ARTISTS TALKING

Two blogs stand out for me this month: Jane Boyer’s ‘Working in Isolation’ and Jo Moore’s ‘What it means to be an artist’. I was initially drawn to Jane’s blog after she responded to a letter I wrote in October’s a-n magazine where I questioned levels of  ‘access’ to HE art education and what the term ‘access’ really means. I asked whether access to contemporary art is still as class-laden thing and whether or not the contemporary art world forces its own tastes, fashions and values upon those - who looking to study art (with their own socially contingent perceptions of art) -unwittingly enter into it. Jane raised a question in response about whether we should take responsibility for our own intellect – an good question and a path, which as she describes in her blog, comes from long periods of working in isolation.

In her blog Jane also frequently discusses with others, some of the ‘weights’ placed on contemporary art – concept, theory, questions over the balance between theory and intuition. In another blog – that of Jo Moore’s, other facets of the contemporary are mentioned – as in her most recent post where she begins ‘I've a post saved, half-written, about art fairs & gallerists, but it doesn't seem relevant any more (& I'm sure that any readers will guess my views on the matter!)’. Pontificating over things like the relationship between art and theory or our own relation to the commercial gallery system have become commonplace for many of us as we strive to negotiate and be part of a ‘contemporary art world’. But what about our world?

Jo seems after a rather difficult time to have turned her mind to philosophy, questioning the world of art and all of its networking and competitions. After much thinking and a conversation with a ‘philosopher friend’ she notes that she is ‘Feeling less angry & defensive than I did earlier in the year; but at the same time, I'm more and more certain about what I do and do not wish to associate myself with or be involved in. This includes not applying for projects that perpetuate a method of "doing" art with which I fundamentally disagree; not getting hung up on earnings as a mark of success; cutting down on endless comparisons & paralysing self-doubt because I work differently to others; and, most importantly, not getting drawn into some of the ugly interpersonal stuff I've observed’.

Jo’s statement caused me to think about why it is that we strive to move away from how we grew up seeing art or began making art, to be part of a world of endless competition, codes, canons, narratives, brands, newness, anxieties, someone elses values…?

Jo ends her recent blog by telling us she is going to a firework display. ‘What could be better?’ she asks. I don’t know. In five minutes I am looking to do the same.

Visit Jane Boyer's blog Working in Isolation: a dialog with history

Read Jo Moore's What does it mean to be an artist?

Go to the Q-Art London website.

First published: a-n.co.uk November 2010