is the annual publication of Chat About — a workshop that connects artists and scholars in order to provide space for inter-disciplinary discourse, notably with an emphasis on thinking alongside practice and theory at the University of Chicago. Each academic year, Chat About brings artists and scholars into pairs or small groups according to their interests and needs. Methodology workshops and open studio sessions are planned to prepare our participants to collaboratively conduct fruitful studio visits and conversations. Each pair or group will then present the outcome of their relationship to the public in the form they choose (to date, we have had casual dialogue, live performances, and lectures). Participants also have the opportunity to archive their collaboration through writing; this material is collected, edited, and released as an annual publication.
Chat About, through pairing artists and scholars for both an open critique and an exercise in scholarly interpretation, draws on the rich level of theory-based academic discourse on UChicago’s campus. Our participants come from diverse academic interests, and bring a profound understanding of disparate elements of theory and practice, from formalism to Marxism. Within the confines of Chat About, the application of theory is centered upon the artist’s process as we do not seek to apply theory unnecessarily or inappropriately. The workshop instead incorporates an inherently present-focused approach, which prioritizes the participants and their work, interests, and selves. Chat About thus focuses, by purposeful design, on the intellectual development of emerging artists/scholars. Each presentation, with its resulting publication, speaks to the way in which young artists and scholars are grappling with their surroundings, which as of late, have been dominated by political turmoil, economic uncertainty, and pressing concerns for social and racial justice.
The relationship between contemporary art and contemporary theory—whether the latter be “autonomous” aesthetics (such as formalism) or the way in which it operates within networks (where aesthetic readings are extended to social-political discourses)—can be complicated and elusive. Yet, the foundation of this relationship is indeed more than manifest; Foucault, Said, and Butler (among others) are central readings of any art school’s reading list in addition to their key place in discussion within MAPH’s Core Course, Foundations for Interpretive Theory. It is difficult to imagine not considering the ways in which contemporary theory feeds into and intersects with the contemporary art scene. Art, particularly the hyper-contemporary and globally-minded work of young artists, can be interpreted as theory communicated by way of material. We might say that although both sides already acknowledge this relationship from an overall perspective, the relationships between artists and scholars, particularly those just at the beginning of their careers, have gone underdeveloped. Chat About, perhaps above all, seeks to remedy this oversight.
In such a context, the perspective of Chat About is deliberately designed to be earthy: we provide a space for young (regarding their art career) artists and young (regarding their academic career) theorists and scholars to meet with each other in real life. Their discussions are rooted in this way to the physical act of artmaking, the finished works themselves, and the invested art of close-looking to build generative conversation. Thus, contemporaneity works on two scales: Chat About is not only concerned with introducing art and theory in our present world, but also, and more importantly, shedding light onto the liveliness of two modes of knowledge production: artistic and theoretical. This way of thinking embodies the potentiality of art/theory-making, which is, in the end, the Form-of-Life of young artists and theorists. We hope that through providing such a space, young artists and theorists could further explore the relationship between art and theory in close communication, examine the relationship between their intellectual frameworks and powers of authority (notably the institution of Art), and above all, build an interdisciplinary community.
Editors: Claire M. Rich and Qiuchen Wu
Contributors: Sophia Anthony, Caleb Clemente, Ceyhun Fırat,
Sarah Hobin, Kirsten (Kai) Ihns, Maria Kuran, Xinyang Li, Ambrin
Ling, Cameron Mankin, Carla Núñez-Hernández, Elissa Osterland,
Jacob Pet, Claire M. Rich, Brett Swenson,
Special Thanks: Toby Wu and Caitlyn Au
Web Design & Development: Mijia Wang
Chat About is supported by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT), the Department of Visual Arts and the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago.
© 2022 Chat About
Then can we speak of a style of pimping? Or maybe we should ask first what is “pimping”? According to Online Etymology Dictionary, “pimp” has its root in “Old French pimpelorer, pipelorer ‘decorate, color, beautify.’” Well, pimping is in the end, or rather, in the beginning, a business of beautification and it might be true for Chat About as well: we try to beautify our participants by preparing a place or an occasion for our participants to beautify each other through their collaboration. There are many workshops here at the university aiming at bringing people together and most of them do not care so much about their looks. Chat About, however, as a workshop of visual arts, seems to have an obligation to take its own look seriously. So, let's imagine the look of a pimp who is itself a probationer learning how to pimp. It has a good intention but can be awkward sometimes because it tries to connect students of arts in a very short period of time (due to the very short length of our master degree programs), which somehow can be regarded as its braveness. Its goal, nevertheless, is not only connecting but also presenting this connecting—the beautiful is meant to be seen, and this presenting happens in the space it offers which is hardly a stage but a practice room. That might be the style of our pimping.