PK Langshaw's concepts of social design
go beyond the artwork pharmaKon and are re-enacted in
other viable ways that enable other communities to access
her content and research. She has also presented women's
issues on violence and depression, written a book, produced
a seven-minute short film, shot photographs and written
prescriptions herself to illustrate all of her beliefs
about this cause, again re-aphasizing the importance of
freedoms and liberties for all women to have access to
rather than being objectified and medicated. All of ger
actions can be accounted for on her website (www.pklangshaw.com).
PK has co-opted the web as a primary source for the distribution
and interpretation of her artwork. The artist states that
the temporal nature of a physical gallery is limited whereas
a website functions as an open and portal that is more
accessible and equalitarian to the needs of the public.
Langshaw writes,
"galleries remind me of a tremendous
amount of work for a fixed period of time and if one
misses that opportunity to share ones ideas then it
is over- I am intrigued by the web as a thinking space,
a process gallery where the audience may come and go
as many times and over time to see the work or not at
all."4
PK Langshaw's social involvement has encompassed organizing
and speaking at conferences on women's community and health
issues. PharmaKon was presented as part of a talk at the
Public Art as Social Intervention Conference in November
of 1999. This event explored issues of violence and art
as a healing process from the trauma. In keeping with
this theme, Langshaw presented a video and a performance
derived from pharmaKon. The performance incorporated actors
dressed in institutional lab coats, reading stories reflecting
on the different aspects of depression. After the presentation
each audience member was given an artwork from pharmaKon.
In this instance, the audience was presented with text
capsules.
In this new mode of distribution of pharmaKon, the work
was in contrast with its presentation since the latter
set up a distance of interaction and ownership while the
gifting game receipts on a control and understanding of
the issue. Likewise, the conference enabled Langshaw to
interact with the audience in intimate surroundings, thereby
initiating and inspiring each toward interaction, participation,
and intervention.
The manifestation of pharmaKon as a seven-minute video,
built from the work's physical preservation and included
further time-based elements including film, animated text
poetry, spoken verses, imagery and a soundtrack that all
reflected concepts dealing with depression. This piece
itself was composed to communicate and re-enact elements
related to depression. The video has been edited in an
abstract manner but yet it projects a sense on loneliness
and illustrates how depressed individuals are outcast
and segregated from society. Langshaw produced this video
work with regards to having it circulate at an educational
program where her concepts and message could reach younger
women and even men who may be experiencing similar feelings.
This use of art as education continue to demonstrate PK
Langshaw's interest in social design.
PK Langshaw's community work residing both in the
fine art, educational, and commercial market breaks
with traditions of how an artist distributes and manages
art. When considering art delivery, the physical gallery
and its white walls define the transparent boundaries
that enclose are. Art presented in this context may
limit social interaction rather than encourage new community
action from its display.
Martha Rosler's photographic series Bowery, from 1975
may act as a precedent to PK Langshaw's work both in
message and mandate. Rosler's work focused on homelessness
and preconceived notions of homelessness formed within
the context and relationship to documentary photography
in history. Rosler's images in this series depicted
abandoned belongings from homeless individuals in addition
to indexical descriptive text related next to each picture.
Although this work does seem passive in relation to
the issue of homelessness, Rosler did not intend for
the viewer to assist the homeless from their plight.
Her images were about a depiction of homelessness rather
than about community action. PK Langshaw, on the other
hand, utilizes the gallery space like Rosler as a space
for display but incorporates different vehicles of delivery
which engage the viewer and activate each in the message;
thus the viewer becomes both participant and activist
in examining Langshaw's work.
Another artist working closely to Langshaw's mandate
is Mary Kelly. Specifically, I am interested in the
early feminist piece by Kelly entitled Post Partum Document.
This work documents her son's early childhood and brings
to light concepts of obsession and depression while
focusing on depression and misclassification. Although
Kelly's work remains contained within the gallery wherein
her experiences are presented as sentimental objects
, representing concepts of nostalgia. Thus the viewer
is not activated within this artwork but is merely an
observer. PK Langshaw's work, like Mary Kelly's, relates
personal experiences, moreover, the latter artist's
strategy evokes action and community participation in
hopes to better comprehend the problem rather than just
viewing it as an isolated and abstract concept.
For PK Langshow and other artists, work that pursues
addressing the health and well-being in order to engage
and become part of the social fabric and local dialogue.
Langshaw illustrates through her various representations
of pharmaKon, her interests as a professor and an artist.
In both roles, she is interested in the responsibility
of how the work will read and be perceived when entering
the public realm. For her, fine art productions can
include a dynamic of social design and activism thereby
residing both within the realms of the gallery and the
communities wherein the message will be activated in
different ways through its presentation and context.
The viewer, irregardless, through if the work's location
must decide its success, must ask is success measured
by action? By its organization? By its presentation?
Ultimately, how art is read and reconceived is contingent
on what an audience expects. The importance of Langshaw's
work is in breaking boundaries of what to expect from
art, often communicating on many levels to various audiences
beyond the gallery walls.
Footnotes:
4 Eisler, Emilie
and Langshaw, P.K. Artist Interview. 2005. Pg. 1
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