The experience & the choice of becoming an independent artist comes with its own challenges and issues just like every career path does. Something that comes up quite often in our conversations is a topic of what we could call ‘an artist identity’ and how that sits with our practice, our values and inner desire to create & produce. The scene of contemporary art carries a level of objective (read subjective) criticism, standards, trends and expectations. Every circle, every collective and every culture approaches these expectations and trends differently, yet one thing remains the same. The shared feeling of pressure and alienation when one craves to belong and be accepted by the art world.
We could ask questions such as:
Why does one have the need to belong and is it even necessary to seek external validation at all? Why become an artist, the oldest expression of individualism when one longs to be part of the crowd so deeply?
There are multiple perspectives and perhaps endless answers to such questions. The most obvious one would simply be human nature. Since it used to be impossible to survive when separated from others, we always found comfort in belonging. After all, we all live in this ecosystem together and we are and always have been social beings.
If we put evolution aside and focus closely on the actual art world itself, it is no secret that to be visible is to be successful and to be successful is to attract crowd that pays attention to your work. Crowd generates recognition, and recognition generates opportunities and opportunities then act as a great access to what you desire. Which going full circle is becoming a professional artist and building a life that evolves around one’s practice rather than endless side hustles, unrelated jobs and time invested in the wrong places.
Following this argument, external validation and people following your work is clearly essential for you to earn your place in the industry and successfully sell your artwork.
So, what happens when you are on this path, and you happen to encounter and recognise that your current environment prioritises ways of expression that do not match your values or do not sit quite well with you?
In the last eight years of being involved in the art world as a student as well as a practitioner, I have been part of many different institutions, communities and collectives. I have spent most of my life in Eastern Europe where I began studying and making art as a young fifteen-year-old aspiring artist. I vividly remember my feelings and thoughts when I first got introduced to this world.
Visiting commercial galleries as well as the independent ones, going to auctions and interacting with the circles of local art universities. Learning to grasp the complexity of contemporary art, yet collecting knowledge about classical art.
The more galleries I visited and the more I learned, the more I could not help but wonder…How much of what is being presented to us is an authentic work with substance & value and how much of it is just a pose carefully fabricated in order to draw attention and sell or simply come across as ‘important’?
One point that came up in our conversation evolved around shock value and how it is often used in the art world. Provocative imagery, footage that is hard to watch, overly sexual & vulgar artwork that in fact does not reflect the given concept and the list goes on. This should not be confused with artworks that actually explore subjects of such nature and in order for it to reach its audience one must adapt the visuals to the concept and intention.
The exchange in this conversation explored the meaning of this approach and our experience with such encounters in gallery spaces. Some of us also expressed our frustration when it comes to the constant pressure of presenting ideas with overly conceptualised, complicated and often vague expressions. This phenomenon often tends to create a scenario where viewers interacting with such artworks struggle to grasp what is being presented in front of them and what exactly they are meant to take from it.
There is quote allegedly said by Einstein that offers a similar perspective:
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
However, that does not mean that we should not strive to draw attention to our complex concepts with pride while nurturing the ability to present them as such. It just simply means that being an artist does not necessarily have to be about drowning in vagueness and swallowing the whole art dictionary just so one can come up with the most intricate, complex and rather confusing explanation of their work.
Using the power of visual language and creating works of art that simply speak for themselves tends to be one of the most digestible ways of consuming art. Think the experiences that have the ability to capture you, fascinate you and captivate you without sending you into a loop of confusion and alienation.
So, who or what has influenced the way we experience contemporary art today and what dictates how far an artist can go?
What began as a movement emerging in the 20th century ended up turning into a whole cultural and societal shift bringing a new set of values, perspectives and ways of creating and evaluating art which then led to a long and ongoing phase of questioning.
What is art? Who is an artist? Who can dictate and measure what is considered to be a valuable artwork and what is on the other hand totally meaningless?
Written by Andy.
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