I’m going to shift the focus of this blog – it’s due to an excellent talk given by Rosalind Davis and Annabel Tilley on Surviving as an artist. The key thing I heard was the importance of communication – of entering into a meaningful dialogue with others. College restarts next week and, yet again, I’m faced with the trauma of explaining my practice to others, something as I confessed in my last post, I HATE. But, if I can’t do this, how can I ever communicate effectively as an artist? I’m going to treat this blog as if it were a dialogue with a stranger, as I suppose it actually is, and I’m going to master the matter once and for all.
Glancing back at my last two posts illustrates my dilemma – how do I bridge the space between Didi-Huberman and Dr Who? One perspective is theoretical and conceptual – perhaps closed down; discouraging dialogue with others – whilst the other is more down-to-earth, less assured and perhaps more engaging. I know they’re different in nature, one posed as factual information and the other as questions, but still they sit somewhat uneasily together for me.
Rosalind and Annabel’s suggested starting point is to find three words crucial to one’s practice. For me, I’d have to say fracture and gaze in the photograph. Yes, I know it’s more than three words, but I’m advised it’s a mantra to be repeated until it becomes second nature, ready to pull out at the drop of a hat in response to the question what’s your work about?
Oh, and my last free tips courtesy of Annabel and Rosalind? Make the most of the chance to communicate – have a website, use twitter, blogging is good. Ensure you link from one to the other so, for example, add an automatic signature to your emails with your website address. And always be courteous!
Useful links: http://www.zeitgeistartsprojects.com/diy-main.html
http://www.rosalinddavis.co.uk/
