SYSTEMS: The Ecology Of Place and Line: Towards An Architecture of Healing

Chapter Four

Probation, Liberation, Discovery

I spent my metaphorical probationary period in art school. My probation lasted one and a half years after which time I returned to Portland. I loved art school. For the first time in my life I felt like I had come home. It was the first place I was rewarded for being myself. I was in constant motion exhilarated by all of the new ideas and resources available to me. I was a living event horizon.

Art is great because nobody knows what art is. If you are a person who makes art you can draw your own maps. In art school I discovered a number of people who drew maps that made sense to me. One of them was Yves Klein. He drew maps of what it was like to be completely immersed and present in the universe. He called this place "the void". To him the void was blue, like the sky. Looking into his work is like staring at manifest nothing. It is a paradox - a void that is full, that can be inhabited.

I was introduced to Marcel Duchamp at this time. His maps showed me that art is whatever you want it to be. He showed me that it is possible to transform universal vision - even quietly from the sidelines - by simply being yourself; following whatever interests you. From Duchamp I learned that art can be hilarious and mischievous while maintaining complex themes and serious critique. He informed me that idea and intention is the most important part of art.

There are that I learned from. Here is a short-list and the maps they drew.

1. Yves Klien – as above
2. Marcel Duchamp – as above
3. Situationists – Art can be dematerialized and insite radical sociopolitical shifts.
4. Fluxus – There is great value in collaboration and art practice can be relational.
5. Felix Gonzales-Torres – People and ideas are more precious than objects, it is possible to have a relational practice without rejecting aesthetics. Art can be intensely personal without being embarrassing.
6. Rikrit Tiravanija and Vanessa Beecroft – Food is a medium. It is OK to write scripts. Intentional, destabilization, manipulation and control is interesting and can lead to transformation.
7. Doh Ho Suh – Craft, beauty and installation art still has relevance.
8. Louise Bourgeois – She reminded me that I love to draw and that I never want to be stuck in past suffering or intensely personal art can be embarrassing.
9. Gordon Matta-Clarke – Art can be anywhere. Even under a bridge.
10. Christo and Jean-Claude – Documentation is important. Art can achieve epic proportions.