The Age Old Question 'But is it Art?'

Why is the definition of art still such a debate?

I refer to the recent news about the European Commission not recognising light works created by Dan Flavin and Bill Viola as 'art'.

That basically means the galleries will have to pay full VAT and customs dues on the 'light fittings'.

A shrewd loophole of gaining some revenue by arguing point that is clearly ridiculous maybe?

Article in the Art Newspaper below:

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Flavin+and+Viola+light+works+ruled+not+art/22069

Moving on from the monetary aspect here, I love the fact that the term 'art' still cannot be defined.

Ok, yes granted, some contemporary 'art' can be frustrating for some people to see a stack of bricks and asked to look at it as a piece of art when for them an oil painting is the preferred more obvious choice.

But therein lies the beauty of contemporary art surely. The very raising of the question, opens up the debate for people to look at things in a different way, a new inspired way that they would otherwise look over.

Spotting a concept, beauty, an idealism, a political comment all from one object or installation and presenting it back out to the public gaze has got to be a craft in itself surely?

Without art, or indeed to be more specific creating an image, sculpture or film to briefly make you stop look listen, feel, and/or react to life would be pretty boring.

We aren't just practical beings. We have an imagination, we dream, we aspire to a better future. And so we use art as a way of expressing that.

Not everyone will like it, and glad to hear it. It only opens the debate further, which can only be a good thing.

I think there is some pieces out there that seem to be a pretentious attempt to intentionally alienate the audience or art viewer and appreciator. It can become therefore elitist. And really then what's the point. If you're expressing something, why would you just want the only person to understand and appreciate it to be you??

Anyway, those light fittings were intended as a piece of art by the creator so surely its not up to the EC to decide whether they think should be deemed 'art' if its turned off or on.........

It's a debate we'll all have for centuries to come I imagine. And its with great thanks to the EC! They have highlighted a lovely piece of 'art' to a wider audience to enthuse, discuss and enjoy! Not their initial intention I'm sure :)

SEX, FREE BEER & WINE and other things...

SEX, yes it gets your attention doesn't it? Well it does me anyway!

That and free beer or chocolate...

Its all about marketing really isn't it? This 'art' thing I mean. So either you go and see a wonderful intricate oil painting, or a cow cut in half. I think I'll see the cow thanks.

Why is that? We do we love seeing shocking art over the discipline of structured work? Not saying a cow sawn in half is any less structured but it begs the question, was it made to shock and to draw attention first then the viewer can appreciate the artistry that went into it second?

Most viewed creativity always has a pull, a hook to tempt you in. A big name, or a shocking truth whether it be art, film, music. Rather like whoever shouts the loudest at a market stall seems to bring the most profit home I suppose.

But are these marketing ploys a detriment to the work produced? I have seen plenty of exhibitions of artists heralded as the next best thing and came away feeling less than inspired, or the monumental film epic that has every star in Hollywood cast but its actually just coming up to a B-movie standard.

Then you see a piece of art by a 'no-one' and its frickin awesome, or you hear a piece of music that's so good you stay in the car until its finished just to hear the artists name (someone who, it turns out you've never heard of and you vow to remember it by the time you get onto itunes later that day).

I suppose really what I'm trying to say is do we need the marketing ploys? Will people not just like what they like without having it be dictated to them that this is what they like!

Or maybe we do? I don't tend to go out of my way to see something unless it is publicised a lot, it still works on me I'm a sucker.... 'Oh everyone seems to be talking about this, it MUST be good' so I go and watch/listen/interact with it. Not always glad I did either.

But I think for the next month I will try to see the not-so-well publicised stuff, I'll look a bit deeper and see what I can find. Maybe something better than a cow sawn in half?

Try it if you dare and tell me what you find, I'd love to hear about it (but not too much).

Should artists have assistants to make their work?

Apparently this practice is still not widely known to exist. The truth is, its been going on for centuries. Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Moore all had assistants employed to help them complete their work. I'm sure it was needed too given how much they were in demand to produce new work all the time.

Of course, my first reaction to this question posed was 'well I would if I could!' Not many artists have the luxury of actually being in a position where they can employ people to help realise their work on a massive scale.

This is limited to those established variety.

But even if they can afford to employ and even be busy enough to require them in the first instance, does it take away from the work 'they' are creating?

An article in The Guardian a number of years ago by Rose Aidin addresses this issue amongst others:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/oct/12/art

Being removed from your work such as Damien Hirst asking assistants to create his spots paintings, is he still the artist then?

The question then i suppose is "What is the 'art' here, the concept or the craft?"

The truth being if I was loaded and wanted to buy one of Hirsts spot paintings I would want to know is was actually created by him and his sweaty little hands, instead of letting his assistants do it while he marches to off to the bank.

But then I suppose its then a brand your buying. Of course I don't expect Gucci or Armani to individually sew all his clothes before trucking them over from the factories himself and selling it directly to me. Maybe then this is how we should see artwork? A label?

But surely this takes away from the uniqueness of the piece; I wouldn't want to buy or view the Mona Lisa and find that everyone on has a version painted by his assistants on every street corner.
So too, the artist should want to get his or her hands dirty no? Personally speaking, its only then you find that concepts, ideas, your craft evolves as you are there developing the piece seeing it grow. Would you get that if you had assistants? Not so sure.

Conceptual or Commercial?

So the debate over the last two weeks in the SWA house - should we be putting a commercial or a more conceptual slant into our exhibitions? Should they be exclusive? Does one override the other?

The truth being a matter of a nice balance of both seems to be the most sensible. We want to be able to showcase great contemporary work of all practices but like with anything we need the capital to do it.
Putting on an exhibition costs money, through promotion, and the curators time, as well as artists material expenses. In the ideal world we would want to be able to pay the artist for their showcasing their talent not just pay them for materials. This time next light year Rodney when we have found the right formula, which once again comes down to this debate, how much Commerical? How much Conceptual?

Of course some pieces can be both, but not all. I can only assume very few people would want a film of an ass crack suspended over a circle of short film work named Moonlighting, created by Fine Artist Ed Jones. The day we sell that to put in someones living room I promise to eat my left shoe. But the point of the piece isn't to appeal to the buying market, its appealing to the art viewer, the art appreciator. The entertainment of the piece is right there in the exhibition space, to view, enthuse and move on. Of course if someone wishes to buy it this is a bonus. An unlikely happening, but still a bonus.

This is why we need funding in the first off, before the exhibition begins to enable the exhibition to be realised fully, and to get the general public to want to come in and see it. And yes we do our exhibitions for the public, for everyone, not just the elite 'artist circles' you can get in some areas. This is the problem with contemporary art or any art for that matter, why just open the doors to a select few? Art is for everyone. Anyway I'll get off my soapbox on that matter and come back to it on a another blog post.

So back to buying, selling, buying, selling. Of course the more we sell the more we can reinvest into the SWA to enable us to put on more shows and show off the great talent we have here in the South West, dahling. But if its all pretty 2D work that people are happy to take away and put above their mantle piece then some of the magic of an art show can be lost. The exhibition is the entertainment, well thats what we believe anyway. The exhibition should be curated in such a way the space is alive with work, concepts, musings, ideas, debates, entertainment.
Getting the funding to do this however, is now minimal. We aren't big enough yet to compete with the organisations that get over £100k a year from the Arts Council, but we are keen on getting even a percentage of it if it means the artists and the general public can enjoy something a bit different. That however isn't as easy as it may sound either. Hundreds of man hours filling in proposals , funding applications to get £100 isn't that appealing I have to admit.

So we are back to selling! The scrap yard show was intentionally bereft of 'sellable' work. The space warranted a more conceptual theme, the poundbury garden centre show however has a more open element of people coming in to 'buy' something, usually some pesticide and bulbs but if there is some artwork in the space that takes their eye then we hope to sell it to them. Then we can always have the odd conceptual structure that has the viewer enthralled, entertained, but not necessarily a piece they can buy.

For now thats the way to play it, I think anyway. Of course if we sell both commercial and conceptual in one show I'll eat both my shoes. As then I'll be able to buy a new pair!

If you are around between the 14th - 30th August pop in to the Poundbury Garden Centre, see what you think of the mix.

Set Up, Take Down

So in the reclamation yard today, setting up the next show Scrappage Scheme Art.
Opening night is this Friday and disturbingly we feel quite calm. This may be a bad sign.

Usually previous shows have been a bit of a manic week during set up, locating artists and their work and curating it in the space in such a way that compliments the space and of course the work. Then there's the tea, the cigarettes, the spray mount and the forever useful fishing wire. Oh and of course the mad last minute panic of ordering enough wine glasses for the private view.

But this time its going swimmingly. Most pieces are set up and the space is looking cool. We have yet to tackle the lighting of all pieces but I think, well I hope that this should be pretty straightforward. Plus I have given up smoking and the green tea is 'enhancing my Zen qualities' as the tea pack suggests.

This was of course until I ran into what can only be described as a human oxymoron; a non-sporty type dressed head to toe in sports gear. He was at the yard looking to get something cast by the wonderful blacksmith Syd, and proceeded to tell us that what we are putting up 'isn't art'. And thankfully added that he 'knows good arts when I sees it'.

So I smile. But my dead eyes and gritted teeth gave me away I think.

How do you answer that? And indeed he may even be the oracle of knowing what 'good' art is! If so I wish he would tell us, it would solve a lot of peoples questions about 'art' and maybe save people a few hundred quid possibly.

But until that day I think we can only aim for what we think is 'good'.
Something that moves us, inspires us and challenges us. But so too can make us laugh, cry, want more, need less, want less and need more. Or just if its 'whatever, like its pretty innit?'
I don't know.

Come along see what you think.

16th July Weymouth Reclamation Yard (DT4 7BJ) from 7pm onwards and hopefully there will be glasses for you to put wine in....

'....But There Are Just So Many of You'

It does seem I have to admit, that anyone who picks up a pencil, crayon or felt tip at the moment can call themselves an artist.

Especially here in the South West of England. Never mind the bloody caravans the place is awash with these creative types. And then I move down from London and only add to the mayhem.



Now don't get me wrong, the more artists the better! Especially for companies like us who are always on the look out for new talent to exhibit with us.

It does however throw a number of frogs into the boiling pot that tend to do none of us any favours.

Funding is of course the biggest issue. I had a 2 hour meeting with our local MP all about this last week. And his response was actually quite enlightening I thought...'We want to help the Arts but there are just so many of you...!' And he is right. To a degree.
The difference however, between a self proclaimed artist doing sketching work of ones pet at the weekend and a trained fine artist struggling to get the very best sculpture/conceptual work shown is quite well, different.
And now as we are seeing the doom day arrive of mass spending cuts, I must say I actually welcome shaving expenditure to big organisations that 'enable' the arts as most of the money seems to go towards staffing, admin and utilities - and the artists involved may just get a free pint :) Is this what funding for the Arts is for? Surely not...

The next issue is of course how do you stand out from the crowd?? Its rather like trying to play Chinese Whispers at a Rage Against The Machine gig.

So to do this we decided that the quality of work we exhibit has to be paramount.

We will only exhibit thoroughly thought through contemporary work, preferably by artists who have been trained at a tertiary level in their practise.

**I often wonder is this elitist? Well our customers and spectators will expect the best from a contemporary art organisation like us so we have to ensure we can provide the best**



One solution that was suggested to me was if all these groups, organisations, enablers etc work together to form a mass art company that covers all areas. Well, not too sure about how that could work to be quite honest...it's rather like saying we should have one radio station, one TV channel, one clothes shop....then of course we are delving into a political agenda that I think by all accounts didn't work out too well for some people and countries...



Competition is healthy and so is diversity.



What we aim for in our company, what we strive to succeed in and what responses we get from the people enjoying what we offer seems to work thus far. So I think we'll keep doing it.

Plus I'll bring a loud speaker to the next RATM gig, that should do it.

Dorset?! Why Dorset?

Does contemporary art need to be in urban areas? Well, I think I would answer no.

I have been running South West Artwork on and off since 2006 by doing exhibitions, creating commission opportunities for other fine artists and generally promoting contemporary art in rural and unusual settings.

And you know, I was surprised by the response. Having moved down from London the impression I got was 'the end of the train line'. The end of civilisation. That's it I've sold out to retire at the tender age of 26...

But having lived and worked here for over 5 years I couldn't think of a better place to be. Seriously.

The amount of artists and general public who have left comments and spoken to me directly saying 'thank you', 'thank you for bringing contemporary art to Dorset', 'I haven't found an outlet to show my work for ages then you guys show up'. All great to hear obviously, but so telling that there is a need for it. A need by artists and a want by the general public.

Over the past few years we have built up a great circle of artists who exhibit with us. Some are recent graduates, some are emerging fine artists and some are established and have been doing it for years. Usually however they would have to go to larger city areas to exhibit their work. And what a shame that is, why deprive the good people of Dorset and the South West of home grown talent exhibiting on their doorstep?

The proof of interest is of artists emailing nearly every day to exhibit with us and the general public wondering when our next exhibition is. It shows a thirst for contemporary art to have a spotlight in rural areas. 'We love contemporary art but we also like the sea, the open fields etc etc'...and in our case owning rather spoilt hens at the bottom of the garden!

It might the end of the train line but what a damn fine place to exhibit great contemporary art work...