Lecture

Nayland spoke tonight at the SF Art Institute about his work. I’m really sorry that more of you didn’t get to hear him, as it was a very inspiring and entertaining presentation, with Nayland challenging us to make and look at art by extending our experience beyond that of passive fixed voyeurs and gimmick-seeking provacateurs. Frustrated by the limitations of documentation, and the “tyranny of the image”–that is, the experience of art reduced to a documentary photo that denies the viewer of an experience of the art beyond one frontal perspective–Nayland recently placed an ad on CraigsList, offering to finish reading books that people haven’t been able to finish. His expression is an experience shared between him and the person who responds to the ad, documented through telling people about it. Isn’t that just great?!