Should Artists Have to Talk About Their Work?, a provocative article by Glasstire editor Christina Rees (Aug. 5/17). Follow the link and see, then here’s my musings on the subject:
This article is a great jumping-off place for a really important conversation. It demonstrates a lot of attitude in its critique of the artist presentation, well articulated and for good reason. But thankfully it winds down with a practical suggestion: how time should be allocated in grad school for artists to work their way through this piece of their career jigsaw and be given time for trial and error to find their authentic voice and know how to appropriately use it for different audiences.
Yes, one can say it was ‘forced upon us’ and does feel that way because it did not come naturally to most people (and speaking in public is a big fear). And so much about this part of marketing still feels like something your parents made you do because it’s good for you. Another indicator of the power imbalance artists feel when placing themselves in the hands of others to show and sell their work. I know this sounds ugly for those who find this experience exhausting, and it IS and continues to be a power imbalance so long as the artist feels victimized by it and does not have the training nor the support to handle it effectively, but on their own terms.
In fact, if you can make it an experience that works for you, one that engages the people who love your work and those who should, even in a large formal setting, it can be energizing. And who says you have to do it alone? Let’s disrupt that idea right now and forever.
For any given visual artist (and probably with other disciplines as well) the role of the artist talk and the appropriate ‘artist statement’ in the advancement of one’s career – like most things – is not just about getting it right. It’s about understanding the purpose for such things, knowing what the people in the audience are hoping for and what the impact of getting these things right should be (to sell one’s work, get the grant, engage a patron, or..?). Then the learning should be how to determine the best way to deliver on that authentically and ethically.
It should also help them understand and better manage those cases where their presentation is the hook and they are the worm. Who is holding the rod and working you to set the hook for the hapless fish, big or small? If that is the case, how do you take control of the situation instead of feeling pimped out? It is possible to break free of this, but it requires each artist to take a bit of a journey of informed self-reflection and exposure to alternative ideas. There’s the curriculum for that grad course. Or another form of supportive learning around these issues.
The artist talk is not simply to entertain nor should it be approached as a means to game a system. If it is, that’s why so much of the relationship with the audience -and with money and the business side of art in general – can feel so smarmy. It’s why that cynicism and sadness creeps in, generating the kinds of career-bending shifts described in the article. It’s why we think we need an agent to act on our behalf with the buyer, sometimes finding that the agent is the smarmy one. We feel the need to put some distance between that unpleasant trained seal performance and our creative selfhood. It’s what people see as soul-destroying.
I have worked with nearly 2000 artists of all disciplines over the years and the paradigm of the starving artist persists, because there is a vested interest in maintaining the control over the art market by constantly undermining the innately entrepreneurial nature of artists themselves. There is an ongoing need for help to shift these mindsets and help demonstrate that one doesn’t need to ‘sell out’ to have their work appreciated, understood, sought-after and sold.
And most of all to break out of the idea that the work required to manage your own career as an independent professional of any kind is too hard, has to be done entirely alone, and can’t be done well by right-brained people.
Not that I have opinion, of course! ????