ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ART THAT IS PRESENT, BUT MISSING
‘But is it art?’ asked the Art Judge with a penetrating stare that scrutinised this page. ‘Well it was some moments ago before three of its circles went missing’, replied the Art Defence somewhat distractedly while desperately looking under books and chairs for the missing circles. ‘We’ve put ‘wanted’ posters up – with a reward. So if you don’t mind waiting a little we expect you’ll soon be able to decide.’
Specifications
But is it art? violet, titanium, orange is made of Acrylic and lead pencil on linen; watercolour and lead pencil on paper (framed).
with an overall measurement of Alternate setup arrangements with different resulting measurements.
| 07/11/2003 | But is it art?, The Cross Art Projects, Sydney |
Bibliography
Alexander George,
‘Primed Suspects: Gail Hastings’ Sculptural Situations’,
But is it Art?: Sculptural Situations by Gail Hastings,
exhibition catalogue,
The Cross Art Projects,
Sydney
2003.
Excerpt
Called sculptural situations, paintings look like pages torn from an encyclopaedia, and sculpture looks like furniture. […] As in a detective story, or the scene of a crime, everything is primed or poised for meaning. That corridor to the library and that picture on the wall: everything in the mystery seems chosen, asking us why it is there. Everyone becomes a suspect. We bring our private eyes along and take partial views of the whole. In the meantime we interview eyewitnesses, flick through art catalogues, and try to second-guess the spooks. It’s an environment of suspicion, and we have to read between the lines. Hastings’ recurring construct or motif is the detective story, whose various tropes and characters frame the alternating presence, absence or very question of the ‘work of art’. […] Here the viewer is implored to investigate a ‘big cover-up’, to ‘go disguised as an art viewer and note all suspicious circumstances – such as other art viewers. And remember, nothing is ever nothing’. If anything, that is. I went to a curious event where the artist Gail Hastings spoke […] As a leftist I was not convinced in the slightest. But I was prepared to enjoy something else – I liked the theatre of her proposition. The proposition didn’t matter for me, the rhetoric couldn’t have been better, the body language attractive, her mannerisms unique and almost televisual.
Kelly Lisa,
‘If Anything.’,
in Gwynneth Porter and Dan Arps (ed.),
Natural Selection Magazine,
issue 1,
2004,
pp.7.1–7.2
.
Excerpt
Lewis Ruark,
‘An emailed note concerning an art talk by Gail Hastings’,
in Gwynneth Porter and Dan Arps (ed.),
Natural Selection Magazine,
issue 1,
2004,
p.7.3,
.
Excerpt
Later artwork
Earlier artwork
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Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the Kulin Nation’s Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung people as custodians of the lands, waterways and skies where I live and work. I pay my respect to their Elders past, present and emerging. I recognise their cultural faithfulness, strength and resilience against the trauma of colonisation. First Peoples’ sovereignty has never been ceded.
Gail Hastings