The Beginning, Not The Conclusion of A Body of Work

from rebecca layton
to Leah Stuhltrager
date Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 12:58 PM
subject Re: 2nd press release draft...

hey leah,
hope you are well.

thanks for sending the second draft.
explaining the transformation/original goals to the viewer is really important but can become lengthly/jargon-y for an audience. and yet in the draft it is very well done--easily read and really gets the message across--quite an accomplishment. the only thing i wanted to ask you about was the focus of the show being heavily on the dialog between you and jerry--it comes through in the press release and i was wondering if that was what we wanted or if that was just an element of the greater whole of the show...?

&are you planning on going to jerry's opening tonight or do you know if paige is?

hope this makes sense ive been running on very little sleep but am looking forward to coming in and getting down to work.


best,rebecca

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From Leah to Rebecca

Rebecca,

are you going? if so, can you shoot a few pics? could you write up a blog entry on it?
if you can't go tonight perhaps another day this week? friday?
i'm def interested in having you write for the blog instead of me.
i think that may actually add valuable substance / perspective to jerry and my email contributions.

i def don't want the press release to read as an expose of jerry and myself as characters.
the intention absolutely needs to remain an exploration of the relationship btwn art - artist - gallery - public.

its funny, i was thinking when i uploaded all the ems, that jerry himself has made me play the "role" of gallerist much more than i generally do with any of our artists. i feel like the blog/exhibit thus far is showing a very one dimensional face to the deep and complicated, reflexive, co-dependant existence btwn art, artist, gallerist... yet the texts acknowledge that about themselves. the ems and pr admit they are just a starting point, and invite inquiry into what lies deeper over the next two months. basically, this show allows itself to open with a beginning. i find this interesting because most exhibits would open to essentially unveil a conclusion - art that has already been completed and moved on from by the artist. conceptually SUMMER SESSION opens on the show itself gathering elements to experiment and drawing a question mark.

just a thought to share. i didn't really ever look at starting an exhibit as proclaiming a conclusion before.

is there anything you'd suggest to change/delete/add? do you think it is totally the wrong direction to go in?

-L