May 1, 2017 | Essay, From the Chair
“What I never wanted in art — and why I probably didn’t belong in art — was that I never wanted viewers,” he said. “I wanted an interaction.” Vito Acconci 1940-2017 Daily life seems overrun with interaction; the general forms of communication that track our movements...
Apr 24, 2017 | Essay, From the Chair
I spent three days last week directing a conference that focused on Jewish Identity in the Arts. As often does at such gatherings, the spectre of the Holocaust hovered over the proceedings and questions about (to quote Adorno) how one can make art after such evil...
Apr 17, 2017 | Essay, From the Chair
The national conversation surrounding the arts in academia has focused on, at various times recently, the arts as: an engine of commerce, a tool for better articulating science or of theater, a training method for business to learn better communication skills…...
Apr 10, 2017 | Essay, From the Chair
In the first days of Spring I find myself feeling very grateful. In the midst of ever-increasing dissonance in the world, in my own day-to-day work life and in the lives of others, I find that I crave peace and quite; space and time for reflection and the ability to...
Apr 3, 2017 | Essay, From the Chair
After spending two days at Yale giving a talk and meeting with students, I spent a couple hours on the train back to New York in conversation with two of my fellow visiting artists, A.I. Steiner and Michael Jones McKean. Both of my travel colleagues are practicing...
Mar 27, 2017 | Essay, From the Chair
I’ve been thinking about the idea of the sequence lately. When I think about sequential mark-making, Braille and Morse code come to mind as does the I-Ching, related as they are by the repetition of simple dots or dashes in groups that acquire meaning through...
