DOTS: Drawing on the Gift — Krista Dragomer

class meeting info: Fridays, 11am-1pm EST
Join with Google Meet: meet.google.com/ctu-bboy-xot

module dates: 8 weeks, beginning on 6/5 and concluding on: 7/31 **no class 7/3

Introduction

Through a series of material explorations, we will engage with questions and explorations around the sacred, the valuable, and the gift. What makes an object sacred? What forms of transformation or transmutation are involved in the perception of value? What role does usefulness or uselessness play in value, exchange, and gift-giving? How do we come to sense these conditions? How does materiality convey energetics of care? How do objects weave us into webs of relations?

These explorations will inevitably bring us into territories of money and capitalism, and the module will include some reading on alter-economic models and artists whose practice engages with forms of institutional critque . Critique, however, is not the aim of this class. The grounding of this class will be the open-ended inquiry into the ways of being-with and perceiving materiality. Materials will be our guides. To keep us connected to our guides, everyone is required to have a material/object that they want to explore, work with, mold, or transform with them in every class, including discussion days. We will begin each class by introducing our material guide and invite their presence into collaborative co-participation with the group.

To begin thinking-with materials, I’ve included access to DOTS: Material password:

Artists

These artists all interact with themes of the sacred, value and the gift, so rather that separate into categories, they are offered here as a list of names for you to research and explore alongside your work and reading. Look at work, listen to interviews, notice what stirs you, sketch and take notes, and bring names of other artists to share with with the group.

Maria Lai

Louise Lawler

danh vō

Fred Wilson

Jimmie Durham

Theaster Gates

Lee Mingwei

Note on readings: Some of these are very light readings (some with audio options) that introduce ideas that you might want to explore further through additional texts, authors and artists, while other readings are long and dense and potentially invite months of study. Work with what draws you, in your innate rhythms, and dare yourself to try new ways of approaching new ideas.