‘PATHETIC ACADEMIC’ / Thursday 24 May 2012, 6 – 9pm

A celebration of books from artists and writers associated with The Centre for Useless Splendour and Kingston University Contemporary Art Research Centre.

Dolce Havana’s and Margarita’s served at 7pm

The title ‘PATHETIC ACADEMIC’ comes from several different sources – ‘Just Pathetic’ – curated by Ralph Rugoff in Los Angeles 1990, that included artists Mike Kelley, Cady Noland etc – artists prominent in their field, as artists-who-teach and in the words of Robert Storr ‘Just Pathetic’ embodied – ‘an art-school-savvy rebuke to the pretensions of Schnabelists and October-ists… ‘.In 2001 the exhibition and accompanying lecture ‘Pathetic Academic Art in Los Angeles’, by Ray Brown – an artist who taught at UCLA late 80’s through 90’s with Charles Ray, Paul McCarthy, Chris Burden et al., was staged at Artlab, Imperial College, London, by Cullinan Richards.

‘PATHETIC ACADEMIC 2012’ launches several publications, hosts several events and celebrates many successes from a group of artists involved in teaching and studying in the School of Fine Art at Kingston. An unconventional title to treat a highly respected field that is so full of paradoxes, is meant to inspire creativity and is a quest to champion as well as challenge our centre for research – CARC. ‘PATHETIC ACADEMIC 2012’ wants to be bad and good at the same time, just as we would like to have the pathetic fail, only to succeed.

“There is an old feud boiling, painters versus conceptual artists. The doctrine of painting and beauty versus the doctrine of Michael Asher. It’s all locked up in this age-old flickering. Then there is technology — the Unabomber, theory, fear of theory. The artists affect theory versus theory affects the artists. Who controls the castle? It’s a laugh a minute.” Excerpt from interview with Paul McCarthy 2003, Bomb Magazine.

Cullinan Richards

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