neil cummings

the enthusiast has the same relationship to capital as the gift to the commodity

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Lapdogs

Its been a long time coming, but the book of the Lapdogs project is just published by Sternberg Press

Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie
Class Hegemony in Contemporary Art

Edited by Nav Haq and Tirdad Zolghadr

Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie investigates the latent issue of class underlying the field of contemporary visual art. On the one hand, it raises the question of whether a given socioeconomic background still helps define your artistic career—and to which point the said career might reflect or consolidate the hierarchies in question. On the other hand, the project asks whether the traditional analytical tools at our disposal are helpful in such an examination of the art world today.

Class inevitably raises awkward questions regarding the very participants, their backgrounds, patrons, and ideological partialities. This is perhaps the reason why the role of class structure has been so easily overlooked in the production and presentation of contemporary art, especially so in an era where artists are coaxed into anthropological framings of their practice.

What was it that made gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality eclipse the class issue with such ease?

Lapdogs

I intalled the Lapdogs film in the exhibition that produced it, Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie at the Arnolfini in Bristol. Curated by Nav Haq and Tirdad Zolghadr, the exhibition/research project has been peripatetically roving for the last two years; to London, Berlin, Stockholm, Istanbul and Cairo. For Bristol, I created an environment; part cheap but chic domestic interior, part Lapdogs Media stand at a media trade fair.

The other artists included Annika Eriksson, Dirk Fleischmann/Michele di Menna, Chris Evans, Liam Gillick, San Keller, Hassan Khan, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Marion von Osten and Anup Mathew Thomas

Political economy 1

I was in Cairo in November 2008 to make a short film for an exhibition curated by Nav Haq and Tirdad Zolghadr entitled Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie at the Townhouse Gallery.

Althought I had visited some twenty five years ago, Cairo is still an amazing experience.

In some downtime I went to visit two mosques side-by-side, the majestic Sultan Hassan and Ar Rifa’r which contains the tomb of the Shah of Iran. As a tourist you need tickets to enter. There was a wooden kiosk with a lady inside. I ask for a ticket.

Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie

I was in Cairo in November 2008 to shoot a short film for an exhibition entitled Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie. It's in a ‘reality’ TV style. A broadcast ‘trailer’, in fact a synopsis of a future programme. Its a copy of Faking It.

Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie explores issues of class in contemporary art. Faking It is all about class.