OUTSTANDING IN THE FIELD
I aspire to be outstanding in my field…
The field of fine art is regarded as a place in which anything, if not all things, carry an intrinsic potential to rise to the level of timeless icon, Art. Perceived democratic principles provide limitless opportunity to any person devoting time and honing skills to their craft. To most, the earnest act of an artist is synonymous with creativity and self-expression, an operation of pure generative possibility. And while it is true that some artistic products achieve the denotation of genius, most works stand in stark contrast, soliciting the status of capricious frivolousness, or irrelevant nonentity. It is difficult to know how these qualifiers are earned; the labels rest independently of the elusive condition of proficiency or clear context to their near relatives. How is the goodness of art measured? The market of course!
The art market, one of the most manipulated markets on the planet, has codified and corralled both ends of the economic equation, benefitting collectors and dealers over artists. Works are selected for their salability over almost every other quality, forcing artists to consider compromise before the paint is even squeezed from the tube. How do these realities align with our primary expectations of originality and individualism within art? The commercial art bureaucracy can be construed as an impediment to the financial success of independent artists, or, as a dabbling optimist, this condition engenders an opportunity for creatives to liberate themselves from the interdependence of commerce and artistry.
‘Outstanding in the Field’ is an intentional piece of idiosyncratic artifice, aimed at the thin veneer and hollow structure of the great art market. A piece of institutional critique, collaborators Ryan Peter Miller and Marco Rosichelli, Llaboratory Co, have engineered a frame job of the New York gallery scene. Out, standing in a field of New York, Texas, Laboratory Co proposes to erect a vinyl wrapped scaffold emulating the exterior of Gagosian Gallery (NY) – one of several locations of the highest grossing commercial galleries in the world. With no earnest prospect of ever showing their work with Gagosian, Llaboratory Co intends to make the second-best version of this dream come to fruition, building a temporary display of simulacra, connecting themselves to the pinnacle of art capitalism with none of its fame or fortune.
Institutional critique is the primary language of Llaboratory Co’s project initiatives; a vestigial mode of art production stemming from the conceptual art movement of the 1960’s. As its legs are long, spanning over half a century, institutional critique has itself become institutionalized; its early purveyors now on display in the same haunts that were once the target of critique. Like the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, hegemonistic accolades are bestowed upon those that broke the rules best. The anachronistic pretense of institutional critique is the sub-narrative of Llaboratory Co’s oeuvre. They revel in the conflation of their institutionalized critique, joining – not beating – this lifeless rocking horse.
Llaboratory Co enjoys the intentional fail, a grand set-up for the diminutive punchline, reveling in the process at the expense of the product. They construct a story to tell the story, making something real from fiction. Within the grand production of ‘Outstanding in the Field’, a small, well-misconstrued deliverable will place artists Marco Rosichelli and Ryan Peter Miller at Gagosian Gallery in New York. Paraphrasing Field of Dreams, “If [we] build it, [we] will come.”
