Hi Victor thanks
for taking the time to do this interview
How did you get involved with “Blue”?
I was invited by MP5's resident meta-curator TJ Norris.
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What does “Blue” mean to you and how does Blue Humor come into the play like
how did you come up with it?
What "Blue" means to me is a state of mind: dark and gloomy.
I used that state of mind to think about the formal space of the hallway as a
site for exhibiting art and how to capitalize on its strengths and
weaknesses.
I was interested in using the hallway to create an
experimental, potentially confrontational situation with the installed
work in a way that would counter our conventional expectation of what
constitutes proper art hall etiquette.
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Are you a fan of blue humor?
I am now.
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How did you pick the artists and what kind of guidelines did they have?
I chose the artists in both versions, Blue Humor and Blue and Black,
mostly from the community of artists I work with at PNCA. Walter Lee,
is a recent PSU MFA graduate that I first met when I was curating the
last version of Portland Modern. The guidelines were to create an
exhibitions around works of art that used comedy and humor in their
content or application.
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Did you intend to provoke or expect a reaction from the people living at MP5
or did it surprise you?
My intention was to get people to pay attention in a setting that
wasn't necessarily conducive to slow contemplation.
I wanted to present engaging works that the people living at MP5 could have
interesting interactions with.
I wasn't surprised by some of the residents negative responses but I was surprised by the swift dismissal and move of the shows.
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How do you personally expect people to react to dirty, offensive jokes in
Art or otherwise in this day and age after all the times of Lenny Bruce seem
way back now?
I personally expected people to react to the dirty and offensive
joking in whatever manner they felt appropriate. Lenny Bruce does
seem way back now but he really isn't, is he.
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Do you think that the complained to move or alter the exhibit was more about
personal taste than about censorship?
I think personal taste based not on the actual works themselves but on
misconceptions led to the works being censored in their original
context.
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When we stage offensive Art exhibits do we assert our own power over the
public and to what degree should that happen in a public space/domain?
The theme of Blue Humor was meant to be unconventional so my intention
wasn't to be offensive.
But philosophically speaking staging offensive art in public seems less a way to assert power and more a way to make conflict inevitable.
There seemed to be a conflict in the original space of the hallway as exhibit space. I wanted to use the unconventional nature of the wall and floor works to explore the conflict between the private space and public domain represented by
the hallway.
Much of the content throughout the exhibits also played
up this conflict.
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How important is social etiquette to keep a society connected or functioning
as such and what are the dangers from going from one extreme by being to
stifling to become an anarchic slug fest?
Social etiquette is important and it's something each of the works in
both versions of the show use to push towards seeming vulgarity.
Social etiquette can also allow for polite terrorism of class and fear
of the other to persist.
The artist and works in the exhibits were designed to deconstruct humor's role in our societies polite terrorism.
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There is this argument that blue humor in comedy is an easy cop out mad by
guys like John Kinde
"Sticks and stones my break my bones but lazy looking really kills me."
At www.humorpower.com/art-bluehumor.html that foul language makes for easy
laughter how does that fit within Art and your approach for this show?
Laughing may be easy but getting at the underlying reasons of why we
laugh is a sobering art. Deconstructing humor is not fun and
deconstructing hate and fear is serious business.
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Do you think blue humor has a healing redeeming quality because laughter is
supposedly the best release or does blue humor in Art re-open wounds and
make us feel helpless again?
I think humor of every kind is a ritual release for us.
It seems like a natural response the gas that is popular culture. Thinking about
humor in as open a manner as possible was what I was interested in
with the exhibit.
Sometimes humor helps us but other times it wounds
us deeply.
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Art strives to take more and more liberties and complains when it is
reprimanded but doesn't Art also have to take more and more responsibility
for the reaction it solicits?
To be Art there has to be responsibility.
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This is not the first show that has been censored and do you think that the
complained about MP5 is fair after all it is not a gallery and many
galleries have been forced to censor their exhibits?
Just recently a photo of Jock Sturges was in question about what is
appropriate?
or like here
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http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2008/4/14/humor-left-black-and-blue-at-hpac-exhibit
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> it says : “In a post–Dave Chappelle, post–Chris Rock, post–Eddie Murphy age,
> blacks and whites enjoy jokes about subjects that were taboo in the
> ’60s—interracial sexuality, racism, and the African American family. Humor
> about drug use, hip-hop culture, and white bigotry is marketed to whites
> even more than blacks—that’s why Chappelle’s Show was so popular. To act as
> if these artists are doing anything outré or original is to be stunningly
> naïve about the state of discourse on race in this country.”
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Is that a legitimate complaint or does Art not have to be original anymore
because?>
I think the criticism that MP5 has received is a mix - some on target
with their thoughtfulness others more flip and hollow in their
shallowness.
I think humor remains a viable form for contemporary art. Even when
it doesn't try - much art is about incongruity, power complexes and
ritual release which are at the core of humor.
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Is there a need for new vocabulary for cultural criticism because we are
numbed by the similarity of what artist and critics have thrown our way?
That we are numbed necessitates a re-sensitization to each other. A
new vocabulary is what contemporary art is about. Sometimes that
means creating new words. Other times it means remembering what words
meant in the past.
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I thought the piece where your name was tampered with was a good example
although harmless in context to the others, it was hard to understand what
its point was can you elaborate on it?>
It was making me the joke and turning the tables on the usual
relationship between artist and curator. That piece was a
collaboration by Sara Johnson and Derek Franklin.
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Also what role does have artistic cultural criticism in general in this
moment of time?>
Artistic cultural criticism seems an important component of any living
and breathing culture - today's included. Cultural criticism is meant
to clarity perceptions and make visible the underlying conditions of
our shared misery and bounty.
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Is it also on time to start respecting a more conservative point of view if
we want to be accepted ourselves making socially irresponsible work?
Blue Humor was my attempt at looking seriously, in as conservative a
manner as I could, at artists and works that were not getting
attention or that had been redacted.
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Why have the white cube galleries become a lightening rod?
When weren't they?
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Should or can this energy be harnessed to start building bridges instead of
tearing bigger pieces out of the cultural divide?
In a city full of bridges no one should go around setting fires. All
this energy is being harnessed. Artist were afforded a short
opportunity to engage the public with their works and a community was
given the opportunity to assert their wishes into the exhibition
policies in their halls.
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If everyone would decide to become a menace to society would there still be
a society left and is this menagerie of insults just used like a finger
pointing gimmick to get the attention without having to actually come up
with productive solutions to our problems?
Mutual respect is necessary in any learning environment. In this case
it was all mimetic and abstract. Except for the joking use of my name
no one was specifically made a target.
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How do you feel about the altered/ moved show now?
The altered show in room 208 represents the pressures brought to bear
on a creative community by the will of assertive, organized and vocal
residents. It is both a compromise and reaction to being censored and
swept under the rug.
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Do you feel wounded or you think its funny in a blue humor way
and what does the show stand for now?
I'm apologetic to those residents that the works I gathered offended
and I am wounded by lazy looking but I am heartened to know that this
exhibition spurred the residents of MP5 to write policy that suits
their needs and wants.
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How can we overcome our phobias and how can Art help in that process?
Overcoming our fears is difficult. Art can help by amplifying life
through mediated form but in the end it is our ability to create
discourse and knowledge around the contours of our phobias. Fear
usually is strengthened by unknowing so maybe art can help by bringing
light to the unkown.
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Thanks Victor for you enlightened insight
for more info
contact
www.victormaldonado.net
www.milepostfive.com
folow the discussion at
http://tjnorris.net/blog/tag/victor-maldonado
and
http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/blogs/culturephile-portland-arts
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