Archives & Art

The archive has become an important aspect of my art practice, with a specific focus on personal and family archives.  As an artist I am particularly interested in the archive as a charged historical and political space to explore untold or previously undocumented histories and to make connections between the personal, cultural, historical and political. As part of my masters thesis I began to explore the concept of an archive of objects and I plan to continue this research by looking at the idea of the artist run museum. The concepts of rehearsal and re-staging are also closely linked to the archive.  

Sven Spieker was recently hosted by the University of Sydney to give his lecture titled 'Un-Knowing, Getting Lost, Linking Points in Space: The New Archival Practice'. Spieker is Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, and Affiliate Professor of Art and History of Art and Architecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His talk explores why artists are interested in archives with a focus on recent contemporary art’s engagement with the archive, and specifically on how artists and archives inform discussions around recent (media) revolutions and progressive politics more generally.

I didn't make it to the lecture which was on last Friday but I was happy to find his full talk on the Getty Research Institute website, given in November 2011 as part of the Pacific Standard Time Symposium.  You can view the full symposium talks which are in 3 parts. Talks also from artists George Herms, Mario Garcia Torres, and Suzanne Lacy. Each part goes for about an hour but its worth taking the time to see/hear these talks if the archive in art is of interest.

Part 1 of 3 

Part 2 of 3 

Part 3 of 3