Fall 2008
FPA 460: Studio in Visual Art V
Tuesday & Thursday, 2:30-5:20, Alexander Center
Instructor: Judy Radul
Email is the best way to reach me: jaradul@sfu.ca
Week 1

Tues. Sept 2: Student Presentations
Thurs Sept. 4: Student Presentations, 4 pm semester orientation

Swarm is on Tues. Weds. Thurs: http://swarm2008.com/

Week 2
Tues. Sept : one to one meetings 1-5
Thurs. Sept. 11: one to one meetings 6-10
Visiting Speaker, Sept. 11, 1 pm: Jochen Becker
(Bice Cappel applications due soon)
Week 3
Tues. Sept 16: Independant work day
Thurs. Sept. 18 : one to one meetings 11-15
Week 4
Tues. Sept 23 one to one meetings 16-18
Thurs. Sept 25
Committees Struck (fundraising & finance, exhibition coordination, volunteer coordination, installation coordination, publication, opening, promotion, documentation), discuss artist statements
Week 5
Tues. Sept 30 Presentations 1-6
Thurs. Oct. 2 Presentations 7-12
Presentations: Presentations consider the work of an artist the student is intersted in and who has a significant body of work and whose work seems appropriate for the excercise.
The task is to analyze:
1) the artist's method : what is their medium? Do they produce by hand, with the help of assistants, do they use modes of industrial production and manufacture, etc. What do you think goes into the artist's production (do some research! find some instance of them talking about their work, if you can't perhaps think of choosing another artist), do they collect images, watch movies, look at other artist's work, work with communities, research, etc.
2)(This is the most important part) the artist's "strategies": looking at several of the artist's works what do they have in common? Do they all involve strategies of negation (refusals, blanks), or amplification (make it big), multiplication (using many object), translation, animation...Do they make specific types of referential connections (to pop culture, art history, other images, etc). What is consistent not about the 'content' of each piece but an overall practice. What are the artist's artistic questions? (Not the subject matter of the work but the role that aesthetics plays, for instance not just a picture of "Marilyn" but using printing to understand the mass production of image/identity.
3) an extra question, related to the one above: Is there a question (or two) that the artist could use to interrogate their work once it is done, to see if it is a work on the trajectory of previous works? ie) "Does this work continue to use an industrial mode of image making to querry the status value of the image as well as the subject of the image?"
Week 6
Tues. Oct. 7 Presentations 13-18
Thurs. Oct. 9 (TBC visiting artist 1:00)
Week 7
Tues. Oct. 14 crits 1-6 (each student produces written feedback, 1 paragraph, on three other student's work)
Thurs. Oct. 16 crits 7-12
Week 8
Tues. Oct. 21 crits 13-18
Thurs. Oct. 23 feedback due (one copy to each of the students you wrote on and a copy to me)
Week 9
Tues. Oct. 28 In Class Work
Thurs. Oct. 30 Artist Statements First Draft
Week 10
Tues. Nov. 4 Crits 1-6
Thurs. Nov. 6 Crits 7-12
Week 11
Tues. Nov. 11 Remembrance Day Classes Cancelled
Thurs. Nov. 13 Crits 13-18 /Artist's statements first draft handed back
Week 12
Tues. Nov. 18. One on one discussions 1-6 with visiting artist Antonia Hirsch

Thurs. Nov. 20 One on one discussions 7-12 with visiting artist Antonia Hirsch

Feedback on three of your peers work if you didn't do it last crit (one copy to each of the students you wrote on and a copy to me) SEND BY EMAIL to jaradul@sfu.ca

Week 13
Tues. Nov. 25.One on one discussions 13-18 with visiting artist Antonia Hirsch
-Artist Statements 2nd Draft emailed to Judy

Artist statements general feedback:

-Don't be shocked if when you wrote "I love, or I get great pleasure from doing X, or even I am interested in X" I wrote, "Why would the viewer care about what you feel or are "interested" in?" This may be overstating it but the goal is to remember that the statement is not a personal philosophy or life statement. Particularly as you are younger, emerging artists this can seem naive or arch. You are writing with the VIEWER's pleasures or interests in mind not your own.

-That said, the next thing to avoid is predicting the viewer's response, "You will find, or the work does X" Remember the text you are writing is being read by the viewer and if your predicted response does not match theirs (or even if it does) this prediction may ring very hollow.

-make sure what you say is interesting not just a string of generalities, or a list of thematic interests. This is where the balancing act with the personal, individual aspect of the statement comes in. Be as specific as you can. Don't state that you work is "inspired by feminism" but rather try to articulate a specific aspect/image/instance of experience or theory (or both) that you are responding to. For instance "The combination of X and X is an attempt to reexamine the tensions between sexual freedom and political anger that were a feature of feminist art."


Thurs. Nov. 27 Last Day of Classes, independent work, tidy up your spaces etc.
The first crit of the next semester will be after just two weeks of classes so use the last two weeks of this semester and Christmas break to work on new work, and to complete or rework any projects that didn't reach a full resolution this semester.
Assignments:
Studio Projects
Weekly Journal/Log of studio activities: What did you do this week in the studio?
Image Bank/Sound Bank/Quote Bank/: An archive of materials relevant to your projects
Participation in the presentation of visiting artists: documentation, questions, interviews, written statements, etc.
Grades:
projects (including research/notebook, installation of work, ): 60%
artist statements: 10%
class participation (preparedness for and contribution toward critique and discussion, including written feedback, studio cleanliness, safety etc.): 30%
Required Text: Current issues of contemporary art journals TBA
Relevant Electronic Journals that the SFU library subscribes to
Available through the Electronic Journals Database at the library

C (ISSN 14805472)
click on the 'Publication Search' tab on the ProQuest toolbar

Canadian art (ISSN 08253854)
click on the 'Publication Search' tab on the ProQuest toolbar

October (ISSN 01622870)

Third text (ISSN 09528822)
 
Other Journals On Line
Artforum
 
Frieze
 
Recommended Journal not on line:
Afterall
Aprior (might be hard to find)