Siobahn Rigg

Siobahn Rigg's microarmy (is a tool for microanalysis) lecture was a nice departure from the many painters and modern-esque sculptors who I've seen explain themselves in LI321. I was excited about the lecture because I knew it had to do with performance and interactivity, conceptual and practical elements I've tried to incorporate into my art work. I found it particularly interesting when Rigg discussed the way that she got sick of feeling like she put a lot of work into something and then nobody saw it (the microarmy project), so she changed tactics and made her work even more ephemeral and interactive (trade talks). This is soemthing I've struggled with as well: the sense that spending hours in the studio is useless if no one sees my work, that what I really want to do is have a conversation, not present a monologue.

Although I enjoyed hearing about Siobahn's artistic adventures in Pittsburgh, I kind of wanted more theroy out of this lecture. I wish Siobahn would have talked more about the context of her work.. it seems in reading a lot of the other blog entries that people didnt understand how or why this was art, and unfortunately, to the average person on the street, performance doesn't necessarily make sense. I feel like I know quite a bit about the art that's happening today, and especially the art that's happened in the last fifty years, but even I felt as though I didn't exactly understand the goals that Siobahn was trying to persue through her projects, or even how calling it art furthered those goals. For instance, I can understand why cooking a meal in exchange for a story about work in Pittsburgh would be a desireable thing to do, but why was it art? Just because it was situated in a gallery space? Would it have worked better in a restaurant? I'm sure Siobahn has thought a lot about these kids of questions, but the lack on answers in her lecture was the missing link for me in understanding her process and decisions.

Perhaps its just too bad that artists like Siobahn have to justify their work in order to connect to an audience. Then again, I suppose that sitting in that lecture I was the second or third level removed from her primary audience, (the people who ate lunch with her) so maybe it isn't so important whether or not I understand.

These kinds of questions are what I was trying to get at the end when I asked Siobahn about what the goals of the Rt. 1 project are. I mean... there must be some reason why she is making these appointments to walk rt. 1 all over the east coast.. there must be some connection she is tryign to make between Celebration Florida and the Rt. 1 that I know in College Park Maryland. I don't get why she didn't talk more about those connections, and instead she showed us a video of a rocket launch...