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...according to the vague criteria of the "sympathy" he feels for them after seeing their photos. In both pieces the rankings are pointless.
After this series Oh made list-based judgments about national flags, names and national anthems--192 National Flags (2001-2002), 100 Popular First Names (2001-2002) an d National Anthem Favorites (2005)--according to his aesthetic preferences. Ultimately there is, again, no reason for an artist to make these evaluations; the viewer, if she or he really wants to, can pick favourite anthems without his help. Given that the criteria he uses for ranking are ridiculous, Oh raises, via satire, suspicion about the process of ranking anything.
By drawing attention in an art-gallery context to the possibly arbitrary underpinnings of evaluative judgments, Oh implies a critique of the evaluation of art. Discussing Oh's work in this light stresses, I believe, how important it is that art writers and critics maintain an awareness of how their own role as evaluators, or rankers, is perceived, an awareness that it's a role often interpreted as elite if not authoritarian--as art police.
Perhaps in some cases this suspicion is a response to the dense prose appearing in some journals and catalogues. There's also the Marxist argument that art writing is inherently tainted because it is the spawn of a hierarchical, capitalist culture where elites determine things for the masses.
Remedying the elitism of art theory and criticism, however, should not mean abandoning academic thought, reverting to anti-intellectualism or just leaving art to work its "magic" without theory and without vigorous written debate. As Mark Cheetham stated in 2004 at the panel discussion Critical Voices/Critical Writing held at the Ontario College of Art and Design, "Debate needs a context of contestation, and that needs to be staged." A remedy to this problem, I believe, is not to remove the theory from the practice or the evaluation from the interpretation, but rather to regularly question how evaluative choices are made.
It is in this spirit that I have chosen to discuss artists who present everyday, unpretentious materials and situations that cogently question elitism, truth value or both.
Like Oh, BRIAN JOSEPH DAVIS--a poet, musician and artist--critically explores notions of ranking. Consider his CD Greatest Hit (2005), which compiles recordings by eclectic but radio-friendly acts such as Whitney Houston, the Carpenters, the Rolling Stones and Metallica. With an antiformalist abandonment of a decipherable end product, Davis has layered entire greatest hits albums into single tracks,...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
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