Tuesday, 17th May 2011

Paperback Romance Novel Themed Show

Capitalizing every word like that makes me feel like Tyler The Creator. I don’t know how he can be so committed to capitalization like that. I type/talk far too much and too quickly to manage something like that.

Anyway, the idea that birthed this post is a themed show I’ve been tooling around with for a few weeks. I really like the idea of assigning a general theme to a few good people and seeing where they run with it, with absolute secrecy and no discussion, and how everything would or wouldn’t work together in a show. So, Trenton just gave me the brilliant idea for a theme. Paperback romance novels. I’d love to see how very different artists take very different approaches to this. A minimalist painter? A performance artist? A very serious artist? A half-insane one?

This is definitely something I want to make happen in the next year. But, then again, I tend to want to make things happen and then get distracted by things I’m already obligated to come through on, like rent and school. So if anyone wants to team up on this and make it actually happen, speak up.

17:04

The artist as a micro-business

I’m curious to see how design students see themselves in relation to the market they’re entering into. Do they see themselves as potential employees or freelancers, moving towards working with a team or company? Or do they see themselves as a micro-business, something that is vertically integrated, or singularily integrated, as both the producer, marketer and seller of their services and products?

As art students, we’ve been trained to work as micro-businesses, even before we enter into any sort of commerce-based market. We’re encouraged to develop our work as singular artists, to write and frequently update artist statements, to apply for spaces and shows and any sort of merit-based award. Our merit is wholly our own - we are responsible for everything we do, and we are expected to stand up to any sort of criticism or challenge as singular producers, marketers, and promoters. We are going to be sent into the world with little to no vocational skills, and we are expected to either make decisions to futher our art career (our micro-business), or to find a vaguely related field of work.

Once we get out into the real world, it won’t be very different than it is here: it will be more complicated, harsher, and the consequences will be much more real, but we will be expected to maintain our practice independent of an established multi-person business. We will join communities, we will work collaboratively, we will find agents and galleries and benefactors and grants, but we will be working, ultimately, for ourselves. The product that we make will always be somewhat dictated by the tastes of the end-user, or the demand, and it’s untrue to say that we will be manufacturing work for ourselves. I don’t trust any successful artist that says that they’re just in it to express themselves, and that the success was just a blessing. If we want to continue making art, we must maintain our micro-businesses. That, and we’ll probably have to keep our jobs as waitresses and shot girls.