I started a project several years ago entitled Substitution, which until now, was never completed. I asked several artists to complete the following sentence: “Instead of Making Art I ___” (Au lieu de faire de l'art je/j'ai ___ ) by filling in the blank. The idea was taken from a conceptual art project of the same name, by the artist Frederick Barthelme in the 1970's. He had at the time, sent the same question to artists and friends via letters and the beloved fax machine. By doing so, Barthelme cast his question in a bottle into a sea of responses. I've not seen many of the original answers he received in return and would hope that they're compiled somewhere in an anthology of conceptual art.
I’ve always had a great interest in this type of art, a soft spot for Dada & Surrealism, and word/text art in general. I liked the simplicity of Barthelme’s project and decided to do a "cover", so to speak, of his project by updating it by 21st century standards in using the communication technology of today – email. I emailed the artists participating the exact same question and encouraged them to use other technics such as digital images, animations, graphics etc. as a way of answering. The only rule (hardly) was that the responses remain virtual, no printed or hard copies were accepted. You'll find their answers on the next page.
I hope you'll discover a variety of responses that are surprising, that are often very candid, and often times are very funny but nonetheless worthy of further discussion and investigation into what artists do with their FREE time when not making art. If such a thing could be possible... I also encourage you to leave your own comments as to what you do or don't do, when not working as an artist. Enjoy!
Here are the responses:
DATE: January 27, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #19
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I _______________#####_________
######
_______###############
##################_________________________________________
@ @
_____ @ @ __
@ @
___________________________________________
________________+ = ______________________________
Maura Vazakas
DATE: January 27, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #7
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I make notions.
Aristotle Georgiades
DATE: January 27, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #68
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I made people.
Daphne Hill
DATE: January 29, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #77
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I 
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Scott Mellen
DATE: January 29, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #71
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I am making my gravestone. The things I make will last longer than me, when I am dead my art will be the one thing that says who I was, what I was thinking about, what I thought was important. I laugh when I meet an artist who is too attached to their work, and doesn't want to sell anything. These things that we create will last longer than us or our children. Art is our legacy.
Ryan Campbell
DATE: January 28, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #2
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I traverse the inner and outer landscape, building a bridge between the two worlds. OM Shanti Shanti Shanti.....
Régent Pellerin
DATE: March 30, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #52
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I traverse the inner landscape and explore the sub manifest of being. OMMmm…
Régent Pellerin
DATE: February 7, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #69
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I fuck my partner.
Tom Torluemke
DATE: March 4, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #23
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I pass time on the net admiring the vast human absurdity (yet sometimes joyful and the absurdity poofs in a dazzle of wonder). I visit recondite blogs and wonder why I'm posting to them even as I do so, and somehow the two fuse, resulting in this. And this.
Richard Gleaves
DATE: April 17, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #72
(..thus)
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I View image
Bruno Lavelle
DATE: February 1, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #6
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I play.
Bénédicte Henderick
DATE: April 29, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #36
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I do this and that and fuck around.
Carrie Ungerman
DATE: April 6, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #8
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I talk on the phone.
Diane Cole
DATE: April 6, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #7
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I make art.
Diane Cole
DATE: April 6, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #5
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I imagine making art.
Diane Cole
DATE: April 6, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #4
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I drive to the ocean.
Diane Cole
DATE: April 6, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #3
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I watch birds outside my window with binoculars.
Diane Cole
DATE: April 6, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #2
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I worry.
Diane Cole
DATE: April 6, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #1
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I write letters.
Diane Cole
DATE: April 25, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #58
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I sit.
Watch.
Whisper.
Sit & Think.
Watch my children.
Sit & Think & Talk.
Watch my children grow.
Sit & Think & Talk & Listen.
Francis Bekemans
DATE: April 25, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #59
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I
Francis Bekemans
DATE: August 19, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #34
Fabian D'Hondt
DATE: August 19, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #35
Fabian D'Hondt
DATE: April 8, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #30
INSTEAD OF WRITING ART CRITICISM I watch and re-watch american films from the early 1970's. I immerse myself in this golden age of film that seems as far removed from today's world as the silent films of the 1920's. The paranoia and anti-establishment tone that passes through the good and bad films of all genres of this time period has a rawness that provides an antidote to today's preoccupation with irony.
John Brunetti
DATE: April 10, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #8
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I walk across town, talking all kinds of crazy shit with a friend.
Jihef
DATE: April 10, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #7
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I want to build wider sidewalks, with smooth flat tar covering.
Jihef
DATE: April 10, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #9
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I stand still under a highway bridge, watching the sun slowly rising.
Jihef
DATE: April 10, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #11
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I ride the subway all the way till the end stop, and back again.
Jihef
DATE: April 9, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #55
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I go incognito.
The perception of an artist varies from culture to culture, therefore, I never try to explain what I do until directly asked. I don’t mean this in an asocial way but actually just the opposite. I want to meet as many new people as possible and learn from their experiences. I do not want to preconceive or stereotype each encounter nor do I want the reverse to happen to me. BY not outwardly declaring the fact I am an artist, allows for an open dialog to exist.
Far too often the artist is seen as aloof, hypercritical and arrogant.
I‘m not trying to say that a reputation and the need to be liked are my goals, but rather that a more neutral basis for communication could be established. I sincerely feel that if I can achieve a daily routine not too unlike that of my neighbors, I am a more accomplished artist than if I try to live on another stratosphere. I know this sounds like conformity but I see it as public relations.
I have read over the years as many business management books as I have artist biographies or philosophers. Art is my business and I am its employee. Hence, I try to follow a logic that everyone is a potential customer that I do not wish to alienate with a discourse that is too intimidating. So, the bottom line is if I am not making my art, I‘m trying to market it or myself. However at the same time, I am guided by the art philosopher Otto Rank who said :
For the artist, his calling is not a means of livelihood, but life itself; and this explains not only the difficulties of his existence, since his main object cannot be the earning of money, but his struggles in love and life, which in the productive type spring from the impulse to create, and not vice versa.
James Renier
DATE: January 26, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #56
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I spy.
In my first writing I stated I went incognito instead of making art. This applied to my mindset at the time. Since then I have had a wealth of experiences and opportunities to change my mentality. The following is an excerpt from version one: The perception of an artist varies from culture to culture; therefore, I never try to explain what I do until directly asked. I don’t mean this in an asocial way but actually just the opposite. I want to meet as many new people as possible and learn from their experiences. I do not want to preconceive or stereotype each encounter nor do I want the reverse to happen to me. BY not outwardly declaring the fact I am an artist, allows for an open dialog to exist.
I still believe in this statement and I think I was able to go a step further. I had been concerned about the confrontation with an artist. I am now dedicated to exploring the initial confrontation with a work of art. My goal is to put myself into the various works and be a receptor like a video camera. In an exhibition of my own work I was able to test this position. I made a series of book like objects and presented them at a book fair. My sole intention was not to sell the objects but to record the expressions of the public.
I spied.
Interestingly enough I was able to see a difference. Not only between individuals but also most distinctly between the sexes. Mondrian was correct with his theory that his vertical lines represented the spiritual and women and his horizontal lines represented materialism and men. It was curious to watch how the women attempted to pry the book apart as if I had hidden a secret and the men drove it like I had invented a new steering wheel. Not that some women did not attempt to test drive the book but no man ever interested himself with the content. Men were satisfied/interested with the titles and colors while examining to see how it was made. The women asked questions probing to get at the secret intention or at least to find out if there was a hidden agenda. Taking this curiosity further I spy at museums as well. If I cannot make the art I want to see how people react to something new and different (therefore I only spy in contemporary art museums).
What are the reactions?
How long do they look?
Do they ask a question?
Does the work inspire a dialog with their partner?
When alone are they motivated to go to the library or bookshop to do further research?
I spy to see if I can find an answer to any of these questions.
James Renier
DATE: March 29, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #56
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART je perds du temps,
because I spend the time of a Real life in that of a sedentary man. A life determined in Brussels here and now, around the year 2000 to be exact. Without fortune nor ivory tower, I work then with what ends up belonging to others, in order to nourish my family with that which one pays me for this socially valid activity. The qualité of the exclusive angel having yielded to the quality of the inclusive human being; I cannot be any more only an artist who lives beyond the trivial contingencies of a concrete existence. But this results also in less works made as if it were necessary to pay this price, the privilege of such an engagement.
There are privileges which are lost !
Michael Wauthoz
DATE: May 5, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #66
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I Mousse à la nécessité
Ingrédients:
pour 4 personnes: 400 gr. de sincérité
15 gr. de concept fraîchement moulu
4 dl. de bonne foi fraîche
4 gros espaces
Préparatifs et finition (37 ans)
1. Mettre 1 dl. de nécessité à bouillir. Ajouter le concept fraîchement moulu, diminuer le feu et laisser tirer 10 min. Passer à l'étamine.
2. Déposer ce concept fraîchement moulu dans une casserole moyenne, ajouter la sincérité et, sur petit feu, la laisser à peine fondre. Mélanger et retirer du feu.
3. Dans un bol, battre la bonne foi fraîche au fouet jusqu'à l'obtention d'une très, très légère chantilly. La bonne foi ne peut absolument être trop battue, elle doit rester fluide sinon la mousse serait trop dure. La mélanger intimement et délicatement à la sincérité.
4. Dans un autre bol, battre les espaces en commençant doucement et, au fur et à mesure, en augmentant le rythme. Quand les espaces commencent à former une belle mousse, y laisser tomber en pluie le travail de plus en plus énergiquement.
Lorsque les espaces forment une mousse compacte, l'incorporer délicatement, à la spatule, au mélange sincérité-foi.
5. Déposer dans un grand bol ou de petits ramequins individuels. Mettre au réfrigérateur et laisser reposer 3 h. Si vous la consommez le lendemain, elle sera encore meilleure.
Suggestion de menu
- La terrine d'art de canard aux raisons sultanes
- La substitution printanière
- La mousse à la nécessité
Dans les verres, pour la mousse
- Le primordial est sans doute la seule boisson à pouvoir tenir quelque peu tête à la nécessité
- Sinon de l'eau
D'après une recette originale de Pierre Wynants
"Comme chez soi " aux éditions Robert Laffont.
Natalia DeMello
DATE: May 28, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #60
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I breath. I beat. I eat.
Pablo Reinoso
DATE: May 28, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #60
INSTEAD OF WRITING
écarté et renversée
qu’elle remonte les genoux
tend la langue
et bouche
redressée.
Paul Simonetti
DATE: January 1, 2000
SUBSTITUTION: #60
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART JE me lève, je m'ai réveillé avec de la confiture partout autour de la bouche, ensuite j'ai mangé une tartine de pâté; j'aime bien ça avec mon café au lait. Je joue de la batterie en tapant avec une petite cuillère sur mon bol (superchunk) évidemment je m'emmerde mais ça passe. Le soleil éclaire. Je vais faire caca. y' à toujours quelqu'un qui me téléphone pendant que je suis sur la cuvette.
Armand Lestard
DATE: April 15, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #7
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I look at it.
Pascal Carré
DATE: March 4, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #61
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I'm gonna look for a few unsuspecting hostage victims on the streets of Chicago and Los Angeles. Then, I'm gonna take them hostage, one at a time (Limit 3 hostages). Each hostage will be privately taken to an undisclosed location, and forced to make art. Basically, it's like a sweat shop, except it's an Art Sweat Shop for unsuspecting pedestrians. Each hostage will be given a choice of 3 mediums with which to make art: Video, Drawings, or Photographs. The hostage will not be given any painting materials, because I'm against painting. Each detainee will be given their choice of juice, soda, or coffee, and a corn muffin. The duration of the detention will be roughly 1 to 2 hours, or depending on how much art the hostage gets done. The more prolific the hostage, the shorter the duration of their detention. I will not use any physical abuse, and each detainee will be allowed to make one call. Calls to other artists, or institutions that support the arts will not be allowed. I will be making use of verbal threats. Depending on the situation, I will yell, however, I probably won't curse. The phrase "I'm not gonna hurt you", will become a very important motivator during the hostage phase. Verbal abuse, still seems to be an effective way of getting things done, including the creation of art. All completed art will become my property, and essentially, I will take full responsibility for the work completed as a result of this hostage crisis. The pseudo-Artist hostage loser, will be released in the woods with a brief summary on the history of art. Final results will be documented on video.
Ron DeLegge
DATE: March 28, 2002
SUBSTITUTION: #100
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I
Am making up
Making out
Making sure
Making believe
Making fun
I make a fuss
Make a mess
Make a scene
Make a joke
Make a deal
Make a move
I am making it happen
I am making it right
Susie Brandt
Bruno Lavelle
DATE: March 27, 2006
SUBSTITUTION: #98
INSTEAD OF MAKING ART I drive in rush hour traffic with a note pad fixed to the steering wheel to jot down new ideas for art work and make notes on what I see around me and hear on the radio.
I spend as much time as I can in the garden trying to empty my mind of old thoughts, Erase the disk.
I read the paper. I watch as much TV as possible to put me to sleep. I try to see as many advertisements as possible directed at the general public because Google will take them away in the future and all I’ll see are directed adds based on my consumer behavior. (imagine adds based on art and art related subjects- boring)
Most of my spare time I spend planning art projects far into the future.
I spend time trying to figure out how to start a business to generate income so I can spend more time planning art projects and perhaps completing them.
I use masturbation as a form of exercise to increase my heart rate. Sometimes taking a walk will achieve the same result and provide better visual stimulation.
Sometimes I like to shop at local children’s lemonade and junk stands.
Michael Arata
YOUR TURN NOW
Video installation is the conjunction of opposites (or, to put it another way: video installation is like having your cake and eating it, too). On the one hand, "installation" places an art-work in a specific site, for a specific time ( a specific duration and also, possibly a specific historic time). On the other hand, "video" (with its consequences followed through: video broadcast on television) is placeless: at least, its place can't be determined --- there's no way of knowing the particular look of all those millions of homes that receive the TV broadcast.
The day before, I received a call from a mother of one of my piano students. Great news came from the handset. My student's high school was giving away symphony tickets to the marching band kids (of which my student is their star tuba player)...AND their friends. So the mom asked me if i wanted some tickets. Now, that is like asking a prisoner if he wants the key to his cell door. I usually have experienced at least one San Diego Symphony concert by now, but, this being a very busy year for me, had not even heard a live peep from any orchestra. She (the mom) continued. The concert, she said, was featuring the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by one of the greatest living pianists (Mikhail Pletnev) and on the program, my two favorite composers--Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff (I have their goddamn plaster busts on my piano for pete's sake!). She could have stopped there. Didn't she see me floating skyward past the clouds, I wondered? And the pianist is playing Rach's 2nd, she continued. By now, I landed back to earth, but my son had to revive me. Would you like to go, she said. YYEESSSSS!!, I blurted out.