Tom Judd | The World Is Flat
May 19 – June 18, 2011
Chapter 3: Artwork To The People
In 1997, Tom Judd curated a month long rotating exhibition at the TZ Art Gallery in New York City called “The Chalkboard Chronicles”. Using three large chalkboards, twelve artists were asked to abandon the concept of the ‘cloistered artist working in isolation’ by exploring the process of creating art in a public forum. This documented event began with three artists to a chalkboard in the window of the gallery. After one week, the boards were erased, making any outcome strictly temporary. Throughout the process, artists were interviewed before, during and after their time appearing in the creative act to gallery pedestrians.
Judd’s “Chalkboard Chronicles” challenged both artists and audience to rework their notion of how and where the creative process of two-dimensional image- making resides. The meticulous hours of footage were a node to the nostalgia-laden documentation of a fleeting moment in time, an act without a tangible outcome.