 "Photo: Museum of Contemporary Art")
 "Photo: Museum of Contemporary Art")
For centuries, the artist has been placed on a cultural pedestal, shrouded in the myth of creative genius. Our society’s image of the eccentric creator has been popularized and given credence by such larger-than-life figures as Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, two among many whose artistic works and storied personal lives have contributed to our conception of the artist.
The studio is the center of life for any artist; this space takes on a variety of forms depending on the individual. The construction of this microcosmic environment is, to an extent, a reflection of the artist and sometimes considered a work of art in and of itself.
Production Site: The Artist’s Studio Inside-Out at the Museum of Contemporary Art provides a unique survey of the form and function of the artist’s studio throughout history, with special emphasis on the role of the studio in the contemporary art scene. As MCA Curator Dominic Molon explains, the exhibit “provides a rare opportunity to see the studio — a space typically kept private by the artist for contemplation, conceptualization and production — through the eyes of the artists themselves.”
Production Site brings together a diverse, international array of artists and an even more varied assortment of studio representations. Nikhil Chopra physically relocated his studio to the MCA for the exhibit, displaying it for the public not only as a physical space but also as an example of performance art. Chopra meticulously rubbed the walls of his cavernous studio space with charcoal in an attempt to reflect on the anxieties of the creative process and the difficulties the artist faces in working through them.
Rodney Graham considers the studio a place where history is constantly “restaged and reconsidered,” a notion expressed in his photograph “The Old Bugler, Among the Fallen, Battle of Beaue-la-Roland, 1870.” The picture depicts Graham himself in full 19th century British military garb, lying in ironic imitation of a wounded soldier in an artist’s studio. Another of Graham’s photographs, “Dead Flowers in My Studio,” echoes the artist’s struggle as depicted by Chopra, and reflects the sometimes futile and abortive creative endeavors that occur within the studio.
Section Cinema, a 13-minute looped video by Tacita Dean, was one of the more interesting pieces in the exhibit. The video is a series of shots of the former basement studio of conceptual artist Marcel Broodthaers. The basement, now cluttered and neglected in its contemporary use as a storage space, is juxtaposed with our traditional conception of an artist’s studio.
South African artist William Kentridge has a room of his own in the exhibit in which several of his videos are projected simultaneously onto different walls. These videos put Kentridge himself on display (in addition to his studio) blurring the line between art as the completion of a creative process and art as the process itself.
Overall, the MCA presents a fascinating comparative study of the artist’s studio as it has evolved from a singular entity of function to a self-conscious artwork in itself, all in a manner accessible to both amateur art enthusiasts and would-be museum curators.
The exhibit runs until May 30 at the MCA. Student tickets $7. Lcated at 220 E. Chicago Ave., just a few blocks away from Loyola’s Water Tower campus.
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