Last weekend we went to Atlanta to the Contemporary to enjoy the new show "Substitute Teacher" and to hear "Co-curators Regine Basha and Stuart Horodner discuss the evolution of Substitute Teacher with exhibiting artist Nina Katchadourian." What a treat. As a long time Nina-phile, it was wonderful to see that in person she is low-key, funny, unpretentious, smart, and has what must be a great relationship with her parents.
The group opened with discussion about the meaning of the title "Substitute Teacher." Horodner said, "We all remember that moment when a substitute walks into the room and you knew right away that it was not normal." Katchadourian added, "And immediately you begin to think about what you can get away with." Their point, it seemed, was that the work in the show embraced learning, unlearning, teaching, and the unexpected outcomes of tackling a particular subject. They referenced the "Apprentice Syndrome," coined by artist Daniel Boshkov, for artists whose practices involved research projects as a foundation for their work. Examples in the show included an artist whose project was to learn Arabic as an artistic act, and Paul Ramírez Jonas, whose project involves climbing the highest summits in each of the fifty states.
The show had emerged from the curation process with a strong element of text and language that would have been much less successful if it had been sought deliberately. Instead, words provide subtext or counterpoint to the overt messages of the piece. In Katchadourian's photograph, the first thought I had was that it was some kind of anti-authoritarian protest, followed quickly by the second realization that her subjects are talking to her, which is funny and subversive. She had noticed them out the window and had decided to use them to make a mustache, but they kept crawling up her nose. Her mother suggested putting honey on her upper lip to keep them in place to get the picture. L.H.O.O.Q revisited.
Best quote from Nina: "The job description of artist is the alibi, or the umbrella, that allows me to do all of the things I want to do."
Nina Katchadourian's Web Site
The Contemporary
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