There is so much you can do on this course – crits, lectures, tutorials, openings, participation, etc. I sometimes find it a little overwhelming – it occasionally feels as if you could be missing out, this would be interesting to your practice, go and see this artist, come and participate in this activity, read this book, go there, see this, be part of that! Without wanting to appear complacent, it is a bit too much and being selective is a good strategy. However, sometimes assessing just what will be relevant and useful is not always easy, or in my case, successful. That being said, it is wonderful to have so many opportunities that being part of an academic institution affords you.
Visiting artist tutorials are part of the course – you can usually sign up if you’d like one. I haven’t yet done that as I hadn’t thought any of the artists so far were particularly relevant to my practice, but indeed a different and fresh opinion is not a bad thing and usually welcomed.
This week we had Rachel Maclean, a former ECA graduate. Although her work now is video, I was given a spot to chat through my work. I felt a little wary of yet another new person looking at my work after Monday’s experience and I stumbled upon the fact that in the whole time I had been at the institution (from undergraduate) I hadn’t ever had a real, complete, sit down tutorial with a female. I believe I realised this when on Monday (as I emitted to say in the write-up) it was suggested that my work was about being female/to do with a female perspective. ?? Correcting this error (“that has nothing to do with it”) I later reflected on this and the imbalance there.
I am not a die hard feminist by any means, but surely this fact could make a difference. I am not sure about it/how I feel about it but I will think on it more later.
The tutorial was just fine – Rachel was an enthusiastic and interested listener who had some good ideas and good input. Like many of these experiences it is good practice to talk about and articulate your work and be able to assess it and people’s opinions and ideas about it to your best advantage.
