Oh….ok.

"I consider most definitions of contemporary art to be magic-less, meaningless, crap and almost all the "now" kinda artists you could name to be nothing but desperately over-schooled, funding-seekers with their faces pressed up against the window of the art worlds revolting middle class dinner party."

Wellington based musician Campbell James Kneale on being asked by UTR why he didn’t call his work art

Batten down the hatches

A chill wind is blowing through tertiary art education as schools are repurposed and staff shed. To give you an idea of how the new tick-the-boxes model is being presented at Unitec in Auckland, here's part of the evaluation the prominent NZ photographer Edith Amituanai received when she was told why she (along with many others) no longer had a job.

"The panel felt that you had research credibility but lacked the professional networks and industry experience that we are looking for. We are also looking for more programme development experience. You have good relationships with students but did not communicate strongly in interview and you were not able to articulate your teaching philosophy. It was also felt that you didn’t understand peer learning. You did not demonstrate that you are a critical thinker. It was also felt that you didn’t have strong examples of implementing new ideas and following through."

Edith Amituanai put her evaluation up on her blog and you can read her remarkably sanguine response there too.

Old school

There are now so many art schools in New Zealand that to list them would risk readers dropping off but, back in the day, there were really just two, one in the North called Elam and one in the South, Ilam. The huge expansion of art school choices, the drift north and the earthquake haven't been kind on the Southern school whose last hurrah was probably incubating Cotton, Robinson, Pick and Co, 25 years ago.

Of course there have been others since (Francis Upritchard is one and Dan Arps another, albeit via Elam) but Ilam, like most of the schools south of Auckland, has struggled to keep attached to its alumni in the way, say, Elam does. Every new graduate of Ilam faces a choice: move to Auckland or struggle to have your reputation creep any further north than Wellington and even that only on a good day.

So you'd think, wouldn’t you, that the University of Canterbury might put some effort into differentiating NZ’s oldest art school and make it a destination for anyone seriously wanting to be a practising artist. Well not so much. The Vice chancellor apparently once told art school staff that the place would be more financially effective as a car park, which doesn’t really have the can-do spirit. And when energy is applied to the art school by the university it most often seems to be in the form of a review.

So some input for free based on conversations with readers over the last few moths. How about getting some variety in the school’s staff (over 80 percent male and by the look of their photographs 100 percent white), taking on some of the art interests that haven’t been cherry picked by other schools (performance come to mind). And, at the very least, showing some of the successes of students from the last 10 to 15 years on the website and on Wikipedia where the youngest artist listed will be 50 next year.

COMMENT FROM ROBIN NEATE 24 AUG: While correct in your observations of the University’s attitude (and that of powers beyond) towards Ilam art school (or any art school) unfortunately any input “based on conversations” is dubious.

If variety of school staff is an issue then applicants that would provide that variety would need to apply for the positions when advertised. In the case of my particular appointment I was put in a position of applying for my job twice. Three years apart and in completely new rounds and each time there were between 40 and 50 applicants, a total of around 90 applications overall. No applicants with relevant qualifications were non-white or female. Rest assured if any of them had even a hint of that variety in the current p. c. environment they would surely have gained the position above me (someone truly at the bottom of the heap) ­- an old white middle class Christchurch based male. Also one should be aware that photography can be a deceptive art form and that what may appear 100% white may not be so in reality – Roger Boyce, Senior Lecturer in Painting, is in fact of Native American descent.

As far as taking on “some of the art interests that haven’t been cherry picked by other schools, Ilam currently takes on art interests that other art schools ignore or dismiss as passé e.g. painting, documentary photography, narrative cinema, sculpture. If you think this is unhip then perhaps the following by Anna Lovatt on Rosalind Krauss may be of interest  –

“ In recent years, Krauss has sought to retrieve some of the modernist concepts jettisoned in The Originality of the Avant Garde, particularly the idea of medium-specificity. Observing the current ubiquity of installation art and the unashamedly affirmative relationship much of this work has with the art institution, she argued that what was once a critical dismemberment of the modernist medium has become an ‘official position’.”

An art school isn’t just about producing artists as not every graduate can or will be a successful or well-known artist. I wonder how successful a performance graduate would be? Not really the kind of art-making that would support any kind of career (well, maybe as a busker) let alone support a dealer supporting a performance artist. Even object-art is difficult for dealers to move these days. After all, at the end of the art-day you still have to eat.

With regard to often touted Robinson/Cotton/Pick era (all taught by white males) this was a particularly unique and singular moment. A group of artists inspired by the Reagan era 80s art boom (albeit a few years behind locally), the opening up of this country via Lange and Rogernomics and the accompanying (initial) optimism, the rise of dealer galleries, (ironically) the waning of parochialism and the acceptance that young artists (and curators) can be good and don’t have to be over thirty and last certainly not least a Maori Renaissance that needed young contemporary Maori artists (and their friends that came along for the ride).

Art chart

 

 (Thanks D )

Model behaviour

‘It was like being a civil servant, except that you were naked.’
Quentin Crisp on his time as an artist’s model between 1942 and the early 1970s

Now be nice

“Negative reaction to his sculpture had taught the student a valuable lesson about what was considered acceptable”, a faculty member said.

“While we actively encourage our art students to express and push their creativity, there are ethical limits and boundaries that the Dunedin School of Art adhere to.”

Staff at the Dunedin School of Art teach students how not to upset the public by removing an art work including a dead dog from a student exhibition, as reported in the New Zealand Herald

COMMENT FROM S: Perhaps he should have visited the taxidermist first as David Shrigley did or even got his brother to stuff it as Francis Upritchard did when she exhibited the family cat

There’s gold in them thar halls

One of New Zealand’s growth industries over the last 20 or so years has been university level art education. A couple of art schools , Elam in Auckland and Ilam in Christchurch, have been around for a while, but many more institutions have draped gowns over their polytech overalls and joined in the rush for student gold. 

In many respects it’s been a good thing. Now a whole bunch of artists can dump waiting at table and earn a good wage (sorry, we meant salary) teaching young hopefuls. 

And the pay is great. If you want to get into the university art teaching business, here’s what you can expect to earn (these figures are based on averages offered by the University of Auckland who own 1 Professor, 5 Associate Professors, 10 Senior Lecturers and 7 Lecturers).

Professor: $130,000

Associate Professor: $112,000

Senior Lecturer: $90,000

Lecturer: $73,000

So you can see what some of those students might be hopeful about, career-wise that is.

Image: a lump of gold

Go figure

You figure that one of the reasons life drawing might have vanished from art schools is that people don’t like sitting round in the nude any more, particularly when being stared at. Anyone who did life drawing at art school will remember the hilarity that usually accompanied the class. The truth is that most of us didn't get to see many naked bodies, and especially not old ones in bad repair which were the speciality then at Ilam. 

But now help is at hand thanks to an ingenious Japanese app (who else would even think of it?) that lets you take your nude model with you in your pocket. With Posemaniacs you can get a naked figure to strike a pose, any pose you like, and a few you probably won’t. Then it’s just a matter of pulling out a pen and pad and getting on with it. Life drawing in the bus, on the street, or even in the bath.

A matter of degree

Sometimes you see something that sums up a moment. We spotted such a piece of weirdness in Los Angeles. 

Anyone who is not comatose will have noticed the growing influence of the tertiary education sector as the selector and funder of a defined set of artists (also known as the staff). This trend looks set to shape much of the visual arts in NZ over the next decade. Artists inside the education system can readily access additional funds via the research patronage of their institutions and this makes such subsidised exhibitions and publications virtually irresistible to museums and publishers. If it continues the way it's going, and there's no evidence of it slowing down, an academic position is going to become a crucial component of any ambitious artist's portfolio. 

You can see a rather tragic result of this trajectory at the MOCA and the Geffen Contemporary in LA. On every label along with the title, date and medium is recorded the artist's academic position. Even more strangely, academic positions held in the past are also included. Is this just an indicator of LA's famously hierarchical mindset and obsession with credentials (as in top 10 lists, Academy Awards, stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame etc etc) or, more likely, an indicator of what's to come? Follow the money.

Images: details from biographical info on MoCA labels in Los Angeles