Jeffry Cudlin's By Request @ the Gallery at Flashpoint
(Pictured Left) Jenny Sidhu Mullins, "Mountain Dew Presents: The Dew-Love Dharma Tent," 2010. (Pictured Right, in part) Jason Horowitz, "Annunciation (Jeffry)," 2010, courtesy Curator's Office. Installation photograph by Brandon Webster, courtesy Flashpoint.
By Request, at the Gallery at Flashpoint through July 31, is artist and curator Jeffry Cudlin's take on the field of cultural production, a theory examining how art is produced and how we as a society come to accept it as such. Cudlin explains that according to this theory, "if you want to know why art looks the way it does, the answer has to do with all these people in positions of authority jostling and coming to a shifting, uneasy consensus as to what art is and how it ought to function." This ever-changing consensus informs museums' and galleries' decisions, and these decisions in turn shape the work of aspiring young artists in search of legitimacy.
So Cudlin, who DCist profiled in 2008, gathered seven power players in the D.C. art world (the director of the Phillips Collection, the Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings of the National Portrait Gallery, the founder of the Pink Line Project, and other notable figures) and had them respond to a survey that purports to get at their artistic preferences. His contention is that if this theory is true, then the seven artists enlisted for the show should be able to produce artwork that is compelling and relevant by simply following the implicit instructions contained within the completed surveys. Through this process, Cudlin explains, the show "aims for total transparency within the field of cultural production -- collecting and evaluating the opinions of professionals in an attempt to thoroughly explain why D.C. gallery culture looks the way it does."
Of course, Pierre Bourdieu's ideas aren't meant to be interpreted quite so literally, and the stipulation that all artwork produced for the show must be a depiction of Cudlin himself -- the "Cudlin clause," if you will -- would seem to indicate that Cudlin is not exactly interested in the artist's exploration of the surveys. Not surprisingly, the resulting artwork is not a real attempt at explaining D.C. gallery culture, with their only purpose, it would appear, is to remind us of Cudlin's connections to notable artists.
Cudlin explains: when you get important people to participate, "it's [their] show, it becomes an endorsement...because, hey, if people in positions of authority thought it was important enough to actually play along, there's something here for you." Yes, his overt efforts are meant to be satirical, but they are also strategic. And partly, this is what's problematic about By Request: it appears as if Cudlin is more interested in profiting from the mechanisms he claims to be satirizing than from the satire itself.
The one artist who gracefully navigates the "Cudlin clause" is Jenny Sidhu Mullins. Her elaborate watercolor Mountain Dew Presents: The Dew-Love Dharma Tent, depicts a bound and panicked horse hanging upside down contorting to escape from imminent sacrifice. The work appears to continue Mullins' exploration of the west's appropriation and mass production of spiritualism, until you notice the small tag hanging subtly from the horse's pierced ear that reads "Jeffry Cudlin." The horse, then, is an ironic representation of Cudlin aimed at portraying the vulnerability that is inevitably showcased when you produce an exhibition about yourself.
But By Request is less about the work hanging in the gallery and more about Cudlin's quest for what Bourdieu calls "symbolic capital," or artistic legitimacy, through any means necessary. And while many may find this tacky, his show is intended to prove, and does so successfully, that artistic legitimacy is largely the result of personal relationships.
But this is also what's most interesting about By Request -- what's actually on display is Cudlin himself, leveraging and brokering symbolic capital in the field of cultural production, both satirically and in a very real and profitable way, and perhaps in ways that other artists would not consider.
By Request is on display at Flashpoint Gallery, 916 G Street NW, through July 31. Curated by Jeffry Cudlin, it features works from Torkwase Dyson, Victoria F. Gaitan, Jason Horowitz, Jenny Sidhu Mullins, Cory Oberndorfer, Kerry Skarbakka, and Trevor Young.