I found that the second week of class was a tad less eventful than the last but interesting discussions were raised with a lot of different perspectives.
Since at this point, most of the class had visited more contemporary art exhibitions (or just art exhibitions in general) since Gertrude Contemporary so discussing these exhibitions became easier. For myself, I still find myself on the opinion of not understanding contemporary art. Half the time I think artists consider this genre to see how many people they can scam. “Everything is art” is a play I’ve seen so many times over, to the point where I’ve seen an artist defecate in a can and convince people to buy it.
The discussions that arose from the class were worthy of note though. The idea that contemporary art relies heavily on the diversity of perspectives that view the art, take it within their own context, and develop an interpretation that is unique to the person right next to them. Specifically with the exhibition at Gertrude Contemporary, most of the pieces were making a comment on the evolution of technology and internet spaces.
Though I did find an artist that did make a comment on something I share the same level of concern for. John Gatip was an artist who is holding an exhibition and the Loop Project Space, making a comment on the detention centres in Nauru, how the culture and nature has been completely wiped or overlooked, that it’s only seen for the detention centre and it’s industrial environment. He did it in a way that wasn’t “in your face” and invasive, but still making a statement.