Triage is a newly forming artist collective based in Tulsa Oklahoma that will be built upon and sustained by community building principles such as those first developed by M. Scott Peck, MD. We will focus on collaborative films, traditional and new media installations and performances with the intention of sharing skills, talents and resources toward making work that is at once visionary and fiscally sustainable.
In our present situation, the effectiveness of art needs to be judged by how well it overturns the perception of the world that we have been taught which has set our whole society on a course of biospheric destruction. Ecology (and the relational, total-field model of “ecosophy”) is a new cultural force we can no longer escape—it is the only effective challenge to the long-term priorities of the present economic order. I believe that what we will see in the next few years is a new paradigm based on the notion of participation, in which art will begin to redefine itself in terms of social relatedness and ecological healing, so that artists will gravitate toward different activities, attitudes and roles than those that operated under the aesthetics of modernism.”
Suzie Gablik, the Reenchantment of Art
Triage- a community of artists
Triage creates a practical and supportive atmosphere for global communal art making. Intentional community and collaborative projects foster transformative experiences for both artists and audiences. We are seeking cost effective start up projects and as support grows, plan to scale up our efforts accordingly.
Unique to Triage is a highly developed model for effective community building based upon concepts such as those (some adaptation in places) first pioneered by M. Scott Peck, MD in the 80's.
With such an approach, we will employ effective pathways to "authentic community." There is a visceral, palpable and qualitative distinction to be made between status quo artistic collaboration and art made by a functioning community. Our intention is to make full scale film projects, installations and performances.
In order to make high quality digital work and to display installed digital works in galleries, we need an array of equipment such as cameras, various film equipment for lighting and sound, edit equipment, screens, projectors, sound system for live performance and installation, as well as a number of tools and materials for sculpture and 2D works. We are hoping for a donated space in the downtown Tulsa area.
In Western culture, artists aren’t encouraged to be integral to the social, environmental, or spiritual life of the community. They do not train to engage with real-life problems. Instead they learn to be competitive with their products in the marketplace. All our institutions are defined by this market ideology—none have escaped. “Professional recognition” in the form of brisk sales and positive reviews still remains the primary pattern of thought that structures the internal rhythms of art-making. For a long time now, I have been questioning these premises; anyone who has ever read anything I have written will know that my books are meant as a challenge to our reigning paradigms of economic control and domination. They seek to expose the coercive propaganda of capitalism as a form of spiritual and ecological suicide—and they look at the Big Picture, always with a view to recovering from the estrangements of Western civilization. Instead of art-as-commodity, deprived of any useful social role, I believe that art can help us to participate in what geologian Thomas Berry deems the “great work” of our time: moving from a devastating presence on the planet to a more benign presence.
Suzi Gablik
If you have questions about Us, you can email us at triageart@yahoo.com for further information.