Only, just daydreams.
Only, lots of them.
Little Wing
You enthusiastically commented that my work seemed to be on a roll in face book a week or two ago. In some respects, it is.
Since last autumn, I have had idea upon idea, one after the other, they don't stop.
The problem is that the only ones that seem to be successful are the ones that stay with me.
As soon as I try to involve other people they seem to take off for a short while and then slowly, but surely, the wheels fall off.
I cant help but think (in some instances) I may be scaring people off. I mean, how scared are people going to be about getting their programme hacked into in a powerfully maverick way?
In particular:
There has been a "peoples" art gallery/set up in which a colleague and I were aiming to set up a particularly large art show in September which has slowly fizzled out due to their lack of commitment. They either don't want us, or are incredibly inefficient.
There is an outdoor project in which I have expressed interest since it first got started last September and whilst being very friendly haven't been able to fit me into their scheme of things. Although I do find familiar faces cropping up here and there - jobs for the boys as it were.
And,
There was the large billboard project, last autumn, that was set up by someone I have worked with on large things previously.
I actually helped to set up this thing "E.C.Arts" as a viable thing in its early days. I was encouraged to go for the projected which involved covering billboards all over Birmingham and spent weeks putting proposals together for three billboards, all of which were rejected by the "committee".
I have since learnt that others have been granted billboards who hadn't even initially applied and some even knew that they had the commission before the thing was announced anyway.
And last, but not least, I was working on my own pub sign extravaganza which was quite forcefully knocked into the long grass following a very significant change in the position of the goal posts.
Fuck me again, I'm a poet!
My main problem, is probably its time to go public again.
And I seem to be failing on finding suitable venues.
There seem to be be far too many curators and organisers around, maybe people who feel they have more to offer than the actual artists themselves, seeing as they have organised the actual event.
They actually do M A courses to learn how to go about it in a text-book kind of way.
The underling currant at the moment, the hip way of approaching your art work is: just get on with it - don't think about why you are doing it. Work that out after you have completed it.
This has been one way I have approached my work all my life. One way, not the only way.
I look around and I see places and empty spaces and I think "I could be there"
Maybe its time to create my own bulldozer to jump aboard and plough forward with my own art quiver and maybe invite my own friends to come along.
Just Nightmares, Martin
ReplyDelete"Art" has been homogonised, commercialised, given a business plan and cleansed of inspiration. So long as you have Saatchi as a sponsor, you are allowed to call it Brit Art. As Grayson Perry said recently, the only interesting thing about Damian Hirst is his bank account. And that's our generation.
There is an "Art Gallery" that has opened in the myriad of new arcades in Cardiff that claims to have "original" art for sale. If original art is measured against the big eyed soppy pictures of victorian tykes that used to be for sale in Boots, then yes. But fuck it, NO! The problem is that all truly creative people shy away and find themselves as outcasts with an audience of outcasts. Until you, by chance, hit the business plan of some patron.
And how do you deal with that. I have seen it with you, my brother, my brother in law and many of the Cardiff crew of '72 as far as Fine Art is concerned. I used to swim in a sea of creativity, beauty, aspirations and hoped for futures. Not much has come of it for many. Then there are the performing Arts. Again, many friends whom I would rate as firsts rate (subjective) who either became teachers or entrepreneurs. Or gave up. The only "success" story in all of that is No-Fit-State Circus, who are now a £2.5m turnover Circus, still sticking to their remit of new circus and taking it to unknown of places. Cirque Soliel without the Disney, as the press said.
It also seems to me that the public will prefer to spend dosh on the latest event (music, film, theatre) and it's merchandising (and business) plan and will not consider spending the same on a work of art, in whatever form. Until they are rich and want to impress their egos.
I'm sorry that I have turned this into the bottom line of money=stuff, but that's what people relate to. So to get your art out there, someone needs to spend. Forget the aesthetics. And that's what hurts.
Now.. we could start changing things by going back to a state of barter. I would like your painting in return for rebuilding your chimney. This happens at a micro level in a place like Clovelly.
OK, I'm not helping you; you want a space, you want a bulldozer, you're faffed with wankers who talk but don't walk. But maybe there are possibilities in identifying empty spaces that need one of your wall pieces and finding the dosh to get it done. In the past, you did that well, but there was money through grants. Forget that now. the bankers had a brilliant business plan; they took our money and gave it to themselves and then we, via our taxes, paid for it again. Again, our generation.
So the key really is new money and committed groups of people. Now here we can start talking about Web2.0, t'internet 'n all tha' ...And then I say to you, hang on! I've had numerous moments of pleasure recently by seeing your work, but what have I done for you............
Much to ponder and come back on
Love 'n Stuff
I have decided to become brave and face up to my demons - see the hero post.
Delete