17 May 2010
On Edmonton’s Notoriously Crappy Art Writers
[Via Boston, Franklin Einspruch]
“Edmonton, where the modernist triumph still reverberates, has produced critics who are doing everything in their power to silence it. It’s not enough to call these people postmodernists. They are, but they haven’t moved on in the way that post would imply. (Most of the artists I know who don’t identify with modernism are nonetheless not working to cause problems for anyone else’s genre. I also know people who read from the deconstructionist canon and claim, no more or less, to have gotten something out of it. Those postmodernists are my friends. I’m talking about academic postmodernists, who trained on capital-T Theory and abide by it.) It would be more accurate to call them antimodernists….
One of these antimodernists is Amy Fung, who reviewed an exhibition at Harcourt House Gallery by Mitchel Smith and Sheila Luck, entitled “Retro-Active.” Her review, passed along by one of my Edmontonian friends, is ripe for a good old-fashioned fisking—it’s that bad, all the way through.
Crappy Edmonton weekly.
Even if we allow for differences in taste, the essay is a flimsy chain of intellectually dishonest claims made in bad faith by a critic with retaliation on her mind.
She liked the art well enough, but she can’t stand the community around it.”
…
“Fung has a tin ear for the English language and she evinces all the failings of a tendentious education. I have pointed this out to her before, but I could say the same of a lot of writers. Particular to the Edmontonian antimodernists is the attitude that debate with modernists is impossible, and therefore their work should not be seen and their opinions should not be heard.”
[Via Montreal, Kirsten McCrea]
Crappy Edmonton weekly.
“I don’t write much here, but I had to respond to this: “Art Gallery of Alberta VS. Independent Galleries.” It’s an awful article.”
“Latitude 53 and Harcourt House are great, but neither gallery is street-level. I would love to see commercial store fronts in the downtown core and in other parts of the city…”
Two very different perspectives on Edmonton’s bad art writing, mind you, but interestingly, both come to the same conclusion.
May 18th, 2010 at 6:47 amWho in the world does amy imagine her self to be ?, and what makes her think her childish opinion is worth sharing ?
May 18th, 2010 at 5:48 pmattempting to Correct Pete on his use of the english language?
Did anyone ever meet a post-modernist with a sense of humor? Love to know their name. And a serious Canadian post-modernist pretending to be nice is just f-ing smug. And shouldn’t be near any lovely art to begin with. Back! Back-off!!!
May 27th, 2010 at 1:10 amWe love to critique grammar over the matter at hand in Edmonton.
or
In Edmonton, we love to critique grammar over the matter at hand.
June 5th, 2010 at 6:53 pmActually, the matter at hand here is the illiteracy and incompetence of Edmonton’s visual arts writers. The critiques come from Montreal and Boston.
How did you miss that, IP 74.210.59.73? Are you one of Edmonton’s crappy art writers, perchance?
June 5th, 2010 at 7:11 pmNo, I just read them.
Forgive me as i forgot to give myself a name.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:24 pmNo forgiveness required.
Welcome to the internet.
June 6th, 2010 at 7:37 am