Life as a Fish.

On first reading one might get the impression Tino Seghal is on a mission to eliminate the art object: he doesn’t make objects and doesn’t allow any resultant objects to come from his work (including all forms of documentation). Generally, his work inhabits a social space rather than a material one, whether a conversation, a game, or a simple gesture. Even when he sells his work (and he does), the transaction involves no form of documentation or written description, only an “oral contract”. However overzealous these strict rules may appear, Sehgal seems primarily concerned with conceptual integrity: he works with immaterial ideas, and material representations might only serve to distract from the “thing-in-itself”.

Sam Borkson and Tury Sandoval are probably best known for their successful line of plush art toys produced under the name ‘FriendsWithYou’. Toys, however, are only one part of their project; they would like you to know that FriendsWithYou has goals much loftier than commercial success. At the beginning of their Walker Art Center talk, the duo emerged from the crowd and proceeded to encourage the audience to “look around” and hug their neighbors (Sandoval: “They probably want to hug you back!”). The two artists present themselves not simply as object and image-makers, but as spiritualists, populists, and altruistic propagators of “luck, togetherness, and magic.”

This is my favorite in the series, entitled Safety. I do love visual puns.

Issue #2 is entitled Lost in Space. Somehow it still seems relevant to my current life situation —funny how that works, isn’t it?

ME: Really Minneapolis, it’s actually possible to get around you using only public transportation and a bicycle?
MPLS: Yeah, for the most part. My friends tell me I actually have a great trails system … and there’s my new light rail line.
ME: Man, that’s really cool … I never knew that about you.
MPLS (winking): I couldn’t help notice you checking out my parks, too.
ME: Heh …. yeah …