“How have you been an
artist today?” is the question that forms the backbone
of Michael Smit’s socially focused project. With
it, this Dutch artist manifests his interest in renegotiating
the role of art in the world at large. The process-based
intervention goes something like this: Smit and his assistants
engage the question in conversations with people in various
(and mostly public) sites. For this exhibition, he brings
the ongoing and almost organically evolving investigation,
one that relies on the participation of viewers like you,
into the gallery, a place where thoughts about creative
practices are in a rare position in the foreground.
It is the specific query as much as the
relational process that Smit is interested in. There
are aspects of conceptualism, performance art, self-empowerment,
research, and socio-political critique in the way this
project takes exhibition form. His installation room
is an environment that seems equally utilitarian and
artistic. Similarly, his work seeks change like the art
of Beuys, and is situated in the margins like that of
Gonzales-Torres. Smit’s primary intention is to
invite a creative relationship with the world. To consider
his question will hopefully spur new awareness of the
practical power of art. Whether we term ourselves artists
or not, there is always a way in which we face the world
and create meaning that can be considered artwork. Sometimes
we just need someone to remind us of the fact.
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