ART & WORK

1961 – Piero Manzoni cans his own shit and sells it for its weight in gold

Since writing Self Portrait with Food Stamps I've been having great discussions with local artists on such issues involving the pricing of art and raising the bar on Asheville's contemporary art scene. The latter seems take precedence to many. While there are a few good contemporary art galleries in Asheville, I would still like to see Asheville evolve into a contemporary arts destination. The time has come for artists to join forces, take over spaces and make it happen!

Art is not just about the objects we make anymore. It is about the way we approach our lives, the connections we make, and the change we manifest through our creative work. It's about incorporating new and old technologies, being innovative and thinking outside the institutional art world box.

Bridget Elmer, a local printmaker, bookmaker and conceptual artist, recently introduced me to a newspaper called ART WORK that deals explicitly with economic issues facing artists. The writings are culled from art critics, artists, curators and the paper advocates a national conversation about art, labor and economics. The website to visit is www.artandwork.us

Hopefully we can get some papers distributed around town to excite people about these topics. (Granted, some of the writing is quite dense, but on a rainy day it makes a good read.)

Here's an article I enjoyed about the history of economic art: Selected Moments in the History of Economic Art