Lessons on the Blurring of Grass and Campus

Artist,

What I need is a short description of the art featured on the attached magazine spread and the exhibition it was included in. We hope to use the photo with a short caption on the index page of the May-June alumni magazine. If you would like a copy after publication, please drop me an address and we can send you one.

Thank you!

University

Dear Artist,

Please let me know if any corrections are needed. What was this piece made of?

The Oval as art

Arts Initiative exhibitions coordinator Jeremy Stone examines a “revisionist replica” of the Oval. Created by Columbus-based artist and filmmaker Liz Roberts, the piece — made of XXX — was part of a “Myths of the Academy” exhibit on display this spring in the Hopkins Hall Gallery. Associate Professor of Classics Richard Fletcher curated the exhibit, which explored how Plato’s myths can be used to investigate the role of the artist in the contemporary university.

Thank you!

University

Hello University,

Instead of referring to the piece as a revisionist replica, I’d prefer to have the title of the piece used.

Ass Gas or Grass: Nobody Rides For Free, 2016 turfgrass sod, “Woodlawn Promised Land” house paint, dimensions variable

I understand that the word “ass” being in the title might be an issue, but it feels like I’m compromising the integrity of the piece if the title is left out. This is a bit nitpick-y, but it’s not spray paint, it’s house paint. Otherwise reads great!

My best,

Artist

Dear Artist,

I understand your feelings about the title. Not including it does seem like a compromise.

If we had room to delve into a full explanation, I would certainly consider including it. However, in the small amount of space our format allows for this description, I don’t feel we can reference the title in a way to provide enough context. Without that context, I feel we would be confusing readers and, in the case of some, offending them.

If publishing the title is a deal breaker for you, we will have to go with another photo. It’s a choice I wish we didn’t have to make, but I feel I know our readership well enough that this is the way I need to go on it.

Let me know your thoughts. If you decide you don’t want it published without the title, I can still talk with our photographer about providing you with the high-res.

University

Dear University,

I’m going to respectfully decline to have the photo included without the title of the work. Although I am honored that you would consider using the photograph so prominently, the piece is intended in part to be an institutional critique, which gets lost without the title. If it was simply a replica, it wouldn’t be “art.”

Because to me, what distinguishes art from replication is that art has something to say in the form of provoking thought or dialogue.

Thank you so much for understanding and I hope this doesn’t throw a huge wrench in your plan. I would greatly appreciate having a copy of that phenomenal photograph, and perhaps it could be used by the magazine in a different context at a different time.

All my best,

Artist

TILTED PLANES
Ohio State University, 1978

A competition initiated by the university art gallery for a site-specific project elicited proposals from Robert Morris, Richard Serra, Tony Smith, and myself. The area I selected, the “oval mall,” is the active focal point of the campus, augmented by the real complexity of its interwoven paths and the fact that, every hour on the hour, the oval is inundated with a crowd of students crisscrossing through.

Tilted Planes was intended to act in concert with these givens. Because of the scale and the ever-so-slight “bowl” of the oval, the different raised sections of triangular grass planes would take on the optical qualities of rising and tilting. My proposal was simply to activate these qualities to a level of cognizance without changing the site’s historical configuration.

This, it seemed to me, would have produced a perfectly integrated figure-ground relationship. I won the competition, but the dean’s question, “Where’s the sculpture?” proved my point and killed the project.

– Robert Irwin ‘Four Proposals’ Artforum January 2011