on having an Arty Kareer....

My creek home is far from the centre of the arty world (it's a fair way from the centre of MOST things). Over the decades that I've lived in my funny little house on my funny little farm I've wondered about how to reconcile my connection to this place with being An Artist. (Oh, I don't mean the daily practicalities of making art and of being an arty person - arguably a studio is a studio, wherever/ whatever it is - and I happen to live in a glorious place that I love)... no, I mean what it is to have An Arty Kareer in the Country.

Before I launch into the following spiel - I want to issue a quick codicil and an invitation - This is my simple subjective story - in telling it, I'm not judging others (welllll I AM judging the likes of Damien Hirst and Co...... but not YOU!) oh and I'm ever ready to hear an alternate view of things - so feel free to chime in and tell me where I've got things wrong (I don't bite.... except if you're Damien Hirst and Co.). Are we cool?

righto
 
 
Here's what I've seen is the typical country person's Art Kareer path (steps may be completed out of sequence - some steps may be omitted)

step one: leave your home and family, go to a city, complete a visual art qualification (or two... or three...), get yer-self urbanised

step two: schmooze all the right people in all the right places (in some circles this is referred to as 'networking'... )

step three: get commercial gallery representation or join a hip (city) ARI and/or make a critic/ curator/ arts writer fall in love with you (or your work at least!) - get noticed.... become 'someone' (schmoozing ability is a definite advantage here.... as is being in the right [eg city] place at the right time)

step four: win awards and/or receive grants and/or gain residencies and/or have work selected for Big Important art events and/or pedal your wares (including your skills as a tutor/teacher) to far flung places......(schmooze ability and city location in pivotal early stages is unquestionably useful)

Hmmmmmm - I've had a lot of trouble with pretty much everything in this model....

Yes, I've been able to deal in part with the education thing (hello distance education! I love you!)

As for the rest? Wellll they aren't all that conducive to stay-put, grow-your-own, creek-farm-forest living are they?  My attachment to place aside, I have almost zero schmooze-ability, and all sorts of problems reconciling my ideas of what it is to be ecologically and environmentally responsible with most Art Kareer examples.

For the most part, I can't help but notice that the Art World is a city-centric, institutionally bound, capitalist creature - and most Important Art (even when it has its heart and soul in the forest or field) speaks of and to an urban(e) audience.

I can't help but notice that the art(ists) who REALLY get noticed rely (usually in no small part) on 'the cult of personality'  - and just like in Hollywood - it helps to be young and pretty and to smile nice for the cameras (ps also just like Hollywood, the cameras are only in the cities).

I can't help but notice that art success begets art success - receiving an award in one place is the basis for granting a residency to another and a grant for playing the game so well! (and around and around and around we go!) ... ps - have you noticed how few residencies cater for a family unit? (it is a known fact that artists don't have children - or at least you'd think so according to the Art Kareer model...)

I can't help but notice that work is only deemed capital 'A' Art after it has been ratified by institutional power (the gallery or the university or the auction house..... in the city, city city).

I can't help but notice that trends exist in art just as they do in clothes and music.....  at least with music and clothing we can look back and laugh at some of the things we once thought were cool (monster shoulder pads anyone? blue mascara? how about the 'Macarena'? hee hee hee) BUT with Art, no one dares laugh at the $squillions investors and public galleries have forked out for laughably dreadful, once trendy, 'Art' (anyone for Koons 'Michael Jackson and Bubbles'? or how about a nice dead shark in a tank? very smelly stuff indeed!)



Now, I hope I'm not coming off as completely bitter and twisted - because truth is, I have a solid sense of humour about these things (I dare you not to laugh at Tracey Emin's 'My Bed' - the art statement alone is liable to induce uncontrollable laughing spasms that will cause you to snort coffee up your nose....) Of course at times I get a little depressed or a little bit peeved about the citified machinations of the art machine, but every now and then I get quietly and optimistically philosophical (no, not that I'll be the one and only wrinkly, old, country witch who will be plucked from the paddock to the arty pedestal - I'm not THAT optimistic - and I'd rather poke my eyes out with a tomato stake than be deemed the next Damien Hirst) ....

Nooooo, I get optimistic when I see hints that the end of the old art paradigm is nigh

 I recently spied this older article from Jonathon Jones:

"I've tried to resist this fact for a few months, but I'm done with illusion. Art as we know it is finished. It is about to be exposed as nothing more than the decor of an age of mercantile madness. On what bedrock might a new art arise? "

I can certainly list some of the things I want a new art paradigm to embrace-:

I want Art that snubs its nose at post-bloody-modernism and bling-bling art stars;  

I want Art that circumvents the corporatisation of culture and cult of personality;  

I want Art where value is determined by what the art gives rather than what it makes at auction;  

I want Art that engages community and is egalitarian in spirit and execution; 

I want Art that respects and values fine crafting (where appropriate) without falling into the trap of nostalgic connoisseurism; 

I want Art that understands that you don't need to be a Western, white, city boy to make stuff worth paying attention to; 

and

I want Art that is of and for and from an extended connection to country.....  

How is this to be achieved? (ahhhhhh - that's the crux of the matter and the $64 000 question isn't it) Well, I've just completed the first step by writing out what I see are the problems and conjuring an optimistic future......

As for the rest - well that's going to be a work in progress....

stay tuned.

(I'm not going anywhere!)


....

aagad! a discovery...

Phew!

what a mad month November was!

If this is the first time you've landed here - let me bring you up to speed

Over the last month I tried something totally different

On the first day of November I commenced a funny, offhand activity/experiment

To make one art gesture each day for the month of November.  You see, I have had a really BigYear where I've found myself weighed down by Big Important events and activities and expectations and commitments and thinking and doing....

The final combination of attending Impact7 (which consolidated a year's worth of disgruntled arty angst) followed by a month trying to write the 'process' chapter of my HDR exegesis nearly swamped me completely (at one point I declared to my long suffering Farmer Phil - 'as soon as I'm done with this degree I'm never going near art ever EVER again!')

sigh

Day by day I felt myself growing smaller and smaller - squashed under a weight of worries and seemingly unsolvable conundrums... (yet strangely 'on paper' I've had a Very Good Year - grants, arts residency, prizes, tiny bits of art glory dust all around...)


but so called 'success' hasn't equaled inner arty happiness nor has it tempered the lingering questions-:

* How can anyone realistically expect to have An Art Career in the Country?**

* What should we artists do about copyright?** 

* Are labour and traditional craft skills valued in contemporary art? Should they be?  Does it matter that when craft is highlighted in art or the media, it's often the woefully unskilled stuff? **

* What is the environmental impact of my arts practice? Does it make sense to make more STUFF? (hasn't the world got enough already?) How can I reconcile my concern for sustainability with the reality of making?**

* How should I deal with the unholy alliance of creativity and marketeering?**

* Is art just a pawn in the chess game of corporate greed?**

* Why bother with art anyway...**

phew

those things can REALLY weigh you down  

then one moment under the Cuttagee bridge a thought was hatched

bugger all this deep thinking and high-fallutin' artiness! I need to do something FUN!... and that's where 'an art gesture a day' was spontaneously born: quick, spontaneous, off-hand, FUN things (not labour-intensive, time consuming, heavy duty Important Art)... no preconceived ideas, no delusions of granduer, no mountains of theory, no pressure, no dramas.... just FUN FUN FUN

suddenly, freed from the onerous demands of making Very Important Art - I made stuff that made me feel GOOD.... (and unexpectedly I suddenly found clarity in many of my mulling worries... and weirdly I think I made the occasional quite nice bit of artiness.... hmmmmm)


As each day passed and each art moment was had, I grew lighter and happier... by the end of the first week I was floating, by the second week I was soaring waaaaay above my worries...

I wasn't the only one to benefit - EJ really got into the spirit of things, often mimicking my actions (ahhhhhhh a little ephemeral anarchist arteest in the making)

whodda thunk that a small and simple creative action each day could cause a dramatic internal shift? (not me!)

I know that far more profound writers and thinkers have said all the good things about the nature and meaning of art as experience (mmm Dewey, mmmmm Shusterman, mmmmm Sartwell....) but working on a simple something everyday helped me internalise all the good stuff:

Art is not 'out there', it's with you, in you, around you. Art can be found everywhere, all the time. Art should not be about ego and is not the exclusive domain of the 'genius'. Art can be how something is done- including simple everyday matters like making a meal, mending a shirt. Art doesn't require special equipment and a designated space.  Art doesn't have to be BIG or expensive or even be for sale in order to have value. Art truly can be in the process, in the making, not just the end product (ahhhhhh now THAT'S a line for my process chapter!)

and now?

welllllll - I've got that high fallutin' higher degree to complete - but I'm feeling really quite refreshed now and rather happy with some decisions I've made.

AND I'm also going to keep on making a little unimportant 'gesture' each week

 

and we'll see what comes of it eh? (ps thanks all for the sweet notes of support - I really appreciated everyone taking the time to drop by for my funny little adventures over this past month... if you have been 'doing something' in this vein - feel free to add a link in the comments.... it feels nice eh?)

** I will be posting my thoughts about these and other meaty arty issues in the fullness of time....  
so stay tuned and be prepared for a few controversial bits

....