Continuum Transfunctioner

Curated by - Gitanjali Dang Concept - Continuum Transfunctioner

Repeat after me:
This is not an exhibition; it is a search for the Continuum thingamajig.
This is not an exhibition; it is a search for the Continuum thingamajig.
This is not an exhibition; it is a search for the Continuum thingamajig.
This is not an exhibition; it is a search for the Continuum thingamajig.

Now that you have been successfully hypnotised, what follows should be eminently easy to sell and/or buy.
We the guardians of the nurturing fire of the Continuum Transfunctioner vow that this as-yet-unknown object - possibly as rare as copernicium - is capable of solving the many philosophical conundrums, posed by art.
But. It is also likely that this purported object's mysteries surpass its actual powers. And that it's problem-solving aptitude is just another contentious conspiracy theory hatched by this motley crew of six, at last count, artists and only one curator. Hint. Hint. Psst. Psst. (Is it possible, that we are sneakily/ intrepidly drawing up analogies between the particularities of art and the characteristics of this intriguingly nebulous object?)
The wise among us living may question, "Pray, what lofty philosophical conundrums are you yapping about?"
Let's answer the above query with another:
"The question is not whether it is a good work of art or bad, but how is it art at all?" asked Arthur Danto(1). The perfect icebreaker, no? How, indeed, is it art at all? As more and more and more hugely debilitating scenarios get circulated like cultural currency, for a perennially definitionless waif these are exacerbating and perilous times indeed.
So. By now you're probably Googling or Binging the title of this show. Don't bother. Here's the low down: the Continuum Transfunctioner comes to us via Dude, Where's My Car? (2000).
Our choice of this particularly asinine accomplice is imperative because frequently art can be about a lot of hegemonies and their lot of mysteries. Parallel reading of cultural phenomena is critical to inter/multi disciplinarity. Because, not only does it allow us to employ, hegemony, our most favouritest word, it also actually gives us the elbowroom to begin a tackle.
But, of course, matters come to a wicked boil when we choose to collude with one of the most dunderheaded films of our recent past. Add to this Michael Moore's departure on the film's title, Dude, Where's My Country? (2003), and our homegrown equation is ready to knock a few teeth off. How did something so roundly, and deservedly, trashed, first get into Michael Moore's (good) books and then travel some more and become suddenly cult?
The morphing of a cultural artefact or work from a particularly inglorious extreme to dazzling cult stardom is an occurrence that oughta be figured with some perspicacity because it could offer insight into the critical question posed by Danto.
We @ Continuum Transfunctioner would like to think that we're swiping the crud of dusty things. But it's also possible that this, what we have here, is a hugely dysfunctional case study.
(Excerpted from Gitanjali Dang's essay for the exhibition catalogue)
Notes 1. Arthur Danto, 'The Last Work of Art: Artworks and Real Things' in Aesthetics: A Critical Anthology, edited by George Dickie, Richard Sclafani and Ronald Roblin (Bedford/St. Martin's, 1989)