BEING NINE
works by Maile Couwenberg
works by Maile Couwenberg
BEING NINE
Why exhibit your child’s art? To compensate for a lack of talented adult artists? To prove that your kid actually can paint like Pollock? (Well, he can’t, but that’s beside the point.) Maybe because everything has been done and it doesn’t matter anymore what’s on display? This exhibition doesn’t intend to displace adult artists (although maybe disrupt them), but intends at least to try to describe why a nine-year-old should exhibit – why being nine is itself worthy of display.
Nine is on the brink of having not just another digit in your age, but your impending adult life piled upon you. Puberty threatens self-consciousness, school continues to promote mediocrity, work asks even more responsibility of you – where do you find time for yourself? People are constantly asked for your efforts to benefit the good of something else other than yourself: your friends, your family, your country, your planet. It’s no surprise adults are always wondering where their curiosity, spontaneity, and wonder with the world went. Did it evaporate? Or was it buried beneath the burden of the psychological, financial, and physical aspects of adult life?
This exhibition probably won’t show you how to be nine again, but Maile will show you what it looks like. Maile has the patronage of her parents, but they don’t ask for anything in particular from her work; she can do as she pleases. Maile is thus allowed to display a pure form of the artistic process. There are no conventions for her to follow, even with her choice of media (Qtips, blue painter’s tape, zip ties, to name a few).
Maile can be selfish about her curiosity, intellect, and most importantly, her art. We are all taught that “selfish” is a dirty word, but selfishness is the backbone of her work. She follows her own perspectives and ideas, she creates what makes her happy; none of her ideas belong to anyone else. How many “mature” artists can claim that to be true for themselves? Maile doesn’t have to make statements or forge a philosophical rebellion; she makes her work purely for her own enjoyment. She does not have to struggle with all of the common barriers, burdens, responsibilities and everything else that comes with getting old.
Maile is not aware of any divisions or conflicts, and doesn’t have to reclaim what she already has. When Maile thinks of something new, it does not go through any sort of adult filtering. Her ideas aren’t modified because she doesn’t have to ask herself questions like: Do I have the money to buy the materials? Do I have the time to make this? Am I even talented? Who is going to buy this? Will my peers like it? Plenty of artists let convention make these decisions for them because convention, as we learned in adolescence, was always safe – it taught you that the average and the normal were virtuous. As a result, art made in this mindset is what everyone else actually wanted it to be: dull and sterile.
It’s probably impossible actually to remember what it is like to be nine. However, there is plenty to take from it, more than just the spontaneity and curiosity of youth. This exhibition should remind the adult viewer of the things they lost over time or, in some situations, gave away willingly. There are plenty of places to give it away: school, curators, critics, peers, the media, or worst of all, the Disney channel. Being nine is a condition that may not be fully regained, and it’s that much harder as you get that much older; but those who can re-find it end up changing aesthetic perception: Manet, Rauschenberg, Whistler, Wright, Agnes Martin. Maile’s art belongs to her, not just physically. So seeing a Qtip in this exhibition is nothing to scoff at or to pity. Hopefully it makes you, honestly, consider the question,“What qualifies this work as art?” and stop asking the question, “Who qualifies this work as art?”
Cooper Johnson
Pomona, CA 2010
Why exhibit your child’s art? To compensate for a lack of talented adult artists? To prove that your kid actually can paint like Pollock? (Well, he can’t, but that’s beside the point.) Maybe because everything has been done and it doesn’t matter anymore what’s on display? This exhibition doesn’t intend to displace adult artists (although maybe disrupt them), but intends at least to try to describe why a nine-year-old should exhibit – why being nine is itself worthy of display.
Nine is on the brink of having not just another digit in your age, but your impending adult life piled upon you. Puberty threatens self-consciousness, school continues to promote mediocrity, work asks even more responsibility of you – where do you find time for yourself? People are constantly asked for your efforts to benefit the good of something else other than yourself: your friends, your family, your country, your planet. It’s no surprise adults are always wondering where their curiosity, spontaneity, and wonder with the world went. Did it evaporate? Or was it buried beneath the burden of the psychological, financial, and physical aspects of adult life?
This exhibition probably won’t show you how to be nine again, but Maile will show you what it looks like. Maile has the patronage of her parents, but they don’t ask for anything in particular from her work; she can do as she pleases. Maile is thus allowed to display a pure form of the artistic process. There are no conventions for her to follow, even with her choice of media (Qtips, blue painter’s tape, zip ties, to name a few).
Maile can be selfish about her curiosity, intellect, and most importantly, her art. We are all taught that “selfish” is a dirty word, but selfishness is the backbone of her work. She follows her own perspectives and ideas, she creates what makes her happy; none of her ideas belong to anyone else. How many “mature” artists can claim that to be true for themselves? Maile doesn’t have to make statements or forge a philosophical rebellion; she makes her work purely for her own enjoyment. She does not have to struggle with all of the common barriers, burdens, responsibilities and everything else that comes with getting old.
Maile is not aware of any divisions or conflicts, and doesn’t have to reclaim what she already has. When Maile thinks of something new, it does not go through any sort of adult filtering. Her ideas aren’t modified because she doesn’t have to ask herself questions like: Do I have the money to buy the materials? Do I have the time to make this? Am I even talented? Who is going to buy this? Will my peers like it? Plenty of artists let convention make these decisions for them because convention, as we learned in adolescence, was always safe – it taught you that the average and the normal were virtuous. As a result, art made in this mindset is what everyone else actually wanted it to be: dull and sterile.
It’s probably impossible actually to remember what it is like to be nine. However, there is plenty to take from it, more than just the spontaneity and curiosity of youth. This exhibition should remind the adult viewer of the things they lost over time or, in some situations, gave away willingly. There are plenty of places to give it away: school, curators, critics, peers, the media, or worst of all, the Disney channel. Being nine is a condition that may not be fully regained, and it’s that much harder as you get that much older; but those who can re-find it end up changing aesthetic perception: Manet, Rauschenberg, Whistler, Wright, Agnes Martin. Maile’s art belongs to her, not just physically. So seeing a Qtip in this exhibition is nothing to scoff at or to pity. Hopefully it makes you, honestly, consider the question,“What qualifies this work as art?” and stop asking the question, “Who qualifies this work as art?”
Cooper Johnson
Pomona, CA 2010
