Metabolic Studio Public Salon:Sue Bell YankFriday, April 16, 2010 @ NoonFree Admission

From Sculpture to Practice:

Tracing the Development of the Social through Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys was a well-known albeit controversial historical figure who was able to encapsulate his paradigm-shifting work in a few useful phrases - most notably, the phrase “social sculpture,” which illustrates Beuys’ idea that activities which structure and shape society are a form of art no longer confined to a material object or artifact. From this radical notion (and buttressed by decades of expanded, non-object based conceptual practice) arose a variety of practices engaged in social and spatial issues through participatory, research-based, and collaborative processes. Using Beuys as a jumping-off point, this salon will survey the notion of "social practice" or "participatory artwork" from its historical roots to its diverse contemporary forms.

Sue Bell Yank is the Assistant Director of Academic Programs at the Hammer Museum, and was intimately involved in the formation and conceptualization of the Watts House Project. She writes frequently about social practice on her blog and has published in the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest and Mammut Magazine. Yank graduated from the USC Masters of Public Art Studies program in 2008.

Image: Joseph Beuys, Joseph Beuys's Action Piece, 26-6 February 1972; presented as part of seven exhibitions held at the Tate Gallery 24 Feburary - 23 March 1972 © Tate Archive Photographic Collection

Further information: www.suebellyank.com