Arts The Seattle Art “Scene”
posted by on February 6 at 17:20 PM
Art panties have become bunched on Artdish.
My podcast last week with Anne Mathern and Chad Wentzel of Crawl Space ticked off M., founder of the now-defunct Visual Codec.
In particular, she objected to Mathern and Wentzel’s claim that there is no art “scene” in Seattle, and to my seeming endorsement of that claim in the description of the podcast, “Anne Mathern and Chad Wentzel on How Seattle Doesn’t Have an Art Scene.”
In an email, M. wrote to me,
i love your little corner of the web, but the title “How Seattle Doesn’t Have an Art Scene” just made me so sad…the role of press in making or breaking a scene can be a crucial one…if a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s there to report on it and so on…i know we’ve lost a lot lately (conworks, carolyn zick’s longtime
notebook, vc, maybe coca…) but does that really mean that there is no visual arts scene in seattle? it’s always been there for me when i go looking for it…
So what’s the deal with me? Do I agree with Mathern and Wentzel? If not, why didn’t I rag all over them in the podcast or mock them in the headline?
I’ve actually been thinking about this since they said it. I shouldn’t have been surprised, since I invited them knowing they’d present a too-cool united front, but somehow their arrogance, free of the self-loathing that has come to be such a social lubricant, took my breath away. I just wanted to get it on tape, and send it out into the world to see what would happen. And now I see.
Does Seattle have a “scene”?
Well, if you mean, does anything worthwhile happen here, then hell, yes, it does. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother writing about it, and when I did, you wouldn’t bother reading about it. Come on. (Is Seattle’s scene better than it used to be? I don’t know for sure. I’m new. But I can always find something worth cheering for or complaining about.)
But if you mean does Seattle have a glamor-generating substrata based on an exclusionary social hierarchy that may or may not be tied to a series of artistic convictions, then hell, no, it doesn’t.
In fact, sometimes I think Seattle deliberately undercuts the prospect of such a thing. Scott Lawrimore may be trying to change that, but in a particularly Seattle—and a particularly self-conscious—sort of way.
For the closing party of the Genius Awards show at the Henry, Lawrimore rented a limo and drove his artists in high style to the museum. But from what I heard afterward, Lawrimore wasn’t intending to recreate the high-school prom or the setting for a West Coast-East Coast shootout. He’s riffing on those trappings, poking fun of them while taking part in them, and so are his artists.
The recent incarnation of a new, “fake” SuttonBeresCuller trio is another case of celebrityfication mocked. Greg Lundgren noticed that SuttonBeresCuller the artist trio had become SuttonBeresCuller the icon, and he decided to tweak the problem to the nth degree—proposing that fakers can do SBC works just as well. It’s funny, smart, aggressive, and it testifies to Seattle’s conflicted relationship with scenes and scenesterism, as a young, self-conscious, and underdog city only once in its history swept into the national “scene” by an artist who killed himself in a house by the lake.
Seattle and "Art Scene" shouldn't even be in the same sentence.
Want proof?
Go to first Thursday in the middle of summer. At 8PM the fucking sidewalks roll up and the gallery doors lock. It's embarrassing and pathetic.
My wife and I have taken to weekend trips to LA to get our art fix.
"It's embarrassing and pathetic.
My wife and I have taken to weekend trips to LA to get our art fix."
Oh, I know, David. What will the neighbors think when they get a load of our embarrassing art scene.
P.S. No doubt you're told this on a regular basis, but you are a complete douche.
Wow...apparently I've hit a little too close to home for you.
The truth hurts.
Your infantile response is simply validation of my original post.
go jen!!
i'm not sure about that last phrase involving k. cobain, though.
the mystics were reportedly pretty popular as well...
"conflicted relationship" or no, seattle is far from a one-hit-wonder.
xoxooxo,
flaming m.
Seattle is working on having a scene of prank art by smirking frat boy geniuses who practice the art of being assholes. What was so smart or creative about the TAM antics? Please enlighten me, Jen!
No Art Scene? Are you on drugs? I get like three invites to various large-scale arts events every DAY.
jen graves, I adore your coverage. i'm not an art fan, but I find myself reading your posts and visiting galleries and forming opinions when I never gave a shit before. You're passionate and thorough and smart in your work and it's gotten me interested- thanks!
jen graves, I adore your coverage. i'm not an art fan, but I find myself reading your posts and visiting galleries and forming opinions when I never gave a shit before. You're passionate and thorough and smart in your work and it's gotten me interested- thanks!
Having reviewed the thread repeatedly and examined the interplay between reader responses and the original text, I have to agree with Phuoc, David you are a douche.
And Jen, you do a really great job. Like anyone who is into something, you get swept up now and then. But you have the chops and professionalism to make sense of it. Your combination of careless excitement about and genuine intellectual love of the field you work in make you, in my opinion, the finest contributer to this paper and certainly the finest accessible art critic in the city.
Not a religious person, but I can't get this line from the Gnostic according to Thomas out of my mind (this is probably why his was left out of the Bible):
"The kingdom of heaven is spread upon the earth, and people do not see it."
Wow! When I listened to the podcast I kept rolling my eyes at how smug and arrogant those two were. I foolishly assumed that you interviewing them was an endorsement of their point of view. Way to keep your cards close in.
After all these comments, now I GOTTA listen to the podcast!
I find it hard to believe that it is Lundgren's contention that "fakers can do SBC works just as well." Such hubris is just not one of his traits. Can you confirm/deny this statement Jen?
One tiny, tinfoil tree, as 'funny, smart, and aggressive" as it is, is not tantamount to the SBC corpus.
I do appreciate the proposition of 'what if it is an SBC intervention' though. I hope that is Lundgren's intent--interrogating the reception of an SBC piece as opposed to interrogating SBC(?)
Well it is very sweet to get a mention. One of my coworkers just ran in my office to tell me I was semi-famous today. For what it is worth it was nice to see. For me, personally trying to write a blog about the Seattle art world felt like I was the tree falling in the woods. Too much time spent for something not very fulfilling after awhile.
thanks again though!
Carolyn (dangerouschunky.com)
Carolyn: Why not fulfilling?
I for one appreciated your blog Carolyn. I don't blame you if you got burnt out. Must have taken alot of energy to keep up.
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