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"This Gift is a Problem for You to Solve"
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3/3/2006  SAVANNAH, GA. — Gift giving is both authentically human and universally problematic. This action binds communities together. It can also alienate, enslave and upset the given order of society. This exhibition explores gift exchange in relation to artwork. The exhibition will focus on conceptual art containing the idea of art as the gift exchange conduit, occurring through an object rather than as an object. The works in this show use the gift economy to extract the sublime from the physical world. There is elevation in a gift's value as it becomes reciprocated. The same process happens when an audience explores a work, taking the time with an object to investigate what it is offering. The art is simply a threshold to understanding between artist and audience or from one audience to another.The problem-solving aspect lies within a code, a problem, a subtle blanketing which can initially be foreign and repellant. Through the process of reciprocation (investigation) the gift gives its secret — a bit of advice, a compliment, a small beautiful notion. Artwork is a vehicle for a gift. Work, which may appear unassuming, acts as a through way pointing to all that we don't see. Reciprocal gift exchange, points to the fact that a person must be willing and ready to receive a gift before an exchange can be complete.  "What you are regarding as a gift is a problem for you to solve." — Ludwig Wittgenstein, as reproduced on a glass by American artist Joseph Kosuth.The featured artist in the show is Annette Lemieux, a conceptual artists and professor at Harvard. Her "Vehicles of Elevation" sculptures, explore the gift exchange through absence and presence of the vehicle of the body.
View recent Past Exhibitions
SCAD hosts annual Georgia High School Drawing Competition - 1/5/2008
Gallery Hop features emerging Korean artists, photography - 11/9/2007 ‘Inside Outside’ highlights married artists’ different styles - 10/11/2007 |
