Art & Audience

Artists take part in a performance by Surasi Kusolwong of Thailand during the "It's simply beautiful" exhibition at the Center for the Arts and Industrial Creation in Gijon, northern Spain, July 27, 2007.

Photos of Cynthia Hopkins by Paula Court

from "The Truth: A Tragedy"

Rirkrit Tiravanija, Exhibition View, Secession 2002



Gas station owner recites James Joyce in Harrell Fletcher's "Blot Out The Sun," 2002





Carsten Holler's Test Site at Tate Modern


Pg 392, Heartney refers to early twentieth-century British critic Roger Fry as expressing that the Artist should be thought of as the transmitter, the art object the medium and the spectator the receiver of the meaning of a work of art. " In essence," Heartney says, "the viewer's task was simply to clear away any messy static inhibiting clear reception of the artists ideas." but by the end of the 20th century, the role of the viewer was to complete the work--

Can a piece really be completed by the audience? Is it not already completed in the mind of the artist? What role does perception play?

Are art projects created in the spirit of community activism really art?

How does gift sculpture create interplay with the artist and viewer in the artwork? What is the outcome?