May 12 2011
John G. Boehme Memoranda of Understanding (MoU], a new body of trans-disciplinary artworks

MoU will be over the course of Thursday the 12th
Time Line Below ..............................>>>>>>>>

Memoranda of Understanding is a series of task-focused actions that attend to “understanding”.
 
These actions will be organized in the following way:
·        Undertake task.
·        Document task using video and photography.
·        Answer a standard set of questions; For example, what do I taste, what do I smell, what do I hear, what do I feel?
·        Consider the answers to these questions in relation to similar previous experience.
·        Develop an “understanding” and document this understanding within a Memorandum.
·        Exhibit Memorandum of Understanding, along with documentation of the task in video and still photography and with indexical objects.
 
Explanation of methodology:
It provides a formal structure.
It alludes to pseudo-scientific inquiry.
It invokes a management paradigm of information representation.
All of which draw from a bureaucratic variant of conceptual praxis and serve to heighten an hysterical formalism.
 
I believe that all this over-baked representation transfers focus to lived experience.
 
The result of this is that the definition of the aesthetic becomes on the one hand a matter of linguistic convention and on the other the function of both a legal contract and an institutional discourse (a discourse of power rather than taste)…But this aesthetic of linguistic conventions and legalistic arrangements not only denies the validity of the traditional studio aesthetic, it also cancels the aesthetic of production and consumption

Conceptual Art 1962-1969: From the Aesthetic of Administration to the Critique of Institutions
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh October, Vol. 55. (Winter, 1990), pp. 105-143
E.g. certificates issued by Piero Manzoni, Yves Klein's certificates N.E. Thing Co. Iain Baxter& Ingrid Baxter

Biography
John G. Boehme
MFA, University of Victoria, BFA Emily Carr University, Diploma Camosun College.

Weaned in the Windansea of La Jolla, California through boarding schools and graduating from Army and Navy Academy. John G. Boehme’s early art practice included painting, sculpture, performance video and digital technology, installation and photography. Boehme describes recent work as "trans-disciplinary" often employing performance, video, audio and objects in a number pieces simultaneously, Boehme is not constrained to any particular creative mode and therefore utilizes integrated approaches to realize the work. John continues to have exhibitions, screenings and festivals across Canada, the Americas, United Kingdom, Europe and China. John is an adjunct faculty at University of Victoria, continuing faculty at Camosun and Brentwood Colleges.

Artist Statement:
What interests me as an artist is the ongoing reformulation of a set of key interests. These interests are drawn from my observations of some of Western society’s less considered compulsions. Looking into the performance of gender, specifically masculinity, the valorization of labour, the pursuit of leisure, and the marshalling of amity, I explore language and paralanguage, that is, both the spoken and gestural aspects of human communication.
 
Live artwork presents a direct relationship with material, with action and process, with human interaction. As I understand it, physical involvement is the most embodied way in which to create meaning. Through durational works both the artist and the audience gain access to the experience uniquely available through such commitment. This is of course the archetypal modality of ‘performance art’, an experience that unfolds through an extended period of time. Nothing can replace that learning, that specific duration of being. But although there is no alternative to the durational aspect of performance per se, I remain interested in the question of representation of performance, the very clear and obvious problem of making the ephemeral available to a larger audience at a different time. Using video to “reconstruct” an event makes publication and discourse possible. Despite its material concerns I believe that art is rendered ultimately in the social domain.
 
With regard to multi-disciplinary works, I prefer the alternative term “trans-disciplinary”, as it refers to integration between media, as opposed to, say, a sequential use of different forms. For instance, I employ performance, video, audio and objects simultaneously in a number of my pieces. I am not constrained to any particular mode; rather, I utilize integrated approaches within my practice.