relational aesthetics & deconstructing the ritual of the ... · 2016-11-05 · relational...

Relational Aesthetics &

Deconstructing the Ritual of

the Museum in Paul Butler’s

Collage Party Pavilion

Julia Wake

Julia Wake is a visual artist from Winnipeg MB, completing a

BFA at Concordia University. Her interdisciplinary practice ex-

plores narratives that merge personal and fictive experiences,

utilizing painting, drawing and textile-based mediums. She has

worked extensively in community arts programming as both an

administrator and facilitator. She is interested in place-making,

social behaviors, and every day objects.

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Relational Aesthetics &

Deconstructing the Ritual of

the Museum in Paul Butler’s

Collage Party Pavilion

Julia Wake

Paul Butler’s Collage Party Pavilion (fig. 1), created in 2011, works to decon-struct and restructure tra-

ditional rituals of the museum through the use of relational aesthetics. Collage Party Pavilion is a social sculpture that functions as both studio and exhibi-tion space, conflating any distinction between the two. Conceived by Paul Butler, a multidisciplinary artist and curator, and designed by Craig Alun Smith, a Canadian-based designer, Pavilion houses Butler’s Collage Par-ty, an art party where participants are encouraged to contribute to a massive collaborative installation of collages.1 As a complete entity, Collage Party Pavilion incorporates a range of formal techniques that circumvent traditional concepts of exhibition practices and of individual artistic genius. The piece is political insofar as it broadens the scope of the concept of gallery and ex-tends the audience demographic that the work reaches. Indeed, the focal point of the work is the social gathering, not the artwork that is produced and exhibited. The appearance of the ex-

hibition changes over the length of the show, as works are continually added. Collaboration is emphasized over indi-vidual artistic genius, with many works unauthored, although traits of individual artists may be identifiable. Artists and non-artists alike are welcome to partic-ipate, and Butler does not request the type of social decorum that is tradition-ally associated with gallery spaces.

On Butler’s website, Collage Party Pavilion is described as “an interactive sculpture designed to accommodate the Collage Party - a nomadic, collective studio where Winnipeg artist Paul But-ler invites the public to collage along-side each other in a social setting.”2 Pavilion comprises all of the necessary supplies and furnishings required to make and exhibit collages. It includes a large worktable, benches, collage ma-terials, knives and adhesives. A number of magnetized rods protrude outwards from the centre of the table, functioning as locations to install completed works (fig. 2). Two long fluorescent bulbs are positioned amongst the rods, providing adequate lighting for a studio setting, as well as contributing a sense of specta-

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Fig 1: Paul Butler, Collage Party Pavilion, 2011, Graffiti Gallery

Relational Aesthetics & Deconstructing

the Ritual of the Museum in Paul

Butler’s Collage Party Pavilion

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cle to the event. Pavilion travels with a sound system, and Butler provides DJs for the events. The work is entirely por-table: setup and takedown are quick, and the structure can be broken down into small compartmental units that are easy to transport. It has been designed with function in mind: the seats con-tain built-in containers to hold collage materials, and lighting and installation hardware have been incorporated into the table component of the sculpture. Although described as a sculpture, Pavilion also functions as a portable stand-alone exhibition space with the capacity to transform any space into a studio and gallery, regardless of its layout and original intended use. It re-quires no additional components aside from human participants. Wall space to hang artwork is unnecessary, as the sculpture itself has multiple locations to install collages. The overall intent of the piece is less focused on the display of the sculpture itself, and instead on the intent to utilize it as a means to bring people together, to facilitate art making as a social event, and to expand the horizon of the gallery.

Since 1997, Butler’s Collage Party has toured internationally, visiting lo-cations including Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Los Angeles, and Berlin.3 The event has toured a range of venues in-cluding museums, galleries, schools, department stores, and artist centres for individuals with disabilities.4 Pa-vilion provides a physical framework for these parties. It is not a necessary component for a Collage Party to take place, however it provides a sense of structural legitimacy to the pop-up ex-hibition and party atmosphere. While sleek in composition and functional in intent, Pavilion’s aesthetic is one of fun, even bordering on depravity de-pending on location and occasion. In a Border Crossings article, Lee Hender-son draws a relation between Butler’s Collage Party and Nicolas Bourriaud’s concept of party, which he defines as “a form of relational art, a social collage.”5 Henderson suggests that a relational

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aesthetic is integral to Butler’s work, the success of a Collage Party being rooted in a sense of belonging and an encouraged “new interest in collage.”6 This relational component is one of the key concepts that distances Pavil-ion from traditional exhibition practices which generally do not involve the view-er in any participatory element.

Pavilion provides oppositions to the traditional rituals of the museum ex-plored in Carol Duncan’s essay, “The Art Museum as Ritual.” Duncan defines a number of methods that art museums and exhibition spaces typically employ with the intent of involving the viewer in a ritualized experience. On an overt lev-el, museums rely on architectural lay-out, visitor guides and maps, and clear signage to direct a visitor’s behavior and movement through the facility. The museum, like other spaces intended for contemplation, is “carefully marked off and culturally designated as reserved for a special quality of attention - in this case, for contemplation and learning.”7 Visitors are expected to act in certain ways: to abstain from touching the artwork, to keep their voices beneath

a certain level, and to “behave with a certain decorum.”8 On a more subtle level, the secular museum’s multiple references to religious and ceremonial spaces evoke a specific response from the visitor. Duncan suggests that the “ceremonial nature of museum space” results in the visitors’ need to differen-tiate it from daily life events much in the way that one might approach a reli-gious experience.9 This results in a very particular conception of art; the muse-um experience is intended to provide the viewer with a new perspective and to “enable individuals to achieve liminal experience.”10 The viewer, however, is faced with something that is unattain-able both spiritually and economically. The act of viewing in the context of the traditional model of a museum creates vast distance between the audience and the work. Clearly, opposing bina-ries have been established, including the museum as a place of ritual and moral progression, versus everyday life events.

Duncan also elaborates on the spe-cific cultural role played by those who maintain control over museum spaces,




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suggesting that those in authority “con-trol the representation of a community and its highest values and truths.”11 The art museum promotes new perspec-tives and moral progressions, with the aim of reaching an enlightened state that is defined not by society as a whole, but by those who command control of academic and cultural spaces. This is not a democratic system, and neither has it been historically representative of marginalized demographics.

Pavilion, the structure, and Collage Party, the event, function in opposition to this ceremonial nature of exhibition space, contesting the concept that art-work can only attribute value from within this system. By privileging the relational aspect of art making and viewing, But-ler has leveled pre-existing hierarchies. The project questions the concepts of objective knowledge and of the muse-um as the place that validates values by placing an equal level of importance on conversation and relationship as on the production of marketable imagery. But-ler’s approach to the exhibition space is similar to that of a community cen-tre; all are welcome and encouraged to

participate. The role of the viewer shifts from passive to participatory. There are no specific rules; trading with other art-ists’ source materials is fair game, as is contributing to other artists’ works. In contrast to the clearly delineated rules and expected social decorum of the traditional gallery setting, Collage Party Pavilion has collapsed the concept of ritual and ceremony into a regular day-to-day event, a social gathering or par-ty. Duncan suggests a “ritual site of any kind is a space programmed for the en-actment of something. It is a space de-signed for some kind of performance. It has this structure whether or not vis-itors can read its cues.”12 By reworking the function of the gallery, Butler has not done away with ritual since his work is still the site of a determined perfor-mance, but has created a new system of rituals based on new values, which closely relates to Nicolas Bourriaud’s writings on relational aesthetics.

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Fig 2: Paul Butler, Collage Party Pavilion (detail), magnetized rods, 2011, Graffiti Gallery




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Bourriaud suggests that relational art provides us with better ways of liv-ing, presenting models for action that represent solutions to the modern is-sues of capitalism, consumerism, and urban life. He defines relational art as “an art taking as its theoretical horizon the realm of human interactions and its social context, rather than the assertion of an independent and private symbol-ic space.”13 Thus, the movement is fo-cused on social interactions, whether between groups of artists or between artist and audience, with the goal of creating microcosmic models of living and moments of sociability. Butler’s Pavilion, which privileges social inter-action over the production of market-able objects and images, is a perfect example of relational art. While many of the Collage Parties have involved contemporary artists, Butler has made a consciously political decision to bring the same structure and framework to a wide range of audiences. Henderson writes that “[t]he benefit for emerging artists is Collage Party’s spirit of inclu-siveness, and the free-fall atmosphere that recognizes talent at whatever level

[…]. For established artists, it’s a place to let loose.”14 As noted earlier, Butler has brought Collage Party Pavilion to a diverse range of venues that are in no way limited to traditional pedagog-ical discourse. By extending the de-mographic of his audience and placing value in social and artistic exchange over capitalist economy, Butler is col-lapsing the binary opposites of artist and viewer. Indeed, the work’s success is dependent on the viewer’s participa-tory role within the project, not on its popularity in the art market. The value of the work lies in the social exchanges that are created through the participato-ry process of collaging, and not in any potential monetary value that may be assigned to the work.

As both curator and practicing art-ist, the use of relational aesthetics to broaden contemporary art audiences and to redefine rigid notions of studio and gallery has been an ongoing proj-

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ect of Butler’s. In an article outlining Butler’s acceptance of the Winnipeg Art Gallery Curator of Contemporary Art position, Liz Crompton suggests that he “sees the gallery as a community centre, in which contemporary art can be made more accessible to a broad-er public.”15 Butler’s Collage Party is easily relatable to a community centre, providing a space for recreation and so-cial interaction that values social econ-omy over capitalist economy. Since the 1990’s, the integration of relation-al aesthetics into both individual and community-based practices has been an ongoing trend. Butler has integrat-ed relational components into his other projects, including The Other Gallery, and an artist residency project called Reverse Pedagogy.

The Other Gallery, “a nomadic com-mercial gallery that focuses on introduc-ing overlooked and emerging Canadian artists to an international audience,”16 exists virtually, circumventing the tradi-tional brick and mortar version of an ex-hibition space. It functions as a means to establish and maintain relationships between artists and collectors, again,

prioritizing relationships. Similarly, Re-verse Pedagogy is an artist residency that aims to provide artists with a space for experimentation and collaboration outside of the typical expectations and restrictions associated with artist res-idencies.17 Tatiana Mellema suggests that Reverse Pedagogy is “envisioned as an extension of Butler’s Collage Par-ties.”18 Likewise, The Other Gallery uti-lizes similar strategies as Collage Party Pavilion to resituate contemporary art practice in a more relational setting.

Relational aesthetics as a move-ment has suffered criticism, in partic-ularly from Claire Bishop, who sees weaknesses in the movement’s priv-ileging of process over product, and who suggests that it overlooks aesthet-ics. Bishop states that many artists are “less interested in a relational aesthetic than in the creative rewards of collabo-rative activity.”19 While Bishop’s critique is valid, Butler brings a sense of his own personal aesthetic to Collage Party Pa-vilion, and as a whole, the event retains an aesthetic of a curated, if slightly manic, space. Butler’s aesthetic as a collage artist is minimalist and ontolog-




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ical.20 Henderson suggests that “Butler is interested mainly in eliminating the visual and textual debris that keeps an image from being a collage”.21 Similar-ly, the space he curates with Collage Party Pavilion is defined by only the necessary components, which he has pared down to utilitarian function, while preserving a harmonious composition. Although the structure relies on collab-orative participation to reach a state of completion, the sculpture itself main-tains its aesthetic integrity throughout the collage process, thus impacting the entirety of the work. Henderson further suggests that “Butler’s collages are about the questions they raise, the limits they test, the image they arrest,”22 solidifying the argument that Butler has successfully merged his approach to his own practice with his curatorial ap-proach to the Collage Party Pavilion.

Bishop provides further criticism on relational aesthetics, suggesting that the community-based collaborations are rarely successful in practice, and that relational projects tend to meet their goal only when the participating members have pre-existing dialogue

with one another.23 She notes that in the 1970’s, there were “overlapping ambitions of community arts and con-temporary art […]. [I]t is conspicuous that gestures undertaken by the for-mer remained localized in impact and have fallen out of historical memory.”24 However, Butler’s choice of collage as a medium has resulted in Collage Par-ty Pavilion being accessible to a wide demographic, including individuals who may not identify as artists, thus discard-ing Bishop’s criticisms that contempo-rary art cannot be communal. Likewise, the portability of Pavilion and touring of the Collage Party have effectively enabled a merge of contemporary and community arts; it maintains a connec-tion with higher artistic discourse while appealing to a wide demographic.

As an exhibition space, Collage Party Pavilion provides a participato-ry-focused experience that questions the binaries of individual/collective by

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encouraging collaborative involvement in a project that was conceived by an individual artist. It also questions the hierarchy between the artist and the viewer by involving an art audience in the production of works. It challenges the opposition of art versus daily life by redefining a gallery setting as a space that encourages social interaction. By bringing the event to participant groups, Butler has countered the criticisms that earlier relational works were effectively unable to engage with the broader pub-lic. Pavilion is important because it ex-tends the definition of exhibition space by merging studio and exhibition spac-es, and because it broadens the demo-graphic of participant and audience.

Endnotes1 Paul Butler, “Collage Party at Winnipeg New Music Festival,” Public Butler Contemporary Art, last modified January 29, 2015, http://www.theoth-erpaulbutler.com.2 Ibid.3 Lee Henderson, “The Glue Boy: Paul Butler and the Art of Collage,” Border Crossings 107, no. 3 (2008): 50-51, accessed March 25, 2015, http://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/the-glue-boy-paul-butler-and-the-art-of-collage.4 Butler, “Collage Party.”5 Henderson, “The Glue Boy,” 50.6 Ibid., 51.

7 Carol Duncan, “The Art Museum as Ritual,” in The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, ed. Donald Preziosi (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 425-26.8 Ibid., 426.9 Ibid., 427.10 Ibid.11 Ibid., 425.12 Ibid., 428.13 Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, trans. Simon Pleasance and Fronza Woods with the participation of Mathieu Copeland (France: Les Presses Du Reel, 1998): 14.14 Henderson, “The Glue Boy,” 51.15 Liz Crompton, “Student Scores a Plum Job: Concordia Student Named Curator at Major Gallery,” University of Concordia News, (January 30, 2013), accessed March 25, 2015, http://www.concordia.ca/cunews/main/stories/2013/01/30/student-scores-a-plum-job.html.16 Butler, “Collage Party.”17 Tatiana Mellema, “Reversing Pedagogies with a Little Schooling,” C Magazine, no. 102 (2009): 42, accessed April 2, 2015, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1320347143?accoun-tid=14569.”18 Ibid.19 Claire Bishop, “The Social Turn: Collabo-ration and its Discontents,” Artforum 44, no. 6 (2006): 179, accessed March 25, 2015, http://newsgrist.typepad.com/files/claire-bishop-the-so-cial-turn-collaboration-and-its-discontents-in-2006-artforum.pdf.20 Henderson, “The Glue Boy,” 51.21 Ibid. 22 Ibid., 52.23 Claire Bishop, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (London: Verso, 2012), 210.24 Ibid., 185.




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Bibliography

Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso, 2012.

Bishop, Claire. “The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents.” Artforum 44, no. 6 (2006): 179-185. Accessed March 25, 2015. http://newsgrist.typepad.com/files/claire-bishop-the-social-turn-collaboration-and-its-discontents-in-2006-artforum.pdf.

Bourriaud, Nicolas. Relational Aesthetics. Translated by Simon Pleasance and Fronza Woods with the participation of Mathieu Copeland. France: Les Presses Du Reel, 1998.

Crompton, Liz. “Student Scores a Plum Job: Concordia Student Named Curator at Major Gallery.” University of Concordia News, (January 30, 2013). Accessed March 25, 2015. http://www.concordia.ca/cunews/main/stories/2013/01/30/student-scores-a-plum-job.html.

Duncan, Carol. “The Art Museum as Ritual.” In The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology, edited by Donald Preziosi, 424-434. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Henderson, Lee. “The Glue Boy: Paul Butler and the Art of Collage.” Border Crossings 27, no. 3 (2008): 48-56. Accessed March 25, 2015. http://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/the-glue-boy-paul-butler-and-the-art-of-collage.

Mellema, Tatiana. “Reversing Pedagogies with a Little Schooling.” C Magazine, no. 102 (2009): 40-45. Accessed April 2, 2015. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1320347143?accountid=14569.

Paul Butler. “Collage Party at Winnipeg New Music Festival.” Public Butler Contemporary Art. Last modified January 29, 2015. http://www.theotherpaulbutler.com.

Trainer, James. “Paul Butler.” Border Crossings 25, no. 4 (November 2006): 86-89. Accessed April 2, 2015. http://search.proquest.com/docview/215552763?accountid=14569.

White, Richard and Cassidy Richardson. “Winnipeg Revisited.” Galleries West 12, no. 1 (2013): 37. Accessed March 25, 2015. http://www.gallerieswest.ca/art-reviews/exhibition-reviews/winnipeg-revisited/

Julia Wake

relational aesthetics & deconstructing the ritual of the ... · 2016-11-05 · relational...

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