Understanding an Alternative Art Space

The Icehouse fosters a temporary home to alternative art. Euphoric, conceptual, and unconventional, the installations that this space hosts captivate the viewer and can last for months on end or disappear in a moment. Often misunderstood, alternative art cannot be found in a traditional art gallery, but rather discovered through mixed media presentations, the use of uncommon materials, live performances, and a plethora of other means of artistic communication.

After spending years amidst the exhibitions and events that took place at The Icehouse, Kat Zubko, a philosophy major at Smith College, constructed an explanation of the alternative art space and its unique and necessary role within the community.

A way that the emergence of a work of art can be thought of is by likening it to spontaneous generation. Spontaneous generation, a now debunked biological idea, once held that organisms spontaneously arose from decaying matter. For example, maggots would just appear in the carcass of an animal, and nothing was thought to be able to explain their sudden presence there. In a similar way, the phenomenon of the work of art appears as if out of nowhere. We can say that its origin is the artist, the one who created it, but that does not seem to fully explain its existence. It retains an uncanny quality, even when attempts to explain it have been made. The question remains as to why the work exists at all, even before attempts are made to explain what it means, what it signifies or represents for us. Perhaps due to the uncanny nature of art, we designate special spaces in which we can behold works of art, or performances. Such a be-holding is a certain set of circumstances (including but not limited to time and space) that allow the work of art to come into view. The way in which different spaces allow for such a be-holding, the experience of the phenomenon of the art-work, is different. Museums freeze works in a sense. We have specific sets of associations and Expectations when it comes to museums. It has already been determined that the works shown there are of ‘quality’. That is, according to our historical and cultural thoughts about what art is, the works in museums conform to a certain set of criteria. These (sometimes nebulous) criteria are essentially dictated by the collective, or by a group of individuals. Thus for the viewer, part of their interpretive work of why a piece is there, what a work of art means, is partially done for us. The significance of the works has largely been agreed upon. We go to the museum and we find the circumstance, the kind of be-holding made possible there, to be mediated for us. The museum stands between us in our experience of the works. It is an interlocutor that at once makes a viewing of art possible, but at the same time does part of the job of positing a work’s significance for us.

If art is thought of as a process of storytelling, the museum represents a kind of writing-down of an oral history; once an oral history is written down, it becomes static, becomes dead, some would even say.

Where, then, is the be-holding of dynamic art-as-storytelling made possible? It is possible in the alternative art spaces and communities from which art emerges. In alternative art spaces (although like museums in that they both are places where art can be viewed) some of the expectations that come with viewing art in a museum are not present. That is, in such a space, the viewer be-holds the work as a more dynamic, less mediated presence. It is not burdened with the weight of collective construction, Wonder is more possible there: it accompanies our encounter with the uncanny phenomenon that is the existence of the work of art. Exploration and innovation on the part of the artists, undertaken in their works, is made possible through a freedom from the restrictions that ideas about ‘what art is’ produce.

Thus the artist is able to show their work in the most dynamic and raw form possible. In turn, their audience is allowed to view the work without the mediation of a museum: we are placed in the position of having to understand more, interpret more of what the work means than if it were already in a museum. The alternative thus is a physical and metaphorical space in which the dynamism of art-as-storytelling can be expressed.

As for physical art spaces where a be-holding of alternative works is made possible, they can exist as empty shells in which the experience of the art occurs. Whether it is the plastic arts, installation or performance, the art space facilitates an encounter between the art and the viewer, with less mediation than comes with an encounter in a museum. Although the viewer is challenged with the task of understanding the art without the help of the space around it, the payoff is potentially higher. We do not find significance ready-made, but must create it, with the work as our guide. Thus the relationship between the work and the viewer is also a dynamic one, and is not fixed as it is in a traditional museum.

This kind relationship, between viewer and the piece, that is made possible in alternative art spaces, establishes their importance in the art world. If the view seeks to be-hold art in its most uncanny form, it is essential to look to the alternative to make this possible.

Do not be afraid to open your eyes, ears, and hearts to alternative art. Sure, it's new, different, and maybe foreign...but isn't that part of the beauty of life's journey?