main gallery: september 7 to october 20

by Jeanne Figueira Grossetti

A famous Zen koan asks us, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
Joseph Kosuth invites us to consider “Five Words in White Neon” (1965).

Like the Zen koan practice – designed to stimulate spontaneous awakening to the ultimate nature of existence – Conceptual Art invites us to break through preconceptions and illusions. Both creative movements impel us to reconsider the assumptions we make based upon conventional wisdom and ordinary experience.

Conceptual Art, like Zen, self-consciously uses paradox to create a tension between the rational, critical thought of the conscious mind and the experiential, intuitive knowings of the unconscious. Within this tension, we must re-evaluate our understandings of the nature of Communication… of Consciousness… and, of course, of Art.

Much of the corpus of Conceptual Art challenges traditional ideas and ideals of Art: the validity of the “precious” Object, the purpose and privileged status of the Art Space, and the authority of the Art World to assign value and communicate meaning.

And what of “The Ineffable Object,” the focus of the upcoming exhibition at the Cleveland State University Art Gallery?

The “Ineffable Object” may refer to the Conceptual Art enterprise itself – whether object, prospectus, or body of evidence. It may also refer to the interface between Conceptual Art and the Space in which this work is manifested, contextualized, and/or commemorated: the gallery. Ultimately, it also refers to the “ineffable object of desire” which exists in the mind. In the words of Jungian analyst James Hollis: “What we wish most to know, most desire, remains unknowable and lies beyond our grasp.”

Like the Zen masters of the Buddhist East, the Conceptual Artists of the West employ skilful means to lead us into a state of profound paradox, from which we may break through to higher levels of consciousness which are hospitable to contradiction and ambiguity. As curators of Conceptual and Neo-Conceptual Art, we conspire with them.

Jeanne Figueira Grossetti
Lakewood, Ohio
July 1, 2007

Jeanne Figueira Grossetti was co-curator with Robert Thurmer of Visionaries (2001), The Buddha Project: Visual Manifestations of Buddhist Thought in the Western World (2004) and Memento Mori: Artists Grapple with Issues of War and Peace (2005).