What Business Are You In?

Artists comment on the institutional realm in Atlanta Contemporary Art
Center’s exhibition, “What Business Are You In?”, curated by Helena Reckitt.
Jan 29 - March 26 2005, with an artist's reception on Jan 29th, 8 - 10pm
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Artists included:
Michael Aurbach (Nasvhille, TN), Alex Bag (New York, NY), Andrea Fraser
(New York, NY), Jason Irwin (New York, NY), Gunilla Klingberg (Stockholm,
Sweden), Lucy Kimbell (London, England), Irene Moon (Lexington, KY),
Christian Philipp Müller (New York, NY and Franfurt, Germnay), Adrian Piper
(USA), John Salvest (Jonesboro, AK), Carey Young (London, England).
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Artists’ relationships with the corporate and academic worlds are complex and often contradictory. Far from the myth of the romantic outsider, most artists depend on the support of institutions and corporations, much as they did on the aristocracy or church in the past. As artists engage in self-promotion and branding, and outsource the production of their work, the ground shared by art, higher education, and commerce becomes clear.

A number of artists immerse themselves in business life to revitalize the idea of what art is and might be. Some use mimicry in order to insert themselves within corporate or academic culture. Others take an anthropological approach, taking the university or the corporation as subject matter.

Unlike first generation conceptual artists, whose tactics developed in tandem with - and were often absorbed by - the mass media, many of the artists showing in “What Business Are You In?” are not operating as strictly oppositional. Instead, by highlighting the codependence of individuals and organizations, they explore the moral ambiguities and strategic identifications demanded in our ideologically impure times.

What Business Are You In? presents artists from Britain, Germany, Sweden and
the United States working with photography, sculpture, video, performance, and installation. Quizzical, playful, and self-critical they explore the slippery definitions of art, artist, and entrepreneur.
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Programming associated with What Business Are You In? includes:

Irene Moon’s performance of “My Queen and I” during the opening reception
Irene Moon - www.begoniasociety.org <http://www.begoniasociety.org/>
Christian Philipp Müller Artist's Talk (Free)
Monday, January 31, 5 pm
Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University
Christian Philipp Müller - www.minettabrook.org
<http://www.minettabrook.org/>
Carey Young Artist's Talk at the Contemporary (Free)
Wednesday, February 16, 7 pm
Carey Young - www.careyyoung.com <http://www.careyyoung.com/>
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Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
535 Means Street, NW
Atlanta, Georgia
USA
Visit the ACAC website >
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This exhibit is funded in part by the College Art Association
<http://www.collegeart.org/> , the British Council
<http://www.britishcouncil-usa.org/arts> , and International Artists Studio
Program in Stockholm <http://www.iaspis.com/>
“What Business Are You In?” is sponsored by the College Art Association
(CAA), with support from the British Council for the Arts and the
International Artists Studio Program in Stockholm. The exhibit opens on
January 29, 2005 with an artists’ reception, preceded by a gallery talk and
closes on March 26, 2005. The CAA will hold the opening reception for their
2005 conference at the Contemporary on February 18, 2005. Irene Moon will
present a performance from “Scientifically Speaking” during the Artists’
Reception and again during the CAA event.