Today’s staff briefing was about the exhibition ‘Art turning Left’. I think it’s going to take a few sessions before we all completely understand what it’s all about though as its far too much to absorb. I like that questions are being posed such as ‘What is useful art?’ it’s something that Grayson Perry raised in the Reith Lecture that I attended, but I’m not sure it’s so easy to answer.
Is my art useful? Well, I’m doing something with things I find and it has a recycling message. Is that enough? Or should it be sending out a stronger message to be deemed useful?
Opinions are changing. From the early hints that this may be ‘a political exhibition’, when you get that rising panic of ‘Oh God, people ( the public) are going to be asking me all sorts of questions that I won’t be able to answer’, to today’s thoughtful session, in which I’m starting to think …hmmm, I might actually learn something here. (Don’t get me wrong though – I’m still going to avoid eye contact if someone looks like they have a burning question!) Oh God, why don’t we just do what ‘The Walker’ does and stick a nice Hockney on the wall.
Anyway…I rescued a stack of leaflets that were heading for the bin and afterwards I thought ‘I really have to stop doing this’. I have no plans for them at the moment, but I know in future that I will be hunting high and low for paper of this particular colour. I’ll just have to shift things round yet again at home.
While I have nothing planned, exhibition wise, for the next few months, I want to concentrate on 2D work….or to put it more bluntly – work that may sell. I’ve been playing around with collage and I think I’ve found something that I can work with. That’s the thing though, although I want to make something visually appealing, I have to enjoy the making or it’s just pointless.
It’s kind of nice making something that doesn’t matter if it works or fails. I’m just doing it for myself for a change. That is useful!
