|
Dear Art Lover, This is Part 3 of 5 in a series called “Opportunities”. I’ll be sharing one part each day, concluding with part 5 of 5 this Friday. You can read the previous parts and many more writings on the Newsletter Archive section of my website, here. Onto… Opportunities, Part 3 of 5: Creating Context I’ve been fielding questions recently from a few interested parties about how their work can be accepted into shows - asking what a hypothetical juror is “looking for” or “how do I choose what work to enter?” I appreciated the chance to share my thoughts on this. Yes, I look at the show or opportunity very carefully. Yes, I look up the work of the juror or jury, often artists themselves, to see in what kind of subject, media, scale they work. Of course - the point of entering an opportunity, show, competition, what-have-you is to get the opportunity. I will do whatever it takes, if the opportunity is one that makes sense for my work, to get it! That being said, what I advise is this - time travel in your mind forward to the show itself. Your work is on the wall. Are you proud of it? Is it your absolute best work? Are you glad it is in this show, in this venue, alongside the other artists’ work (if it is a group exhibition)? I never try to pick work I enter in a show just based on what I believe other people will like or want to see. I choose my best work, only, and I choose what I would want to show, at that specific venue, only. This wasn’t my attitude a few months ago when all I was going for was to build a resume of exhibition history. With that box checked, being more selective has been a good exercise, and pushes me to consider how my work will be seen, in what contexts. Context for work is important - it is one of the most significant elements of any application that requires more than just images. Personally, I welcome the chance to provide context, especially as platforms like social media deliberately remove it. I would vastly prefer to share information in a long-format email to people within my networks, directly, than to have these words sandwiched between thirst-traps and advertisements for tactical hoodies. When an application calls to give just images, no dimensions, it reduces artwork and the production of real items in the physical world to pixels, never quite the right color. There is an implicit ask for the jury to understand the item in abstraction, a bid for merit or attention, instead of beholding a work of art. Subtlety goes out the window first, as even I occasionally reach for my “flashier” pieces when there is no space to conceptually frame a more nuanced work. With the work itself in the room, the room is the context, the piece can stand on its own. I love going to museums for this very reason - a direct encounter with art. When a digital, pixelated image of a piece of art is projected on a screen in a juried setting, the only visual / experiential context is a uniformly-sized shadow of what the work might be. Anything above and beyond that is a conceptual add-on from whatever text-based materials I provide. I’ve enjoyed participating in shows where the work is chosen digitally (out of necessity) but awards are given in person, once the juror has the original artwork in the room. If I were to jury a show, this is exactly how I would operate, given the chance. How can I see the texture, the scale, the smell, the reflective capacities, the up-close and barely-visible natures of the art if I can’t be there in person? What presents well on a 1cm by 1cm phone photo album grid might not impress in the flesh, while a piece which strains the internet browser’s color palette contains infinitely more subtlety as it fills my peripheral vision. While art isn’t a competition, our attention is computed for, constantly. I’m interested in the process of identifying artwork I love, and the best way to do that is to see it for myself. That’s an ideal, and this is possible, still, in 2024. I want to give audiences the opportunity to connect with my work, to find out if they enjoy it. For many, most of my audience, I believe, their entry point to the art will be anything other than the work itself. Clients might have discovered my paintings on my website, or have had a friend forward them this email, or may have seen one work in a gallery and looked through my site on their phone, a realistic scenario that makes my digital presence massively important, especially when it comes to that first, distracted impression. In sharing my work, and finding ways to access new opportunities to generate and share new work, it helps to be skilled at navigating the sterile landscape of digital contexts for art. It’s part of the game. — Thus concludes “Opportunities, Part 3 of 5: Creating Context”, the third part of the “Opportunities” Series. You can read this and other writings on the Newsletter Archives section of my website, here. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s “Opportunities, Part 4 of 5: In Routine and Repetition, Freedom” As ever, if you haven’t already, sign up for email newsletters on my website, forward this to someone you think would enjoy it, and encourage them to sign up as well. Cheers, David
|
