January 1998
The authors:
Donald Goodes, B.A. in Fine Arts in the areas of video and performance, and art critic, Goodes considers his critical work as an extension of a hybrid artistic practice, working as much on the form as on the content of his critical texts. This spirit of experimentation has led him to publish his articles as series of posters or as video screenplays.
Anne Marie Léger earned a B.A. in Art History and a Masters in Art Studies at the University of Quebec, Montreal. Since then she has worked as a commisionr and curator, especially for the Canadian Center for Architecture.
The works:
In the 1950’s, art professor John Gnagy taught thousands of early viewers of NBC-TV how to effectively draw landscapes. Gnagy´s teaching methods generated, over the course of many years, television painting courses all over the world.
“Attention! This is the end of the postmodern millenium! Plug in with host Andy Jenny. He´ll prove it to you that today, each and every one of you can make contemporary art installations. Following his Four Basic Instructions for Artistic Installations. Andy will guide you step-by-step through the creation of your very own installations of home-made art: the most challenging and advanced art form to be found in galleries and museums around the globe.”
Each episode is a new adventure toward the interior of art and ideas. The first episode presents the Political Accumulation Installation: a solemn critique of colonialist imperialism, using coffee grounds!! The second episode, The Wierdness Installation, is a mad creation in which one works with used wigs with total “aesthetic normality.”But that´s not all! Each and Every One of You also presents an enchanting cast of friends of this community. Anne marie is here with Viewer´s Letters for Andy to answer. We also have the Creature Critic, always visiting us, to interpret Andy´s latest creation, the Rejected Artist, and the Art Shopping Channel. Each and Every One of You tries to walk a fine line. It´s not just an ironic videocreation, nor only an instructional tape. This imaginary television show is as paradoxical as the installations it presents. All of the philosophical , intellectual, emotional and self-referential “virtues” of contemporary art are lovingly reviewed. But its most vulnerable feature is not ignored: that is, its banality, the arbitrary nature of creative sense, the restrictive conventions of the “original”.
To sum up, Each and Every One of You tries to earnestly represent the absurdity of art, as well as its meaning. An editorial in Art Press Jouannais, May 1995) warns that art and television are strictly incompatible, because television is “allergic” to intellectual conflict, to crisis and confrontation. A fortunat integration of the two would be created in detriment of all of the values of art. Each and Every One of You hace caso omiso de todas las advertencias. Es más, es un intento de remover el actual estado de la producción artística y su interpretación, proponiendo un modelo de trabajo en un mensaje pro-arte dentro de la cultura popular. Each and Every One of You pays no attention to the warnings. What´s more, it is an attempt to stir up the present state of artistic production and its interpretation, proposing a working model in a pro-art message within popular cultural. So, let´s visit this strange set for an entertaining,critical and informative evening with that rsing TV star, Andy Jenny. And remember, each and every one of you can make contemporary art installations.
The Political Accumulation Installation. Canadá, 1996, 32’.
The Weirdness Installation.Canadá, 1997, 36’.