Pratt Institute

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Education

B.F.A. Pratt Institute

Biography

Ann Messner's work investigates the inherent contradictions between notions of private life|space and public|civic experience. Her work focuses on the relationship between the individual body and the larger social body as encountered within public space or discourse. Her work is both social and political in intention. In the 1970’s her performances in open public places was documented as film and was exhibited through alternative art spaces. In 1995 this work was exhibited as subway stories and other shorts, Ann Messner: photographs and film 1976-1980, Dorsky Gallery, NY curated by Nina Felshin. Ms. Messner first solo show was at Franklin Furnace 1978: an ongoing public performance during which Ms. Messner typed an open real-time narrative using an over amplified typewriter. Exterior speakers projected the deep resonance of the pounding keys well beyond the parameters of the interior building space. Her investigation progressed through the 1980’s to include a series of temporary public projects; identifying site as social space echoing in scale her early commitment to experience as perceived through the individual psyche and body. These installations included: amniotic sea, Foley Square, NY 1998; meteor, installation at Times Square, Public Art Fund, NY 1987; ghost city, Burchfield Art Center, SUNY, Buffalo, NY 1986; whirlpool, window installation, Grey Art Gallery, NYU; high dive, NGBK, Berlin; speakers corner, Skulptur: Koln/Ehrenfeld, Cologne 1982. 

She is a recipient numerous fellowships including: the National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship, 3 NYFA Awards, Henry Moore International Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Anonymous Was a Woman Award, and a Gottlieb Foundation Fellowship. She was a fellow at Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University 2000; Princeton University Council on the Humanities 2001. She has taught at MIT’s Visual Arts Program, Hunter College, Bennington College, Maryland Institute of Art.

Solo exhibitions include: oracle, Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, CT 2004; oracle, Eli Marsh Gallery, Amherst College, MA 2003; heart of the matter, Rothschild Gallery, Harvard University, MA 2001; subway stories and other shorts, Ann Messner: photographs and film 1976-1980 1997, curated by Nina Felshin, Dorsky Gallery, NY; flood, Stark Gallery, NY 1995; heart and ear, Walcot Chapel, Bath International Arts Festival, UK; on the subject of fire and the internal, Bill Maynes Contemporary Art, NY. Selected recent group exhibitions include the disasters of war, a project was a commissioned printed tabloid project, Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University 2005; legal, illegal, Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst, Berlin, and Kunstverien Neuhausen, curated by Hans Winkler 2004.

Ann Messner’s recent projects (2005-6) continue this early investigation of the agency of individual experience within social space: penitentiary, a tabloid project for Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, 10,000 copies distributed on site; and disarming images, a 3-channel DVD projection. Ann was the project’s creative director, produced by Artists Against the War. Screenings include Casa del Cultura, Rome; Hillwood Museum, LIU; HallWalls, Buffalo; Fulvey Hall, Maryland Institute of Art; School of Visual Arts Amphitheater, NY; Wollman Hall, New School University NY; Track 16, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA; Yale University School of Art; Purnell Center for The Arts, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; Kipp Gallery, Indiana; U of Penn, Indiana, PA; Central Missouri State University. Ann participated in public discussions during many screenings including in Rome, Yale University, School of Visual Arts, The New School, Hunter College, Carnegie Mellon.

Teaching Philosophy January 2004

       I am an artist. Although this is a simple statement it is fundamental to my teaching philosophy. What I teach is not a science; nothing can be proven to be correct. Certainly there are skills to be taught and an abundance of information to convey, but as a professor in the visual arts I am most often simply a facilitator, at times perhaps an instigator.  The beginning of each semester I enter the class with the sum of my experience behind me, there are ideas about the structure of the semester in mind, and there, I meet what cannot be planned – 'the class', the collective of individuals soon to become an organism unto itself, a mini community, either cooperative or fueled by dissent.  No two experiences of ‘the class’ are ever the same, each is unique unto itself as are the individuals that comprise it.
       Creativity is subjective; it is fragile; it needs support. As an artist I understand this. I respect this. I have had the privilege to teach at a variety of institutions over the past ten years – this includes, among others, the School of Architecture at MIT, Maryland Institute, Hunter College and Pratt Institute. I held an appointment as Senior Fellow of the Humanities Council at Princeton University, 2001, and a Bunting Fellowship at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, 2000-1. It goes without saying that this has been a rich and varied experience. What I have most noted is how different each institution has been, from the identities of the academic and student bodies to the the diversity of perspective and opinion. Through this variety I have become committed to the benefits of an informed and critical interdisciplinary  approach to a fine arts studio program.  The classroom must be a hub for a diversity of information; the students must above all question and investigate.
       Creativity, the process of thinking through making and making through thinking is very much a product of a ‘natural’ mind to me.  I make a point of clarifying the relationship of process to practice; there must be a balance between technical skill and conceptual acuity, at all levels; avoiding an imbalanced focus on the skill of making or the reasoning of intellect. The awareness of this balance is fundamental to what must be taught. How will you build your city if you do not know why it should be built? How will you build your city if you do not know what type of city it needs to be? How will you build your city if you do not have the skills to build?
       My most inspiring experiences in working with students has been when they have been inspired themselves, when they have been able to identify something of great importance and meaning to themselves and have found the means to bring this into the work in the class. I find this has a way of being contagious.