Luminaria

After weeks of prep and several moments of strong self-doubt, Luminaria seemed to be a success. I was occupied for most of the night, but the work I did get to see was enjoyable. Things that specifically caught my eye: all the projections on buildings around the block, the massive Tina Turner painting, and, of course, the array of new media work that us students shucked out there. I've heard several people praise the event and then qualify the praise with petulant whines about the caliber of work that was presented. I agree to a certain extent, that most of the work I saw wouldn't be found in the pages of Art in America, but who cares? What I found interesting and, ultimately positive about the event was that the work ran the gamut and that the small circle that regularly attend openings here in San Antonio had been diluted into a seething mass of "regular" people. Familiar faces few and far between. I can state flatly that I had a good time.

As for my own work, I felt that the "point" of Stoltz and I's piece was somewhat misunderstood. I say this because I didn't even realize what the piece was about myself until the entire process was over. The piece for me was about making something with your hands and giving it to someone else, free of charge. As well as the more conceptual, Dadaist elements of standing opposite a society that lacks reverence for humanity (if this illuminated, I want to be deluminated). Artworks are always about ownership, in some shape or form, and this was no different. We owned the ribbons we gave out, we own the spray paint we used to paint them, but now the entire thing belongs to a complete stranger who may have no desire to know what deluminated means and literally gained from the experience. Wonderful. The public was entirely unabashed. They walked directly up to us and asked point blank if they "...could please have one, a white one." No prior knowledge of the project necessary. No critical inclination towards modern society or artistic predisposition warranted. Granted the vehicle for this simple act of giving was elaborate and contrived, but I'm positive that's what attracted strangers, compelled them to laugh and point, or smile as the camera snapped a photo. It made me happy to interact with people I'd never met in such a way. Joyful, nonsense. Intentionless. Un-art. And thus misunderstood by what I found to be the minority at Luminaria, the San Antonio "artworld".