Maybe It Would Be Better If We Worked In Groups Of Three - Liam Gillick

RESEARCH AND RESPONSE TO BOOK BY LIAM GILLICK

Liam Gillick is a British conceptual artist who is now based in New York. He is multidisciplinary in his approach, and produces works across a wide variety of media and formats including writings, sculpture, architecture, film, music and graphic design. His work is characterised by a penchant for diversions, distractions and evasions, rationalised across a huge spectrum of imaginative formats. However a google search brings up his most recognisable pieces in the form of large coloured plexiglass works constructed of single block colour sheets, often integrated on a larger scale into a public space. When speaking of what meaning people might read into his interventions, he said 'Plexiglass and aluminium are the materials of renovation and refurbishment. They are the materials of McDonald's signs, and display cases in Prada, of aeroplanes and bullet-proof screens in banks, of really sexy nightclub floors and riot shields."[link] He has also been involved in many Relational and Situational Projects and happenings, and was a frequent practicer of collaboratory production.

In 'Maybe It Would Be Better...' Gillick tests the current model of discursive art practice against the modern trials and tribulations of our time, critiquing the idealist ways in which contemporary artists are encouraged to develop both themselves and their creative practice. It questions the varied nature of relational artistic practices and explores the development of the discourse as reactionary to other environmentall factors.

The social aspects of the discursive art model are not without problems and risks, as Gillick stresses. In the context of the more shadowy sides of globalisation and the late capitalist economy, a preference for teamwork and self-organization in art could easily become tainted with nostalgia. Today's internationally operating network artist is in some respects nothing but a variation of the flexible employee who is prepared to answer emails and prepare presentations in the evenings and weekends too. Foremost though is the notion that the discursive art practice does not aim to smooth out problems - on the contrary. There is an affirmation of the dilemmas of the post-industrial economy without pretending to be able or even want to solve them. [...] The popular image of the artist as a customer-minded, service-oriented entrepreneur is certainly not an image supported by Gillick. page 8

In the introduction by Hans Brens and Camiel van Winkel, a brief synopsis provided insight not only Gillick's life and inspirations, but also into the origins of relational art practice. It also discussed some of the difficulties this text will attempt to circumvent. Although many artists strive to distance themselves from many of the issues modern consumers face, in order to provide unbiased commentary on these issues however they are still liable to inclusion as creative 'entrepreneur' dominated by audience consumption in their own right. It is suggested here however that this not in fact the duty of art to try and resolve these dilemmas, and it is instead a part of the identity, and circumstance of artists in post-industrial economy.

A discursive model of praxis has developed within the critical art context over the last twenty years. It is the offspring of critical theory and improvised self-organised structures. It is the basis of art that involves the dissemination of information. It plays with social models and presents speculative constructs both within and beyond traditional gallery spaces. page 13

 I think this is an interesting point about art in the modern world, unlike classic artists, their contemporary counterparts are generally encouraged to put increased developement into the further theory of their art, and cultural implications of their work, based on this model of 'dissemination of information'. I feel like this could be heavily attributed to the idea that we have reached the 'end of history' as mentioned in Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher, and that following on from the fall of the Berlin Wall we are living in a 'future age' where there increased reliance on nostalgia over this increasingly distant concept of 'history'.

The notion of continual and permanent education is used in different cultures in order to escape what is actually clear political differences related to class, situation and power. It is the promise to the poor child as a way to get out of bad conditions. Working situations are not changed; the idea is that you have to change. The notion of flexibility within the workplace is a way to encourage people to rationalize their own disappearance or redundancy when necessary.

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The 'big other' that envelops this is eco-political awareness. It underlies our behaviour without actually becoming a dominant subject in the serious art context. It is a permanent background factor that disrupts and diverts political rhetoric. Eco-political consciousness is always re-edited and displaced under globalization. As awareness exists that affects all behaviours beyond the political specificity, even in vociferous denial. Eco-political consciousness is a sweeping narrative that warps and confuses the smooth continuation of the discursive.

After discussing globalization, Gillick then finally reaches the end of the developmental timeline for discursive practice which he is building up in the text. This culminates in eco-politics which he describes as a 'sweeping narrative'; the only factor to truly underlay every feesible model of creative practice, no matter how distant. I have read other books where environmental issues are framed in a similar conceptual way, as an overaching force which is able to sustain or unravel any establishment in equal measure. In Capitalist Realism, Mark Fisher refers to the environment as one of the few 'undisputable Reals' which can eventally force limitations onto capitalism; as eventually there are simply no more resources to feed the required model of constant expansion. However for humanity it is arguable that if this undisputable real was left to realise itself alone, by that stage it would already be too late; resources would be depleted, and exactly how saturated our planet would be with pollutants by that stage is anyone's guess. Gillick then goes on to critique the role of the spectator in this scenario.

We are facing an inevitable ecological catastrophe. At the same time we are personally impelled to do something in order to prevent it. This creates a collective dilemma that disrupts the smoothness of discursive art projects, including those with a more local and contingent focus. Lukacs wrote about the idea of human agency in relation to the revolution. If the revolution is inevitable, when or where does the revolutionary come into the picture? Because surely you can just sit around and wait for the inevitable collapse of capitalism to happen. There is an analogy in our relationships with eco-politics - a tension beween mapping the inevitable and acting to prevent a global crisis. We all know that the only real solution is a change in the political system, but in the meantime we will help out by recycling and taking the hybrid bus to work.