I seem to be using the term a lot lately:“21st century folk.” it becomes more and more useful as a category when talking about my artistic peers. (why is that?)
21st Century Folk Art is particularly prevalent out here in the cultural suburbs, and in the global south. . .this artwork is passed by or does not necessarily seek out international acclaim, sophistication, or expensive hi-tech prowess. . . it lays back a pace or two. it doesn't bother to play hardball with exclusive high art games. lt simply cannot or will not compete . It's a southern cousin to lowbrow, grand niece to brut art. more a voice from the dropped-out, consciously retarded zone, not necessarily poor, rural and black anymore. . .but indeed, still from the edges where the shamans live and cannot keep quiet.
it is persistently produced with independent verve and truely unique identity, made from artists outside the institutionalized networks of success. work like this is free to be spiritual, local, sloppy, dirty, derivative, inexpensive, irreverent, or naive, . it finds an audience among the uninitiated, underprivileged who are unaware , or disenfranchised with greater art trends. often charming, meaningful and also godawful! . . .it’s expressiveness can cut through despite the odds and the abandonment of its maker. In this genre of art, crudeness or rawness works to the artists' advantage, being so rarely valued elsewhere. of course, it's been exploited before (see lowbrow, see souls grown deep, see quilts of gee's bend ) I find this sort of art tantalizingly traditional. there will always be creatives who choose this path. it's a non-plused response to the intimidating multitudes of art being professionally produced and promoted in the leisurely 21st century.
This folk art is different from that which was coined in the 20th century. now it would be extremely rare to find artists totally unaware of the global fine art developments. these artists are self impowered and not waiting around for the next william arnett to peddle their work. In fact, 21st century folk artists are in defiance to global fine art monoculture! (fuck that.) You don't have to live in a country shack and see god in your fingers to be an outsider artist these days. but you might live in the suburbs, be over 35, hold a day job, live with your mother, make work in some already discovered style about already covered ideas.
atlanta still produces fine bumper crops of contemporary folk artists.
here are some local artists who continue to plug away at what I might consider 21st century folk--some practice it high and some low : anne cox, benjamin jones, eula ginsburg, don cooper, lisa kemp, allison rentz, r.land, eggtooth, woody cornwell, myself?, some graffiti artists? let me know who I've missed.
(the image at the top is from a parking lot performance that allison rentz and I did on Black friday in 2007.)
4 comments:
You may recall my article on urban folk and outsider art a few years ago, preceded by my piece presenting the shifting shape of Southern folk art, whereas my comment on Art Rosenbaum had more to do with traditions and how they are lost.
The problem with blogs is that we rarely read one another at the right time. The listserv serves the function of alerting people of what is up so they can read it if it is the time for them to read it, but in my experience it rarely is...so our most thoughtful blog posts go uncommented, almost always. As is the case with this non-commentary comment.
the category of folk art is fascinating because of its act of a label. its categorization of itself is based on characteristics that bring honesty to the surface. it draws attention to the nature of art-as a human necessity as well as how it gets exposure to people-how it is received and how it sees itself. and because of course cuz this aint specific to what is called folk art.
i think it is especially interesting because for someone to call themselves a folk artist,kinda nullifies it.
the very environment around it,that shapes it is what is unfettered by culture-by being culture.its what is real folk-by being real folks.whatever that is.
im working on that artvoices piece for that artist with a bfa from ACA,represented by a local gallery but lives out in the sticks away from it all-and it brings this to mind because maybe the passing of time is what defines folk art,not what or how art is doing/using the times.
perhaps with changes in technology and its effect of how people see themselves as "in" a community,the changes in folk art can cause it to retain that title and the association with it so that it spreads with and utilzes its silly title to reference back to where it supposedly has its origins. and put the south on the map as something beyond that...
littlejoke. . .please send me a link to your article about shifting southern folk art. . .I am very interested in your thoughts. I think folk art and southern art are intimately linked. . .and I'd be willing to expand that to the global south, which I believe the american south to be a part of. we've always been the 3rd world part of america. and I'm glad to be here in it, especially now.
-kt
eggtooth. . .I agree with you about the label thing. . .but I probably have not articulated this well. . .21st century folk artists are self aware, as opposed to those mythological 20th century folk artists, bumbling around in their shacks, unaware of the world, especially the art world, dependent upon discovery by some fine art archeologists.
I don't think 21st cent. folk art is defined by what the art looks like. . .I mean, look at allison's work. . .look at anne cox's myspace page. .both are pretty darn folk to me. . .and yet totally from the 80s and 90s. perhaps it's electronic folk. . .or futuristic folk. . .cyber folk.
but 21st cent. folk connects with that old folk art phenomenon from the south in that it contains the same naive, outsider quality just in a new technical/social context.. . .this work faces off more than it hides away . .and, it's a minor miracle that any artist would still work in this vein given our contemporary new york times defined cultural world.
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