of
Sandra Semchuk. Semchuk, a regular faculty
member in the Photography Department,

the second floor).

The community brought together to

work and play on Afognak Island, Alaska
Photographic Installation at Emily Carr Institute,
Room 284 (November 18 - 20, 1996)
Lincoln Heller

embers of the public and students of Emily Carr Institute were
Mi directed to this installation by signs (Follow the Mud) and signi-
fiers (mudprints through the Concourse Gallery and upstairs to

What awaited them was a living museum complete with a sod floor,
artist/interlocutor, video.and sound projection, displays of the clothing
and tools used by a lumberman, and rows of installed photographs sus-
pended with conspicuous hooks from two-by-four pieces of lumber.

The photographs showed members of a crew commissioned by the
First Nations owners of Afognak Island to log timber there during the
spring and summer months. Expressions of the subjects ranged from
serious to self-mocking. Pride in one’s work was in ample evidence. So
too, perhaps ironically, was enjoyment of nature and the landscape.

The clothing and boots worn by Heller transmitted a smell that regis-
tered both as a universal signifier of human toil engaged with the land as
a source of sustenance, and as the trace of a specific artist-labourer’s
movements through space and time.

Heller earned income through his logging employment in order to pay
for his art school tuition and living expenses.

The Pedagogy Of intervening

has been involved in offering the course for
ten years.

Semchuk describes the Photographic
Installations course as project-centred and
learner-centred.

As a senior level studio course, however,
it presupposes that students possess a well-
developed sense of their concerns and can
take seriously their identity as cultural practi-
tioners. “Each student came up with a
project that had to do with the ways in
which they see themselves participating in
culture,” Semchuk related to Planet of the
Arts.

The course also locates itself clearly
within the ambit of art practice as a prob-
lematic postmodern vocation. The members
of the class are posed the question: How can
artists today have a
more direct effect
on community,
given prevailing
conditions of pro-
found social alien-
ation and economic
malaise?

“The question
comes up,” Semchuk
relates, “because of
what's happening in
art-making practice
in Canada today. And parts of the question
are: To what degree can we sustain the level
of alienation that artists have been sustain-
ing recently in order to critique the society;
and to what degree can artists participate
more fully in the building of culture in a pos-
itive way?”

Postmodernism impacts not only the voca-
tional circumstances of the artist but also the
choice of method and strategy the artist
adopts in any attempt to build culture in the
face of fairly generalized social alienation.
This is where the installation aspect of the
course has wider aesthetic and social rele-
vance.

“In postmodernism,” Semchuk explains,
“the imaginative leap that used to be made
into an image, for example the photograph
that sits on the wall, is somehow changed;
there is now a critical layer that reminds the
viewer that the image is not concrete reality,
but is a representation of reality.

“What happens with the installation is

of culture.

Artists move back and forth
between risk and support,
despair and hopefulness,
individualized initiative and
the collaborative realization

Members of Photographic Installations, fall 1996

that we actually inhabit the space. We move
into the space in a physical way so that direct
perception is involved more, that we see the
photograph as a physical object in the space
where it is exhibited as well as seeing things
around it and with it such as sculptural
objects and mnemonic devices, or hearing
sounds.

“The perceptual experience is given prior-
ity although the

representational is still there.

“The person experiencing the installation
has multiple ways in which to enter the
inquiry of the artist.”

In the nine years previous to the fall 1996
offering of Photographic Installations,
members of the class worked as a group
within a single installation site. This site
tended to be a com-
mercial space that
would be made over
temporarily into an
art gallery. This
make-over typically
involved repairs, the
construction of
dividers, the painting
of walls, and other
handiwork. Then
came hanging the
components of the
installation, publicizing the existence of the
gallery, and holding a formal opening.

An important departure was made this
time. Members of the class chose to realize
their projects on sites spread throughout the
city. Sites were chosen for their suitability to
the specific nature of a student's project.

The pedagogical significance of this deci-
sion was that each person in the class elected
to take on the risk of publicly installing art as
an individual matter. Previously, the group
together faced the risk of their intervention
into public space.

This allowed each artist to anticipate a
more specific and more local audience than
tends to be the case when a single overall
site is used by the class.

The added flexibility of not being restrict-
ed to a site that adhered to the recognizable
conventions of gallery spaces also allowed
each person to design and implement their
artistic intervention more selectively.

Rather than being diminished by this indi-

Under the Burrard Street Bridge
26 Planet of the Arts / March 1997

iWW Practice

Contemporary photographic installation practices

The Pedagogy Of intervening

Tienation and postmodern art prac:
tice have more bite the closer an
art student gets to wrapping up the

4 year apprenticeship known a an
Emily Care Institute diploma,

The question of bringing one’s abilities of
inquiry, conceptualization, and technica real:
ization into the wider world takes on alot
more weight when this question blends into
the issue of making it as an artist By making
It, I mean gaining sufficient recognition for
one’s art practice
through a body of
work Such that
money comes your
‘way often enough to
buy food, pay rent
‘and purchase more
‘ant supplies.

‘The perceptual,
analytical and con:
structive aptitudes
that are fostered
among apprenticing artists for four years go
into overdrive when the matter of ie after
{art school looms directly over their heads
‘The anticipation of spiritual famine from
being employed outside one’ field of cre
ative endeavour sharpens the mind and the
Senses wonderfully. (See Melody Young's
What Are You Going To Do When You
Graduate? on page 50: impending loan
repayment obligations add further urgency.

Taking on an art project that has one foot
firmly planted in the workings of the at
‘school and the other foot sticking out into
public space creates a situation that allows
artists to move back and forth between risk
{and suppor, despair and hopefulness, ind
Vidualized initiative and the collaborative
realization of culture,

‘Yes ving, breathing, tangible culture.
‘And probably not anything that looks or
sounds like MTV.

To what degree can artists
participate more fully in
the building of culture in
@ positive way?

The Graduation show at Emily Care
Institute carries with it something of the
same range of dynamic tension between risk,
Support and the rest of it. But the
Graduation Show is very much handled as 2
terminus, an obligatory geting-off point.

‘And so the Graduation Show, at least in
its present warehouse format (se ize Bebris’
The Continuing Saga of the Grad show on
‘page 58), does not offer the same frame-
Work of possibilty that can be generated by

'9 studio course that
brings the lives ofits
participants togeth
eral day for 13,
weeks and that
‘maintains the real
prospect for people
in the course to have
further curricular
and social interac-
tion with each other
in future semesters.
The Graduation show is about closure,
departure and the loss of community. A
studio course that engages is students to
‘create art projects within public space is.
about the broadening of community beyond
the confines of the studi, while sil having
the classroom to go back to; it alto about
‘the corresponding extension of practices
beyond studio apprenticeship and into a
Journeywoman’s or journeyman’ practice of
‘engaging a public audience.

‘One of the courses at Emily Carr Insitute
which frames itself in relation to the journey
Into puble space and a corresponding return
to the sanctuary ofthe classroom is
Photographic installations.

The course was most recently conducted
in the 1996 fall term under the instruction of
Sandra Semchuk. Semchuk, a regular faculty
‘member in the Photography Department,

uf
171

Ma

The community brought together to
work and play on Afognak island, Alaska
Photographic installation at Emily Carr institute,
Room 284 (November 18-20, 1996)

Lincoln Heller

directed to this installation by signs (Follow the Mud) and signi-
fiers (mudprints through the Concourse Gallery and upstairs to
the second floor)

\What awaited them was a living museum complete with a sod floor,
antsuinterocutor, video and sound projection, displays ofthe clothing
‘and tools used by a lumberman, and rows of installed photographs sus-
‘ended with conspicuous hooks from two-by-four pieces of lumber

‘The photographs showed members of a crew commissioned by the
First Nations owners of Afognak sland to log timber there during the
Spring and summer months. Expresions of the subjects ranged from
Serious to self-mocking. Pride in one’s work was in ample evidence. So
‘00, perhaps ironically, was enjoyment of nature and the landscape.

The clothing and boots worn by Heller transmitted a smell that regis
tered both as a universal signifier of human toil engaged with the land as
2 source of sustenance, and asthe trace ofa specific artist labourers
‘movements through space and time,

Heller earned income through his lagging employment in order to pay
for his art school tuition and living expenses

Me of the public and students of Emily Carr Insitute were

thas been involved in offering the course for
ten years

Semchuk describes the Photographic
Installations course as project-centred and
leareccentred,

'ASa senior level studio course, however,
it presupposes that students possess a well
developed sense of their concerns and can
take seriously their identity as cultural pact
toners. "Each student came up with 2
[roject that had to do with the ways in
Which they see themselves participating in
culture,” Semchuk related to Planet of the
Ars

The course also locates itself clearly
within the ambit of art practice as a prob-
lematic postmodern vocation, The members
ofthe class are posed the question: How can
artists today have a
more direct effect
iven prevailing

Artists move back and forth

‘Members of Photographic naan al 1996

that we actually inhabit the space. We move
into the space in a physical way so that direct
Perception i involved more, that we see the
Photograph as a physical object in the space
‘here its exhibited as well as seeing things
{around it and with it suchas sculptural
‘objects and mnemonic devices, of hearing
Sounds

“The perceptual experience is given prior:
ity athough the

representational s stil there

"The person experiencing the installation
has multiple ways in which to enter the
inguity of the artist.”

Inthe nine years previous to the fall 1996
offering of Photographic installations,
members of the cass worked as 9 group
Within a single installation site, This site

tended to be a com:
mercial space that
would be made over
temporarily into an

Condtionsofpo- ‘Between risk and support, raion
found social alien. despair and hopefulness, make-over pal
wines °°" individualized initiative and Ove epairs the
“Theauusion | the collaborative realization Sivas he paiva
comes ip" Semehuk ot wale and ote
relates, “because of of culture. handiwork. Then

What's happening in
artsmaking practice

in Canada today. And parts of the question
are: To what degree can we sustain the level
‘of alienation that artists have been sustain
ing recently inorder to critique the society,
{and to what degree can artists participate
‘more fully inthe building of culture in a pos
itive way?"

Postmodernism impacts not only the voca
tional circumstances of the artist but also the
choice of method and strategy the artis,
‘2dopts in any attempt to build culture in the
{face of fairly generalized socal alienation
Thisis where the installation aspect of the
course has wider aesthetic and social rele

“in postmodernism,” Semchuk explains,
“the imaginative leap that used to be made
into an image, for example the photograph
‘that sits on the wall is somehow changed,
‘there is now a critical layer that reminds the
viewer that the image is not concrete reality.
buts a representation of reality.

“What happens with the installation is

‘came hanging the
components of the

installation, publicizing the existence of the

galley, and holding a formal opening,

‘An important departure was made this
time. Members ofthe class chose to realize
their projects on sites spread throughout the
city. Sites were chosen for ther suitability to
the specific nature ofa students projec.

The pedagogical significance of this dec
sion was that each person in the clas elected
to take on the risk of publ installing art 95
{an individual matter. Previously, the group
together faced the rk oftheir intervention
into public space

This allowed each artist to anticipate a
more specific and more local audience then
tends tobe the case when a single overall
site used by the cas,

‘The added flexibility of not being restrict.
ed to a site that adhered to the recognizable
conventions of gallery spaces aso allowed
teach person to design and implement their
artistic intervention more selectively

Rather than being diminished by this indi-