Getting paid

Thursday will see the opening of the exhibition I have put together with Susan Massey at Wolstenholme Projects in Liverpool. We have done it all on a shoestring (kindly provided by WP) but it's looking good and I'm excited to see it up.

/events/single/531986/1

The exhibition text has been kindly written by Jo Moore, a Liverpool-based artist, writer and curator who also runs peachtree, peartree press.

"We place our trust in objects, which quietly receive us. The chairs onto which we fling our tired bodies. The doors that glide open as we approach, permitting us to never break our stride. The bookshelves, which quietly bear their loads: the plant-pot and the flower.

Returning from the outside world, I take off my shoes, I hang up my bag. I survey my living-room: the chair, the chair, the little red table; the dining-table, the window, the waste-paper basket; the horrible curtains, and, beyond them, the houses across the street, which look like dolls’ houses, quaint and somnolent. Nothing has changed. These objects, which I trusted to be still and to behave, and not transform, or dance around, or float towards the ceiling, have not betrayed me."

continued..

A silver lining to the recession? Me thinks he is coming from a slightly different point of view..

just doing my evening trawl through the paper (and getting some previews of Venice before I go!) and found this quote:

"The good thing about the recession is that we will now be able to concentrate on art, on what matters. The bullshit we had to deal with before is over."

Francois Pinault

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/jun/03…

Good letter in the Guardian from Susan Jones about artists in these lean times:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/jun/04…

PART SEVEN: Conclusion! Finally!!

Did the symposium do this:

NO. 2: Expanding possibilities for artists’ professional practice and opportunities for artists in the creative industries.

Not in a very direct way. Inevitably the artists speaking had followed very specific and personal trajectories that can't be replicated.

Some qualities the artists had that could possibly help towards expanding your own possibilities in professional practice:

All showed tenacity and from Sans Facon in particular I will bear in mind negotiating, questioning and squeezing things.

From Linder – looking for opportunities to collaborate outside the arts.

From Olivia – to find some answers for myself to the questions I ask about the arts. Also not to be afraid of institutions or take things gratefully in outstretched palms. Lastly she confirmed my love for the democratic nature of the artists' book.

PART SIX:

So, Olivia described her thoughts on how artists work, and what our work may involve – Mobility: to be available to go wherever, whenever according to opportunities. Work as knowledge/immaterial rather than stuff. An unregulated sphere, which is inhabited by freelancers, most of whom are solitary.

She also said that events like this seminar were great, but that there might need to be something more. Again, I felt like I was left a bit hanging – like what? describe me your ideal event..

Here, we finished for break as I am just getting stuck into all these really relevant and problematic issues…. sigh. But after tea comes short discussion groups.

During the discussion groups in the afternoon I was torn, wanting to be in Sans Facon’s group but also feeling like Olivia’s group would be more useful to me (and the money issues). In the end I left it to luck and got Sans Facon. As I said earlier, I tried to tell them that I liked their work and the reasons why, but I was so full of a cold and absolutely addled from a kidney infection the week before that I wasn’t sure I’d made any sense so I just shut up and listened.

During the final feedback Olivia’s group had (inevitably) discussed the current state of the arts and getting paid. One thing that I found really interesting was when Kwong from Castlefield mentioned that they all thought artists didn’t share enough information. They wanted to know who got paid, for what, how much. It had also been discussed that certain institutions didn’t pay artists well, or at all although names were kept quiet! It then clicked a little bit, instead of worrying about all these questions and whether they are useful, I think the important thing is to identify all the problems and address them in little chunks.

Example: developing networks between artists..

Artist: this gallery want to show my work

Artist's artist friend: Hmm, watch them, they're well stingy.

Artist: wow, thanks for the advice, I shall see if they'll pay for a catalogue or something else instead then.

and so on in ever-increasingly sophisticated ways.

If you are interested in the first event, there is a bit of information here: http://www.artgene.co.uk/page.php?i=140 with a good bit of writing from Elaine Speight.

Next one at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester on 20th and 21st June.