What is Art? - Southwestern Law School

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146 J. INT’L MEDIA &ENTERTAINMENT LAW VOL. 4,NO. 2tentionally set themselves huge challenges: technical, financial, managerial,bureaucratic—and legal. Each work is effectively a legal andbusiness obstacle course; artwork that intentionally embraces the lawas a tool for its creation. 130Carey Young’s 131 artworks during the last decade, often involving ateam of specialist lawyers, have addressed and subverted the law,legal concepts and language. For example: Terms and Conditions,2004; 132 Consideration, 2004–5. 133 Mutual Release, 2008, is arguablyher most ambitious ‘artlaw’ work to date: it poses the question “Canthe legal contract be a form of art?” through a series of six works“which invite the viewer to enter into, or be privy to contractual relationshipsbased on viewing, owning and collecting art.” 134 In theseworks Young uses the law as an artistic medium, inviting the spectatortoexperience“theotherwiseabstractspaceofthecontract...andfurther develops her interest in both the performative and the conceptualdimension of the law to explore its limits and to destabilise itslanguage.” 135Paris, France, with sand-coloured polyamide fabric, The Pont Neuf, Wrapped; in 2005they installed 7,503 16 feet high gates of saffron coloured fabric on paths in CentralPark, New York City, The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979–2005.130. “I am an artist, and I have to have courage . . . Do you know that I don’t haveany artworks that exist? They all go away when they’re finished. Only the preparatorydrawings and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character. I thinkit takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that willremain.” Christo quoted in MARK GETLEIN, LIVING WITH ART (2006).131. Born in Lusaka, Zambia in 1970, she is based in London. Young’s artworksencompass a wide range of mediums including video, photography, digital mediaand text. Her works have been acquired by major public collections: the Centre Pompidou,Paris, France; Arts Council England; and Tate, London.132. “A short video which features a be-suited female presenter speaking to camerain a welcoming tone whilst standing in an idyllic agricultural landscape, replete withreferences to the painterly landscape tradition. Her speech appears to discuss the “site”but the text is actually a composite of disclaimers from corporate websites. In the ruralsetting, the speech seems both absurd and curiously apt.” See http://www.careyyoung.com/works.133. An exhibition of mixed media works that “featured a series of legally-enforceablecontracts between artist and viewer. Created in conjunction with a legal team, the text,video and performative works entice the viewer into agreements that explore notionsof individual autonomy, freedom of speech and the social contract. Engaging participantsin a series of contractual relationships, Young dissects the viewer’s experienceof the exhibition, from accepting the exhibition invitation, to entering and movingaround the exhibition space. With legally-trained executives increasinglyrunning movie studios, news agencies and universities, Consideration interrogatesthe legal ‘lock down’ of contemporary cultural life and develops Young’s interestin legal structures, language and the performative.” See http://www.careyyoung.com/works.134. See http://www.careyyoung.com/works.135. Id.
WHAT IS ART? 147“What is art?” will undoubtedly remain a quintessential unanswerablequestion. But, as we have seen, the law has frequently been requiredto address exactly this issue. The results are as interestingand enigmatic as the question; and will continue to involve the interfacebetween and reconciliation of two almost diametrically opposeddisciplines.
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