Part Four – Presentation and Outcome
Writing Introductions
In this interview on WeAreOCA, Miranda Gavin discusses writing artist’s statements:
http://www.weareoca.com/photography/introducing-miranda/
In this video, Miranda Gavin briefly talks about artists statements. She believes that a statement may be complex but can be written clearly. She believes some are full of nonsense and don’t make sense. She believes it is important to look at your audience in order to gauge the tone. You should also avoid using theoretical names unless there is a direct link to your work, you need to understand the link. The artwork and the artists statement should link and work together.
Gavin explains how the artist statements help her. When looking at someones work, she looks at the images first, she gets a feeling for them and thinks about them. Then she looks at the artist statement. This allows any gaps to be explained, for example the artist statement might reveal something conceptually important to the work in order to grasp their process and meaning, you might not get this from the work without the explanation. This makes sense, as you can look at a set of images and not understand their meaning. You do need to know the thought process and the aim of the artist. What one person sees, another might not. Viewer interpretation, is just that, it is an interpretation, and everyones perceptions will be different. In essence, context is key.
Bibliography
Gavin, M (2011) Introducing Miranda. At: https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/photography/introducing-miranda/?cn-reloaded=/ (Accessed on 2nd of March 2020).
Daniel Blight, a writer and curator who works in the educational department at The Photographers’ Gallery, has written this piece about ‘artspeak’ in the Guardian:
I have read through Daniel Blight’s article about artist statements, and I do agree with what he is saying. When I read an artists statement, I always find they are unnecessarily complicated, and a lot of the time they don’t make sense and don’t shed any light on their work. Blight sees a lot of them as “preposterously complex, jargon-laden statements” (Blight, 2013). This does seem the case the majority of the time. Blight also suggests this is the language of those who are privileged, in particular those educated in elite establishments. Many don’t understand it but it seems to go against the grain to say so, “this kind of rhetoric relies on everyone participating without question…to speak up would mean dissolving the space between inside and outside: quite literally, the growing boundary between the art world and the rest of society” (Blight, 2013). Some artists statements just seem overly complicated and unnecessary ‘wordy’. I get the impression that some do it to make out they are above everyone else, as their work is so special and unique, and if you cannot understand what they are saying, then there is something wrong with you.
Blight then goes on to talk about where does this artspeak come from. It derives from French Philosophy, specifically when it was translated into English in the 1970s. It was then, that universities started using this dialect in their work. Blight also gives some tips when writing your own artists statement. The first being to think about who your audience is. Different audiences require different attitudes. You also need to look at what words you are using. The statement should flow and sentences should be short.
Blight doesn’t like the effect that this dialect has; it stops the artwork reaching a wider audience. “Writing about your work should be an open and compelling activity, not a labyrinthine chore” (Blight, 2013).
Bibliography
Blight, D (2013) Writing an artist statement? First ask yourself these four questions. At: https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/apr/15/writing-artist-statement-tips-language (Accessed on 2nd of March 2020).
Georgina's Body of Work 