Day 9 – Portfolio Reviews
Next Tuesday we will be hosting an artist brunch at Node. We will invite 20 or so artists to come and have some food and drinks with the residents and talk about their work.
To select the artists Node provided us with a catalogue of 75 artist portfolios to digest. We divided ourselves into groups of three and set about analysing all artists’ various websites, statements, videos, etc.
Working alongside Amal and Gabriela, I was specifically looking for artists who work in a timebased medium. It was inevitable that artists working in other media would impress me, but, speaking frankly, after a while I found myself judging each artist on how they present themselves on the internet. I know this is something that most of the residents were guilty of also.
As an artist myself, I am fully aware of how important it is to present yourself online in the a way that reflects your practice in the best possible light – that goes without saying. I was genuinely surprised to see a number of artists did not have a personal website, or that they chose not to publicise it.
A lot of people will say, I have said it myself in the past, ‘an artist should only be judged on their exhibitions. Websites should not be a necessity.’ But, in today’s methods of practice for a curator, websites now act a pre-cursor. They provide an entry point to an artisst’s practice. Even if the website shows as little information as a CV and a short statement it is enough to give somebody an indicator of what you’re all about – so much more so than no information at all.
There were a number of artists whose work I was particularly interested in. I am in no way biased towards Welsh artists, however it did give me some joy to know that Swansea/Berlin based artist Dave Ball is making some fantastic work and flying the flag for Welsh art. His video Being Somewhere, 2009, is a beautifully crafted assessment of a German landscape which really struck a chord with me.
I’m very excited to meet all of the artists on Tuesday and hope that some lasting relationships can be formed.
