“Begin Where You Are” at Crane Arts: A Form Review
The Form Review is The St.Claire's approach to art criticism: a conversation between the people who organize an exhibition and an independent response from the publication. Rather than presenting a single authoritative interpretation, the format places different perspectives side by side and makes the subjectivity of exhibition reviews visible.
For “Begin Where You Are” at Crane Arts in Philadelphia, The St.Claire invited co-curators Tim Belknap and Ryan McCartney to respond to five questions about the exhibition. Suzanne Seesman, Co-Director of The St.Claire, independently answered the same questions after viewing the show.
The result is less a conventional exhibition review than a conversation about contemporary art, community, place, and the constantly shifting center of the Philadelphia art scene.
Image: Opening reception, “Begin Where You Are”
The Form Review: Begin Where You Are
Exhibition: Begin Where You Are
Location: Crane Arts Building, 1400 N American St,
Philadelphia, PA 19122
On view: August 14 – September 13, 2014
Responses by Tim Belknap, Co-Curator
1. What is hidden in this exhibition? What is in plain sight?
Hidden: All the amazing studios we visited that really rejuvenated my own personal practice.
Plain sight: A snapshot of Philly’s rich art scene and numerous moments within the show. Some quite big and others more of a challenging nudge.
2. Who would be this exhibition’s parents? What might its children look like?
The parents would be Christopher Columbus and Robert Smith from The Cure. All I want is that the show’s children don’t care about the new Royal pregnancy.
3. Describe one moment in this exhibition.
I enjoy seeing viewers staying in the space for a much longer time than usual. It’s tough being a part of a space and always looking to define some sort of definition of success.
4. This exhibition answers/asks the following question:
Does anyone want to see in a year or two a similar exhibition?
5. You should message this exhibition if…
You want to see the show in its final week.
Responses by Ryan McCartney, Co-Curator
1. What is hidden in this exhibition? What is in plain sight?
Words and language alternately.
2. Who would be this exhibition’s parents? What might its children look like?
Parents: everyone who has participated. Kids: we’ll have to wait and see.
3. Describe one moment in this exhibition.
There is a pause at the center of the space.
4. This exhibition answers/asks the following question:
How relative are we speaking?
5. You should message this exhibition if…
You can start today.
Responses by Suzanne Seesman, Co-Director of The St.Claire
1. What is hidden in this exhibition? What is in plain sight?
Innumerable casual conversations, an untold number of studio visits and months of intentional research are packed up into a clean finish of extra tall walls focusing attention on concise and discrete works of art, individuated material moments – locutions that excavate the “fine” and place it back next to art.
2. Who would be this exhibition’s parents? What might its children look like?
The exhibition’s parents remain unknown and its children are not yet conceived. Like The Boxcar Children, the Snickets and the Crendells of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, this exhibition has the agency of an intergenerational youth group charged with caring for themselves and each other.
It is an exhibition of strength and magnetism that will never be understood by the overly parented or the outright neglected.
While its parents are out of the picture, vestiges of visits by its wealthy aunts, influential uncles, long-lost siblings, and surrogate grandparents are everywhere apparent. Complex networks of relations figure heavily. Most importantly, the show is undyingly dedicated to its close friends – peers it calls relations.
Because, you know how it goes: when you spend enough time with your friends, once-imagined family resemblances manifest as “real” and at that point it’s just easier to say that they are cousins.
3. Describe one moment in this exhibition.
The purply/fuchsia of Eric Abaka’s video “Performance by eriKa baCa” reflecting off the surface of Virgil Marti’s mirror-like “Vesper.”
4. This exhibition answers/asks the following question:
Person M: What would it be like if this here were the center of the art world as we know it?
Person N: Oh, wait… Is this the center of the art world as we know it?
After a long silence, the two viewers continue through the exhibition, considering the work in the next room.
Person M: Hm…. No. Wait. I don’t know….
Person N: Why not? I mean, look at it this way: It could be the center of our art world, especially if we consider that there are many art worlds existing simultaneously on many dimensions.
Person M: For sure.
5. You should message this exhibition if…
- You believe that we have it all together and that together we have it all.
- You don’t just clean up nicely, you clean up flawlessly.
Begin Where You Are and the Philadelphia Art Scene
Begin Where You Are offers a useful snapshot of the Philadelphia contemporary art community in 2014. Rather than positioning itself as an isolated exhibition, the project reflects the relationships between artists, curators, studios, galleries, writers, and audiences that make up the city’s independent art ecosystem.
That idea is central to The St.Claire’s Form Review. By allowing curators and critics to answer the same questions independently, the format avoids the idea that an exhibition has only one definitive interpretation. The result is a more open form of art criticism that emphasizes dialogue, disagreement, observation, and personal experience.
The exhibition also raises a larger question that remains relevant to Philadelphia artists: where is the center of the art world? For local artists and independent art spaces, the answer does not necessarily have to be New York, Los Angeles, or another traditional cultural capital. Philadelphia can function as its own interconnected art world, with its own communities, institutions, experimental spaces, and creative networks.
In that sense, the title Begin Where You Are becomes more than an exhibition title. It becomes an approach to making and experiencing art: start with the community around you, pay attention to the people and places already contributing to the conversation, and allow the definition of an art center to remain open.
Exhibition Information
Begin Where You Are
Crane Arts Building
1400 N American St
Philadelphia, PA 19122
August 14 – September 13, 2014