artist statements nomaa€¦ · vedran smailović (born 11 november 1956), known as the...
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www.mirandaartsprojectspace.com
@patriciasuzannemiranda
WRITING ABOUT YOUR ART TODAY
Vedran Smailović (born 11 November 1956), known as the "Cellist of Sarajevo”
During the siege of Sarajevo, he played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor in ruined buildings, and, often under the threat of snipers, he played during funerals. Smailovićperformed Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor for twenty-two days, in the ruined square of a downtown Sarajevo marketplace after a mortar round had killed twenty-two people waiting for food there.
WRITING ABOUT YOUR ART TODAY
• How can we speak and write effectively about our work for today’s world?
• How can we consider and be responsible to the ethics of our content and the ways we communicate about our work?
• How can artists effectively imagine and create new ecosystems for our work in today’s world?
send statements to: [email protected]
ARTIST STATEMENTS
ALL ARTISTS HATE THEM….
AN ARTIST STATEMENT IS
A Concrete Descriptive Document an introductory text that provides a
contextual background for your artwork
Provides insight into the work by helping clarify focus or concept
Help people understand and evaluate the work in front of them as well as when they only have digital images to review.
250-300 words. (often you will have to write a 100 word statement.)
No Longer Than One Page.
You may write new statements often.
You may have multiple statements.
Unique to your work- there are no formulas
Write in the first person. statements=first person. Bio= third person
Takes into account:
• audience
• purpose or motive
• subject matter
• development of the work
• personal perspective or background
• theories & methodologies
• Underlying ideas and structure
• Conceptual aspects, philosophies, influences
AN ARTIST STATEMENT IS
ABOUT THE WORK - NOT ABOUT YOU.
TEXT SHOULD RELATE TO THE VISUALS
Address particular materials and processes, especially when not visible in pictures, if there is potential for confusion, or materials are integral to content.
Remember this is not a technical document!
Talk about Media & Method
Be simple, concise, clear, and direct. Be specific. Be Honest.
THE READER SHOULD HAVE:
A better understanding of what you make.
A better understanding of what they are looking at.
Reader should have a clear sense of an individual.
They should not be told what to think.
AFTER READING
AN ARTIST STATEMENT IS NOT
A biographical story of your life (when I was 5…)
A description of the obvious
A polemical speech
A work of creative fiction
A prescription for how people should feel
DESCRIPTIVE VS CONCLUSIONARY
Artist statements and project proposals are descriptive documents.
Distinguish between conclusionary and descriptive language.
THE WRITING
CONCLUSIONARY
Conclusionary is didactic. It “tells” meaning to the reader.
example:“This apple is delicious."
Draws “conclusions”
DESCRIPTIVE“Describes” what’s there
object, form, media, idea.
Descriptive “shows” information about the work.Allows reader to build their own conclusion.
example:“This apple is crisp and fresh and sweet.”
AVOID SELF-INDULGENCE
THE BASICS
Avoid “Artspeak” and Convoluted Lingo. Don’t use a $5 word when a $3 is just as good.
Do not start every sentence with “I”.
DO NOT BE GENERIC
AVOID BIG TENT WORDSbeautiful, exciting
and CATEGORY WORDScolorful, texture
USE SMALL TENT WORDS
Write as though you are speaking about what you do.
Reserved, theoretical, academic, analytic, humorous, antagonistic, or political, as long as it provides an accurate reflection
of your work.
LIKE is a comparative, not a list word. Use SUCH AS.
Write in the Present Tense.
TONE SHOULD BE EXPRESSIVE OF YOUR WORK.
Use Declarative Statements Active not Passive
my work presents an atmosphere of…instead of: I wanted to create a possible atmosphere of…
LIKE is a comparative, not a list word. Use SUCH AS
Review for grammatical errors.
Have someone else proofread the text.
Spell Check!!!
Write in the Present Tense.
• CONTRACTIONS: don’t, can’t, won’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t
• QUALIFIERS: I think, I feel, I hope, I would like to, I aim to
• NEGATIVES: but, however, maybe, sometimes
• -ING words • GERUNDS (a verb that acts like a noun- “Swimming is fun”)
• Don’t talk about what you DON’T do.
More BasicsAvoid….
NO ROYAL WE
Don’t universalize- speak from your own experience without assuming other’s.
Don’t tell the reader how they will/should feel, or what they will/should think.
Don’t say that it will change their outlook on life, whether or not people will like it or learn from it.
Getting feedback and writing help is fine.
Writing is crucial to clearly and concisely speaking about your work.
WRITE YOUR OWN STATEMENT
WRITING HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR WORK BETTER
BE SPECIFIC NOT GENERAL
Passive and General
I try to create an atmosphere of the unexpected so the viewer can experience the world in a new way. I aim to use color as a way to help show emotion and expression. My interest in texture is used as a contrasting design element. I hope to give the viewer a feeling of delight by looking.
My work presents a sense of delight through the use of exaggerated neon greens, blues and yellows. Thick impasto oil paint furthers a mood of abandon, inspired by the expressionists. Texture and color leap off the two-dimensional surface, inviting the viewer into a dialogue with paint.
MORE ACTIVE
When I draw I want to create a world that doesn’t exist, where the viewer can enter and experience something fantastic. I am fascinated by places I imagine, that exist only in my mind. I often use pen or pencil to begin a loose drawing, which I might paint with watercolor paint, or I might scan it into the computer. I sometimes play around in photoshop until I get the colors I want, creating the imaginative feeling I want the viewer to have.
PASSIVE
MORE ACTIVE
My imagination is filled with fantastic worlds, of animals that fly into space, topsy-turvy buildings that morph into ships and sail away, people with giant hats reaching into the stars. Science fiction and historic fantasy interest me, as I can go forward and backward in time creating stories along the way. Starting with pencil and paper, the drawings are expanded in the digital realm. A new world comes alive, leaping from mind to page.
I am interested in classical forms that are not completely realistic. I build figures that are based in story, but jump off that into my own version. I love to use clay for its fluidity and color. I make large armatures to begin, building clay on top until I have the shape I want. I then cast the form into resin. I am trying to communicate a sense of what it means to be human.
PASSIVE
Elevator Pitch!
EXERCISE I
Write 7 words that describe your work.
Think DESCRIPTIVE
rather than CONCLUSIONARY
SMALL TENT NOT BIG TENT WORDS
EXERCISE II
Step I: Write free associatively - up to 500 words
Don’t worry about edits at this stage.
PATRICIA’S METHOD
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER• What are the basic themes of your work?
• What inspired you to you create this work?
• What drives you as an artist to make the work you do?
• What are some of your sources or influences?
• How does this work differ from your previous work?
• Are there artists you can think of who work in a similar way or with similar themes?
• Where do you believe your work fits with current contemporary art? What discourses are you engaged in?
• How does your work relate to other art?
Step 2:
Associate ideas
Group sentences together according to ideas
(methods/technique/concepts/history/etc.)
Step 3:
Eliminate Redundancies
don’t delete anything at this stage:cut and paste to bottom of doc,
or save in another doc.
SIMPLE TIPRemove:
Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositional Phrases
Step 4: Check Languagegrammar, passive language, qualifiers, royal we, adjectives, etc.
Step 5:
Edit for Concept and Clarity
Let it sit for a few days.Revisit for final content edits.
Give to a friend to read for clarity and content.
PROOFREADHave someone else proofread your final work.
You cannot proofread your own work.
After looking at it over and over, as errors become invisible.
Spell check will not catch errors such as their instead of there.
You can also ask someone who knows your work, and someone who does not, to read the statement - not to edit - just to see if it is clear,
makes sense, and relates to the visuals.
KARA WALKER
Artist’s Statement I don’t really feel the need to write a statement about a painting show. I know what you all expect from me and I have complied up to a point. But frankly I am tired, tired of standing up, being counted, tired of “having a voice” or worse “being a role model.” Tired, true, of being a featured member of my racial group and/or my gender niche. It’s too much, and I write this knowing full well that my right, my capacity to live in this Godforsaken country as a (proudly) raced and (urgently) gendered person is under threat by random groups of white (male) supremacist goons who flaunt a kind of patched together notion of race purity with flags and torches and impressive displays of perpetrator-as-victim sociopathy. I roll my eyes, fold my arms and wait. How many ways can a person say racism is the real bread and butter of our American mythology, and in how many ways will the racists among our countrymen act out their Turner Diaries race war fantasy combination Nazi Germany and Antebellum South – states which, incidentally, lost the wars they started, and always will, precisely because there is no way those white racisms can survive the earth without the rest of us types upholding humanity’s best, keeping the motor running on civilization, being good, and preserving nature and all the stuff worth working and living for? Anyway, this is a show of works on paper and on linen, drawn and collaged using ink, blade, glue and oil stick. These works were created over the course of the Summer of 2017 (not including the title, which was crafted in May). It’s not exhaustive, activist or comprehensive in any way.
End. patriciamiranda.com
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