The third seminar of the semester was delivered by Tom O'Sullivan and Joanne Tathum, during which they brought us along on a journey of understanding through contemporary relational art practice. they began by placing the meaning of those words - 'contemporary relational art practice' - in context. To do this they examined three contemporary artists: Cathy Wilkes, Iza Genzkin and Franz West, and the impact they had on the art world as well as framing the entire discussion with a piece of writing by Jan Verwoert.
During the preparation for the seminar - we were all given the piece of writing in which Verwoerth discusses the merits of relational aesthetics, as well as the potential contribution these aesthetics have to make to socially engaged and motivated art - i read through the paper, then i read it again, and then again - in places i continually had to re-read the same text over and over again in an attempt to get my head around exactly what it was that Verwoert was trying to imply through a shroud of jargon and abstract extrapolation. In many ways it is this attitude which provides the biggest stumbling block to widespread acceptance of relational art by the public - besides the superficial acceptance which comes from the section of the public who are easily led, and are all too willing to venerate work purely because it is in a gallery or museum. More often than not outsiders will continually denounce modern art as worthless, and whilst it may at times seem indulgent or elitist on the part of the establishment, this does not mean that we should pander to such unqualified critics that make up the more militant portion of the Art viewing public, so it came as quite a surprise when the subtext of Verwoert's essay was testifying that this art practice had become too safe, and in fact old hat. in the case of Cathy Wilkes - who's practice centers around domestic issues pertaining specifically to the tension between man and women in today's society - we are shown allegories of the human form alongside objects frequently seen throughout the home, these objects may at first seem like a mess, but after some further contemplation it becomes clear that the artist has in fact built internal relationships between these items through careful and tasteful composition of the scene presented. wether or not your enjoyment of the work is compromised by your particular tastes, one cannot help but respect the craftsmanship in evidence in Wilkes' work, even if you do not subscribe to the belief that this constitutes Art, in fact it could be said that the assembling of such a scene is an art form in itself, meaning that the obligatory question "is it Art?" has become somewhat redundant.
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