WWW.HAUSSITE.NET
Artist Once-Removed
18 / 08 / 1999 - 07 / 11 / 1999Exhibition
Artist Once-Removed
On the Performances, Films, Records and Paintings from Jack Goldstein
The Planets (1984) Audio Installation, 6 LPs
Artist Once-Removed, Installation view (1999)
This exhibition project introduces a specific view on the productions of
Jack Goldstein (C, b.1945) which regards them as bridging the 1970s and
1980s cultural ethos, and reflects this in link with Goldstein' s development
of the role "artist as producer". Working with contracted media
professionals, Goldstein's productions placed the emphasis on the artist's
position as one situated directly within a new kind of common public space
offered by the media spectacle.
Goldstein's shift from the studio tradition to consider the role of producer
reflected an interest in the mechanism, apparatus and the influences of the
developing Hollywood spectacle industry of the late 70s. Though this is the
work of a Canadian with a view onto the United States - on the one hand from
the Canadian side, on the other from the Californian - it has often been overlooked
and just linked to a quite different US-American position regarding media
as well as artistic practice. But Goldstein's position can be seen as belonging
to a shared sensibility found in Canadian Post-War artistic practices, influenced
by the media theorist Marshall McLuhan, and attuned to links between culture
and identity. Their national media was primarily concerned with "identity",
and developed parallel and in contrast with a fundamentally different one:
the American Post-War mass media.
"Artist Once-Removed" reflects the current position of the artist
Goldstein: his decision to dissappear and to be absent for the greater part
of the 90s. The project accepts the reality of these circumstances as a way
to consider the remaining productions to be found - performances, films, records
and paintings - and draw anew some of their defining outlines. The emphasis
is on reclaiming Goldstein's unique methodology which specifically defined
his work in terms both as media productions and as product on the booming
art market of the 80s.
"Artist Once-Removed" includes Jack Goldstein's record productions
from 1976-84. For the first time the complete record productions will be
presented for listening, along with the presentation of his rarely-seen
film installation, "The Jump" (1976).
haus.0's perspective on Goldstein's work is part of the overall program linked
to the Künstlerhaus in its present situation engaged in important transitions.
Focusing on the development of an artistic practice in the mid-70s away from
the studio tradition, also reflects on the founding of Künstlerhaus in
the late 70s. At that time the instituion decided to create an in-house hardwarepool
which included founding in 1978 the first studios for video, film and music
production for artists. By creating a media production space this action supported
changed notion of artistic practice in contrast to individual 'atelier' tradition.
The reflection of this Künstlerhaus foundation ethos of an era which
defined the identity of an art work its production formulated outside of the
'atelier', haus.0 also reflects its ongoing specific investment towards review
and renewing the founding mandate of Künstlerhaus.