Seeking understanding for artists, pt. 2
Materializing ideas into art is a slippery process of giving form to the formless. When you ask an artist what their work is about, it can sometimes be difficult for them to put it into words because creating it is not a conscious process.
“Shattered Glass” at Jeffrey Deitch / © Mike Von / Unsplash
They can tell you what they were reading, thinking about or looking at while they were making it, which gives insights into the content of the work, but art is more than content. It’s where content emerges into form.
Most visual artists work from an intuitive place, and this can create challenges when they try to put it into words. Content takes over, and form recedes into their memory. But, speaking about content detached from form is the quickest way to say nothing about a work of art.
Since the responsibility of interpretation often falls to others — curators, critics, commentators — it can put roadblocks between an artist and a deep engagement with the complexity of their practice.
Contexts
Interpretation is heavily coded by the context within which visual art circulates. Artists may have the opportunity to show their work in various types of environments: solo or group, museum or commercial gallery, public commissions, art fairs and large international biennials/triennials to name a few.
Their relationships with curators help enrich the public’s understanding of their work, but these are not exclusive relationships. Curators talk to hundreds and hundreds of artists. Exhibitions are often broad surveys rather than deep engagements.
Artists need people on their team who can go as deep as possible into the work that they create and contextualize it not only within the wider history or art but within their own practice. This is difficult to do in an environment that celebrates and rewards speed of production, volume of inventory and social media appeal.
Dan Flavin at Dia: Beacon / © PC / Unsplash
This is not to criticize these forces. They are net positive for the increase in opportunities that they provide artists at all levels and from all backgrounds. But when a curator spends a handful of hours talking to an artist and researching their practice, access points to the work will always be limited to the vision of the exhibition.
A monographic museum survey, if an artist is lucky enough to receive one, is the deepest that a presentation of their practice can get. In the meantime, how does the narrative about their practice build? How can an artist prepare to make the most of their opportunities?
Without a plan and an understanding of how historical narratives develop, an artist can be at a disadvantage.
Become a consumer of your own work
The best thing an artist can do to ensure the deepest engagements with their practice is to seek to understand themselves. Become an intimate, curious consumer of your own work. It comes from your mind, but just like a business, it’s both a part and not a part of you. By treating your work with curiosity and trying to understand how that work circulates in the world, you can understand how the public can see it. You can speak about it with confidence and project your own understanding of what it is that you do.
In the process of working with artists, my biggest mission at Artist Communications Agency is to get to the heart of my clients’ work, to understand where they come from and what they’re creating. Over time, as they make more work, the resolution of that image clicks from 72 dpi to 150 dpi until, finally, our understanding of their work comes in at high resolution. We are sounding boards. We ask questions. We probe and, gently, push. The more we understand, the more they understand.
Nothing is more rewarding than when I present a client with a description of their work that aligns with what they know intuitively that their work is about, but had previously struggled to put into words. Once that work is done, the future evolves in line with our confidence in communicating these messages out to our various audiences to align public perception with our own perception. The process is mutually beneficial. The public and client learn about the client’s work together.
We are always eager to work with passionate creative artists, and if this sounds like something you would be interested in doing for your own work, we’d love to talk to you. Feel free to reach out and set up a free consultation by clicking on the link in the menu above.
