Occasionally I despise when artists write.... or should I say when printmakers, painters, sculptors, drawers, metal workers, fiber workers, mixed media workers, three legged animals and butterflies..... write. We are all guilty, yet somehow we, the clique ridden network of makers cannot seem to leave our pretensions at the blinking cursor. As a matter of fact, you're about to read the rantings of an artist who can't take their own aforementioned advice.
Art is dead. Technology killed it. Slowly picking off the disciplines. Photography was first. A grand opening to the age of tech everything. The slaughter of photography, reduced to pixels and CS 3,4,5, etc. Oh what I wouldn't give to sick my hands in a black bag and blindly dissect a role of film and put it into a canister. Alas, sadly it seems that sooner or later the task of putting a 4B pencil in my hand will be obsolete and crass. Instead of Home Economics teaching students how to be good homemakers, they will learn of the mythical lost arts. A history lesson from the days when people actually used their hands to make things. *gasp!*
Okay listen, (and pardon me) why the fuck do we, the creators feel the need to pigeon hole ourselves into the medium we prefer? Oh yes Alex, I'll take 'things that are completely pointless' for 1500. Umm.... who are... artists who rigidly define their medium as their sole identity and all others to be considered inferior. Come on! What is wrong with just being an artist? Who cares if the painter you shared a studio with is an elitist and always made fun of you? Screw him. How old are you? Are we so insecure in our creativity that we must feel badly about ourselves whenever another artist criticizes us or the medium we are using? What happened to art making? Have we become so jaded?
And another thing! What is up with painter envy? Just because art history is riddled with painters doesn't mean every other artist should stick their head in the sand when a painter walks in the room. There is no need for insecurity. We are artists. We do not need to be defined by our mediums. This is as preposterous as a dog being defined by the raw hide he chews. Woof, I only chew Milkbone raw hides. I'm a Milkbone-ist. Come on!
To reiterate: COME ON!!!!! This is another fine example of how society's need to put a neat little label on every goddamn thing has tricked down into the art world. And now it's seeping all over the floor. What a mess.
We do not need a revolution.
We need to make art and
Never mind the label.
A rant possibly, but a good and necessary one at that. I also commented on how artists (still) tend to feel like the can, and perhaps should, only work and identify with one medium. If you're trying to make work that communicates anything at all, and you're working in a contemporary context where found objects can be used to convey meaning, how can we justify just sticking to one medium to convey our ideas?
ReplyDeleteIn short, I'm with you.
Katie .. Ohhhhhhh...
ReplyDeleteGood to read your reflections.
Art is dead? Technology killed it? hm… Well with the beginning of photography- how many people said and thought that the painting is over?!Well, many. Here we are, in a studio still teaching you how to use oil and how to stretch the canvas.
I want to believe that technology is just another 'face', even more… I believe that the technology is JUST a tool- just like today we can use a hammer with a handle instead of a caveman’s stone, just like we could use dremel instead of hand tools, when a piece requires that. It is a ‘tool’ that supports the idea and the making, and the craftsmanship (yes!! I said the ‘boo’ boo’ word …Oops!). Nothing is over, it is just the beginning… the true magic is to make the right choices, not to hide behind the choices. A good piece you don’t recognize by amount of hours and layers you put into it, or by glazes you use, or by oil mixing you just developed… the magic is to show the last 367 hours you spent on the piece – was like a moment that took off and jumped from your hands, like it was ‘nothing’, like it was a gesture, a mark, a line, a breath, a scar- that stays with you forever. Just like you say, I agree that medium is not your identity, but I don’t blame those who use it, and they use it well!
It makes me think that maybe there is nothing wrong with ‘labeling’. It is a matter of choice, and even more - art always had divisions. Even back in Medieval: division to artes liberales, and artes vulgares. It is alright to be a ‘painter’, ‘sculptor’ etc, it is alright, for now I guess….. it might be just another ‘face’, a ‘tool’ that help us recognize that the chair I am sitting on is NOT piece of art, the coffee I drink is NOT a piece of art as well. Otherwise, how do we make distinction?
I get it Katie Ohhhhh….. I witness many arguments and many conversations about disciplines, and ongoing battles between craft and art. I do believe that as long as we continue to stress the problem, the problem will stay with us. I feel that by constantly ‘drawing a line’ between one and another – we are making the problem pronounced more than ever. In my humble opinion, I will always believe that a good idea never saved a bad painting (so as far as craft and ‘art’ I just truly think all connected).
Oh and labels?? Eh…...I was told once by my professor:” do not believe in something 100%, do not devote yourself in just one idea 100%; don’t you know? That’s how fanatics are born.”
So, with you here, give yourself a room to breathe, and simply: make!