Containing = Hate, installation view, Allison Rentz, 2006. Photo: Stan Woodard.

My sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Klages, once told us kids an apocryphal story about how circus elephants are trained. Apparently, when the elephant is a wee calf, the trainer ties a rope around its leg and tethers it to a stake in the ground. At that age, the elephant is smarter than it is strong, so it realizes that it cannot move beyond a given radius and sooner or later it stops trying to do so.

Elephants have emotional memories as long and as strong as any other higher mammal, and this turns out to be their undoing. As it matures the calf learns to associate the rope with immobility. This association remains into adulthood, so much so that in order to stop a circus elephant from charging, one need only tie a rope around its leg. The other end is tied to... nothing. That elephant will go nowhere.

Now I'm sure to get email from someone who knows someone who knows someone who was in the circus who will insist that Mrs. Klages was a damn dirty liar, but don't harsh my buzz. I'm making a bigger point.

I hate standing around with a rope around my ankle tied to nothing. And I don't like it when other artists do either.

That's why I jumped at the opportunity to get involved with Idea Capital earlier this year. Basically, Idea Capital (web site to come) is just a small group of artists and cultural workers* that have gotten together to help make someone's art happen**. We all pony up a little cash and then select an artist who could use a small, but important boost to make art that wouldn't receive support anywhere else.

So we just announced the first winner: Allison Rentz, she of the plastic sheeting and self-appointed dictator of her own art empire. This is what we'll be supporting (from the press release; pdf):

Ms. Rentz will receive the inaugural $500 prize to support a new work titled “Pool.” The artist describes the work as a multi-media “immersive world” in which invited “art students, architects, artists, designers, musicians, and chefs” will engage in a total sensory installation that “lives in and out of the water.” The work will also include a video projection and scripted audience participation.

Why Allison? One of the many, many, many complaints I continue to hear is that anything risky, edgy, and progressive languishes in this city while paintings of grapes and dilapidated houses fly off the gallery walls. So it became important to me—I'm speaking for myself here—to reverse this trend, to pointedly support that which wears its freakishness on its sleeve, that which celebrates the odd thought and the unresolved consciousness.

This was a competitive thing, and we got a decent number (18) of very competent entries. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised. But selecting one artist means that 17 or more didn't get selected. There is room to do so much more, which is why want to see other groups start to do similar things.

Or better yet, join Idea Capital. We've already gotten 3 18 new inquiries. Positions are open and anyone is welcome.

*Stuart Keeler, Pam Rogers, Louise Shaw, Susan Todd-Raque, and myself.
**Some of you undoubtedly know about the artists' association I've been clanging pots all over town about starting. No, this is not that. This is direct peer-to-peer funding.

*Clapping Hands*

That is fantastic!!

Recently, I handed a certain performance artist a couple bucks - "Hey, do you take tips." She was hesitant to take it, but really, please please do. We want you to do well! Really.

I'm not able to donate now, but I'll certainly let you know.

Ironically, sometimes the very artists that decry poverty and lack of appreciation can also have a hard time getting their minds around someone actually showing appreciation and support. Sometimes this is OK, just a matter of confronting the unfamiliar. But I've also seen it take more damaging forms: artists whose identity is so based on their romantic notion of poverty and endless struggle that they do whatever it takes to make sure they remain in that condition, lest they lose the identity they've spent a lifetime building.

Re: donation. We'll hold you to that.

awesome - this post makes me feel good good good. It's nice to see an artist get funding who didn't have to give 101 reasons why their art will appeal to every man, woman, and child inside the perimeter.

I know, right?

Also side note: I know I've said this a jillion times before, but I feel like every artist should at one time or another serve on some kind of selection committee—I think if they did, there would be a lot less hurt feelings out there. These selections always come down to some near-impossible choice between any number of very, very, very good candidates. But in the end you have to choose just one, realizing that everyone who doesn't get chosen will come away thinking that you think they are a bad artist. And that's just not the case. The choice of Allison, for example, came down to her willingness to absolutely go there. Some on the committee felt she was more successful than others, but we all agreed on the need to reward someone willing to piss some people off, baffle some people, and fuck with some heads.

Going there - definitely Rentz's strong point. I really didn't want to miss her performance last Saturday.