{"id":56613,"date":"2017-09-13T18:25:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T16:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=56613"},"modified":"2017-09-13T18:25:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T16:25:18","slug":"art-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/art-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Talk the Talk When You Know Nothing about Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your life is busy. Between bitching sessions about Eckhaus Latta\u2019s lost authenticity, fuming at your ex\u2019s new polyamorous lifestyle on Snapchat and waiting tables at a wifi-less bar in Neuk\u00f6lln, who has time to actually form an coherent opinion about all the art constantly on view in Berlin? For Berlin Art Week, we want to help: the feeling of dread that arrises when confronted with an art work you simply don\u2019t have the energy to understand can be fought temporarily. With this article, SLEEK provides you with a series of expressions that will make you sound at least semi-knowledgeable about contemporary art.<\/p>\n

\"\" Photo by Philippe Meissner, sourced from flickr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cConceptually, this is questionable\u201d<\/h2>\n

You’ve known it since your mother’s silent, tortured glance at your first experiment with haircuts: challenging someone\u2019s aesthetic choices while abstaining from any clear opinion will trigger quite the negative response. \u201cQuestionable\u201d is vague enough to convey both doubt and a wise form of scepticism; adding \u201cconceptually\u201d into the sentence basically informs whomever is listening to you that you know what an artistic concept is, aka you might be kind of smart. This statement works well when confronted with something that seems so dumb it can\u2019t possibly be based on even the most basic human thought: bad monochromatic painting, things with mud on them, or whenever an Aldi plastic bag is involved.<\/p>\n

\"\" Paul McCarthy, “Complex Shit”, photo by FaceMePLS, sourced from flickr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite layered\u201d<\/h2>\n

Obviously, no artist would ever admit to topical one-dimensionality; you must always expect an art work to be meant as the starting point for a multitude of discourses. Pointing out the complexity of a confused figurative painting will impress your entourage, who will suddenly think there\u2019s more to you than a US passport and a sharp tendency to repost Hood by Air fashion show pics. Plus, \u201cit\u2019s quite layered\u201d leaves things open: whether you actually understand or like what you\u2019re looking at becomes secondary. You know there\u2019s more to that sad collage of 1990s Australian Vogue editorials than fashion, and that\u2019s good enough.<\/p>\n

\"\" Dan Flavin – “Four Red Horizontals (To Sonja)” (1963), photo by cea+, sourced from flickr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOh come on\u2026\u201d<\/h2>\n

Has your artsy acquaintance Shannon said something provocative about this houseplant-and-mannequin installation you\u2019ve just spent 5 minutes looking at? Good. Take a risk and sound more qualified by opposing an \u201cOh come on\u2026\u201d to her critique. Even though you were probably thinking about your annoying vegan flatmate, the combination of extensive gazing and vague opposition will attest you a certain intellectual gravitas. People might think you eigentlich <\/em>are here for the art, and not for the free bottle of unrefrigerated Kindl. Since you probably don\u2019t like Shannon anyway and wouldn\u2019t know what to say about the piece, slowly walk away to the next work on view and spend five more minutes there, this time to think about your stolen bike. Excellent when confronted with large installation pieces and annoying people, like Shannon (interns at an off-space, wears velours ironically, calls Tresor bouncers by their nickname).<\/p>\n

\"\" Jennifer Rubell, “Lysa III”, 2014; Fiberglass, resin, and steel; Rubell Family Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cReferential.\u201d<\/h2>\n

While we hope you actually never end up in front of something referencing Warhol or Lichtenstein, artists often take inspiration from other artists, which isn\u2019t bad per se: since appropriation, being inspired by or even copying someone else\u2019s work is a legitimate strategy. Sometimes it\u2019s obvious, in which case, one doesn\u2019t need to underline it; at other times, it is barely visible, which is when you can place a snarky \u201creferential\u201d into the room, blowing everyone\u2019s brains with your sharp analytical mind and knowledge of art history. It is important however to keep it at this one single word, because most probably, you\u2019re not really sure what these iron casts of pantyhose are actually referencing. With British sculpture and homoerotic photography in particular, dropping this can be an effective escape from your inexistent opinion. There\u2019s enough of both second-rate Sarah Lucas and Wolfgang Tillmans to fill up the Mariana Trench twice.<\/p>\n

\"\" Photo by Thomas Leuthard, sourced from flickr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHave you read that book by\u2026?\u201d<\/h2>\n

There are moments in which simply nothing remotely adequate seems utterable in front of art. In that case, instead of panicking, opt for the diverting strategy: just mention a theory book you read in college, really bored you to death, has a nebulous artistic vibe and all your friends love (Walter Benjamin and Susan Sontag are good picks, for example). Whomever you\u2019re talking to will either 1) not have read it but won\u2019t admit that, consequently staying silent 2) have read it and feel the need to expand on it endlessly, so you don\u2019t have to say anything additionally. In fact, talking about Walter Benjamin might very well be among the top 10 hobbies of the Berlin art crowd, next to applying for residencies and debating the future of Volksb\u00fchne, among other things. So mentioning that guy is a safe solution if for example, you\u2019re speechless after a 45 min black and white film of a goat standing still in a garage to the sound of experimental cello.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SLEEK provides you with a series of expressions that will make you sound at least semi-knowledgeable about contemporary art<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[38,1671,4154,9256,9257],"class_list":["post-56613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-art","tag-berlin-art-week","tag-contemporary","tag-pretentious","tag-shit-talking"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nHow to Talk the Talk When You Know Nothing about Art<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SLEEK provides you with a series of expressions that will make you sound at least semi-knowledgeable about contemporary art.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/art-talk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Talk the Talk When You Know Nothing about Art\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SLEEK provides you with a series of expressions that will make you sound at least semi-knowledgeable about contemporary art.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/art-talk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-13T16:25:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. 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