Wart…Me Smalls…Too or The Paradox of Outsider Art
Ever since Duchamp placed a urinal in a gallery, the overwhelming influence of an institution in validating objects as ‘art’ has been well known. To place an object in a gallery automatically endows it with a status as ‘art’. What remains uncertain is the extent to which artists will recognise the relevance of these objects.
So already, regardless of whether it is a mass produced object or a painting by an ‘Outsider Artist’ the work in the gallery is Art. Thus it is not the Art, but the Artist who must be the outsider for the phrase ‘Outsider Art’ to hold any water.
But who exactly is an Outsider?
Callan Park Gallery for Self-Taught and Outsider Art presents a new show Wart……Me Smalls…Too….., an eclectic collection of art and found objects by the well known Sydney art personality Wart.
Wart seems, on a superficial level, to fulfill the requirements needed to be an ‘outsider artist’. Wart is outside of the social norm; she dresses differently, talks loudly with little care for etiquette and refuses to conform. Wart knowingly maintains her behaviour at an almost performative level when frequenting the Inner West galleries at which her reputation precedes her.
But rather than being ignorant of social norms and etiquette, Wart is keenly aware of them. Her performance is a pastiche of the roles and rules we all obey. She carries conversations based on mindless stories of her cat, which are amusing, but as soon as you realise it’s a parody of yourself, lose their appeal. So too can the way Wart juxtaposes op-shop clothes to come up with something haute couture. Wart parodies the art world, and presents it straight back. But the reception is awkward, with no one wanting to acknowledge the truth behind it, so she’s brushed off as an outsider, lest the pretentions be unveiled.
Wart is inside the art world regardless of to what extent she is an outsider socially. Aware of current art trends and a comprehensive history of the Sydney art scene of the past decade her art is not made in ignorance of other art. Ultimately it is this that would define an outsider artist, the ignorance of an art world outside of their own. For Wart the art world is her world, and she has managed to manipulate it ensuring a show at Callan Park.
There is surely a tacit agreement between Wart and Colin Rhodes, Dean of Sydney College of the Arts, expert in Primitivism and Director of Callan Park Gallery, both of whom are aware of the thinly veiled premise on which Wart is exhibiting. The press release itself says that Wart “tests the boundaries of Outsider Art’s definition to breaking point.” Indeed it does, it defies it. Wart went to art school.
with Francesca Heinz
