InSight/OnSite

The hybrid role of artist-curator begs a big question: the relation between art making and art viewing. Art makers are often habitual art viewers and their heightened investment and fluency in the languages of art can be a rich source of insight. Another side of insight – seeing from within – might refer to individual creative vision inflecting what is seen; it might equally refer to the view from within a community of artists and other like minds. The Visual Arts Committee of untitled (space), nine artists and one critical-historical interloper, exists to scan the current cultural landscape, bring together engaging art, and create a context in which to display it. The Committee works onsite week after week and has developed a shared frame of reference specific to the space in which we work.

Conceived as a farewell celebration of the current space, this exhibition diverges from the usual mission of the Visual Arts Committee: instead of choosing work for display, here the task is to create work in response to the gallery space. Each of the nine participating artists was randomly assigned one/ninth of the perimeter. These 178-inch spans are marked off such that one starts where the previous one ends, regardless of corners or peculiarities that comprise the distance.