A Conversation with Mitchell Syrop and Mayo Thompson

The Sculpture department organized a panel talk with Mitchell Syrop, Mayo Thompson, and Bruce Hainley, and sculpture department head Lisa Lapinski monitored, or at least tried to. Thompson, known for his experimental, psychedelic rock band The Red Krayola Munster, talked/ muttered throughout the entire hour long discussion and more or less dominated the conversation with his dark, random witticisms and all around awkward interjections. It was amusing to watch this discussion spiral out of control, and interesting to hear such experienced artists talk about their lives in such a casual manner. Though the discussion mostly constituted of Thompson's didactics ("Learn to say no, and like it." "You learn to not care about [the art world] thinks.") the discussion mostly centered around Mitchell Syrop who played one of his videos at the beginning of the conversation. The video was entitled "Watch It/Think It" and showed a woman repeatedly taking sips from a glass of water, advertising it with a coy smile and suggestive turn of her body as a woman's voice repetitively said "Watch it," and the text "Think it" flashed on screen. Obviously it was a commentary on advertising, though Syrop pointed out it was not critiquing the manipulative aspects of advertising but rather allowing the viewer to be empowered in being able to make judgments by viewing these commercial techniques and hypnotic effects they experience through advertising. Well, he didn't say it in so many words, as he remained vague and distant throughout the whole discussion but he did mention he wanted the piece to be whatever the viewer wanted it to be. Syrop is from a group of new Conceptualists, those who studied under the Conceptual kings such as John Baldessari and Michael Asher who pioneered the Conceptual movement. While the conceptualists focused on depicting the commercial demise of the art world, Syrop enthusiastically utilizes commercial elements in his work, most notably a museum exhibition that was essentially a giftshop entitled Matrix. Besides the delicious fruit tart and iced tea they served after the discussion, I thought there was one part of the night that really validated my attendance. Lisa asked Syrop what it was like to learn under the greats of Conceptualism, and Syrop just replied that his teachers, and himself, are not comfortable with the art world, and that it was essentially all about just making work you want to make. I thought this was very true, though one's work may have social implications or relate to some kind of cultural or political issue, that's entirely up to the viewer and the so-called art experts. It all boils down to doing something that you want to do and explore, and what each person takes out of it is entirely up to them.