Everyone's a critic but does it matter?

Blue Oyster Art Project Space summer writing resident Matilda Fraser (25), of Wellington, in the...
Blue Oyster Art Project Space summer writing resident Matilda Fraser (25), of Wellington, in the Dowling St gallery in Dunedin. Photo by Gregor Richardson.
The relevance of contemporary art criticism is under investigation in Dunedin.

Artist and writer Matilda Fraser (25), of Wellington, has completed a fortnight of her summer writing residency at Blue Oyster Art Project Space in Dowling St.

Fraser will use the gallery as a studio for six weeks to write a 5000-word article about contemporary art criticism, around the question: ''is criticism still relevant?''.

The internet would be defined as a ''gift economy'' - a system of exchange in which goods, information or units of cultural capital were given freely, albeit with an implicit reciprocity, she said.

The internet allowed everyone to speak, but traditional critique modes, such as print media, meant informal responses and critiques on the internet were rarely considered.

''How does one navigate criticism when everyone has an opinion?'' Fraser said.

For the past fortnight she had been reading for about eight hours a day in a room in the back of the gallery and she was taping notes, memos and graphs on the wall.

She was not sure how the article would be structured.

''I am just going to let it unfold,'' Fraser said.

Blue Oyster director Chloe Geoghegan said the ''carefully unstructured'' residency supported and promoted diverse perspectives and healthy debate around arts culture in New Zealand.

shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz

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