THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN... SOME CONTEMPORARY ART ON THE SCALE

Mostyn Oriel (Gallery) is situated in an old Victorian Art Gallery with some added modern bit sinside

I am soon done working on another collage, it was a tricky one to put together. This morning when I was trying to sleep I had some idea about a short multimedia project about insomnia. How could I make it express it without being too literal? I have some initial thoughts and will get down it soon. The two other more extensive projects (including creating the complete Traces) are going to have to wait. It occured to me, however, that I haven't posted the trailer for Traces yet so I will do in a separate post.

About a week ago we went to the North of Wales to pick up the second hand printer my husband bought on Ebay with the money we raised through the crowd funding project. It was a sunny day, and a lovely couple. We had picnic on the beach, then saw Llandudno, which is beautiful and quite sparkly summer resort. We also managed to get to Portmeirion, which really captured my imagination, so I will create separate article with photos from this magical place.

Mostyn Gallery is situated in Llandudno so we had a little look at it as we'd not seen it before and it's fairly prestigious, at least by Welsh standards. It's quite heavily into conceptual art. There was a show about interactive art, called YOU. Now some of the pieces, such as the typewriters that were set to create different patterns that the audience could control in order to create different kinds of images was quite cool. Interestingly, nobody had done anything to the paper itself. At the really bad end was a teleoscope that shows reality upside down. Apparently by looking into it, it will challenge your view of the world and blahblablah... thumbs down! 

Another piece I thought interesting but not necessarily in a good way was a large floorspace filled with candy. Apparently the weight of the candy corresponded with the weight of the artist's wife, who had been wasting away with cancer. The audience was invited to (morbidly?) eat the candy and it would thus symbolize the loss of her weight. To me, the idea was as far fetched as you can possible get. Candy - a human body? If anything, this contrived correspondance devalues the human body in question. I also feel uncomfortable because to me it sounds like emotional blackmail. In other words, you feel almost obliged to give thumbs up for the work because it's about a dying person who's now dead. I honestly can't think of anything less pretentious. Afterwards, when Martin and I discussed it, he said he really regrets he didn't mess up the place a bit and step on all the candy, because after all, you were invited to interact! We agreed that some artists would have welcomed this and others would have been horrified that their carefully dictated form of interaction wasn't respected (so how honest is the piece if it's very strictly monitored?). Of course, art should ask questions, and the discussion we had bares proof of that, but it still doesn't mean it was any good.

Another thing I've noticed when approaching conceptual art is that there's a vast amount of text telling you what you're supposed to understand, written by a curator. They write it so it sounds as if you should really already have understood it and they are just clarifying it for you. But without this explanation the audience would understand very little. So it all becomes strangely circular and maybe, just maybe, it's the explanation that is the art?

Nowadays I'm curious about conceptual art but I find it sad that so many authorities within the arts still value this type of art higher than other forms of art that are more directly expressive of feelings and experiences. Not only is the artist often in a highly analytical frame of mind when he's constructing his piece, but even if it's just created intuitively, by the time it reaches the judges it turns into this object that has to be approached analytically in order to be either approved or disapproved of. 

Another exhitbition I meant to write about was a collection of collages from the Arts Council, but it's long gone and I wasn't immensely impressed. One that stayed in my mind, however, was a piece by Chris Ofili. It's a lovely and colourful collage except he's stuck elephant dung on them to support some ideas about national identity. But... it's dung. Honestly, it would be quite a beautiful piece (not by far one of his best though) if it wasn't for the dung, which no only is not aestethic in the context of the rest of the collage but only says very little. The "shock" isn't doing anything for me. I'm not sure the juxtaposition works from any point of view. I think it's a good thing to be experimental with "combines" (this term derives from Rauschenberg). Still. I think in fact the artist was noted for his beautiful images inspite of the dung, but still... Call me conventional but for me it's thumbs up for the fantastic collages but thumbs down for the addition of dung.

Detail of Chris Ofili "Holy Mary" 1996 - a controversial piece

Read my blog post 'Is Conceptual Art Just Bad Philosphy'

Rauschenberg: "Canyon", 1959.
Rauschenberg's collages made of stuff from the streets hold a strange appeal to me.

"ANCIENT AND MODERN"; MARTIN HERBERT'S EXHIBITION "SYNTHESIS"

Exhibition poster

I am biased of course - I married a very talented artist and obviously have every intention of supporting his endeavours in finding and developing his unique artistic expression. We're both middle aged and so don't have the advantages of youth, however we hope (and believe) that this is compensated by maturity of vision. 

Martin Herbert, my husband, has been working on a drawing project with the help of an Arts Council grant for the past six months, and is now showing what he's created to date at the Radnorshire Museum and Gallery in Llandrindod Wells until January the 12th. You can follow his progress here on his blog Artedstates. After a short and well deserved break he will continue to work on the project and will present the sum total of his work at MOMA Wales (Machynlleth) in April - May 2013.

Project Synthesis is an exploration of the relationship between digital 'new media' and traditional painting and drawing. Martin has taken organic and mechanical constructions made with 3D fractal modelling software and made them into large-scale drawings done with the most traditional of materials, sepia ink and clay pencils, indistinguishable from those used by Renaissance artists like Leonardo Da Vinci. He also takes public domain texts from the internet and uses them as the basis for new illustrated books done with the same attention to traditional craftsmanship. Lastly, there is a video installation with a computer-generated soundtrack showing some of the digital work which inspired the drawings – making a true mix of the oldest and newest media available to the artist.

As the multi-talented "Renaissance" man Martin is, he also created a video with older digital work called "Unlikely realms" to go with the drawings. These digital explorations was the starting point for his application to the Arts Council.

The grant was meant to help further Martin's career and so he's been experimenting in order to perfect his technique and visual expression. Some of the work in the current exhibition are images he wanted to do independently but most of them are illustrations for the lovely symbolic book The Crock of Gold by James Stephens. Incidentally, I was the one who introduced him to it, quite an odd thing really since it's an Irish tale - a fairy tale for adults. I read it when I was 18 and loved the spiritual message. This year also happens to be the centenary of the book. 

"The Heart is the Fountain of Wisdom" : 90 cm x 70 cm:
Ink, pencil, gouache & transfer print on handmade Khadi paper.
Copyright © 2012 by Martin Herbert

Martin says: This project has two distinct strands with one theme in common – they both concern the reconciliation between digital 'new media' and traditional drawing and painting techniques.  My goal is to explore ways in which computers and the internet can be used to source material which inspires illustrations and innovative new work to be carried out using traditional materials and techniques.

The first strand concerns the production of new organisms, machines and organic constructs using 3D computer modelling technology, which I then use as inspiration for new drawings done using the earthiest and most organic of materials – sepia ink, clay pencils, earth pigments etc.

The second strand involves sourcing written material from the internet - I am using these texts as the basis for new illustrated editions of neglected or beloved books which have now passed into the public domain through expiry of copyright and are now available to anyone who cares to download them from web archives.  The illustrated editions will then be uploaded back to the internet, completing the cycle.  The first book to receive this treatment is Irish author James Stephen's 'fairy tale for grown ups', The Crock of Gold. The illustrations are a work in progress, leading up to publication of a new illustrated edition in 2013.

Find Martin on Facebook!

Photographs from the private view:

Last minute preparations.
Will Adams is the director of Radnorshire Museum and Gallery.

Most of these drawings are illustrations for The Crock of Gold.
Martin made the wonderful frames himself.

Martin is talking to artist Sue Purcell 

The hungry artist strikes again... myself gobbling some nibbles.
I was in the middle of a terrible cold which paused itself for the private view
and then restarted as soon as we were back home.
If all goes well, I might be able to have an exhibition here myself, in 2014.
"Design for a Flying Machine to Escape the Bank Manager": 70 x 50 cm :
Ink, chalk, gouache & transfer printing on handmade paper : Copyright © 2012 by Martin Herbert

View from the window at Radnorshire Museum; Llandrindod Wells is a historic spa town
with a lot of beautiful Victorian hotels.

ART CLUBS FOR EXCLUSIVE MEMBERS ONLY

I really dislike groups for mutual admiration but at the same time I realize that they are a inextricable part of life. One just needs to be aware of the purpose of any such group.

You may remember I wrote a blog post recently about the fact that I was rejected by the online registry for contemporary art Axis, one that is funded by the Arts Council and where membership costs £ 30 per year. In other words, a lack of resources is no excuse for elitism. Well, apparently I'm not the only one with some questions and complaints! Read this by Craig Smith who tries to find ways of supporting artists: through a newsletter you can subscribe to ( among other things it offers artists regular lists of opportunities).

"The recent cull of artists from the Axis register highlighted once again the issue of artists' visibility. 

With a remit to represent recent development in UK contemporary art, Axis' representation seems fixed on style rather than substance. Why should the distinction of modernity prohibit artwork from being contemporary? 

Maybe it's simply that Axis are at the limits of their ability to process artists' information, but for an ACE-funded organisation it's increasingly looking like a private members club. 

We share no such prejudices at isendyouthis and have been working for the last two years to find a way to move artists from invisibility to connection. 

Spurred on by recent events, development work has been accelerated and we're just about to launch our free national database for artists. Consider this your invitation.

Whatever your art form, genre or location, if you are seriously engaged in your practice - student, emerging, mid-career or established, with or without gallery representation – then we believe there is an audience for your work. 

Through this central database isendyouthis can connect you to opportunities, galleries, sales, resources, suppliers - free of charge.  It's what we mean when we say 'connecting the artworld'.

The artregister will be promoted extensively. Everything will be tailored to target your visibility as an artist. Entries will include contact information, a brief statement about your work and direct links to your website and social pages. isendyouthis artportfolios are included in the database so if you wish to show a selection of your work then that’s the option to choose."

Martin and I had to go to Cardiff last week to arrange for my upcoming exhibition in the Milkwood Gallery in  the lively area Roath. I insisted that we also go and have a look at an exhibition called Wunderland II at the Tactile Bosch Gallery. I had submitted six pieces but got rejected, and was very curious to see what kind of art they had accepted, especially as it was held in celebration of International Women's Day. 


Well, the website suggested a high profile gallery but it was in fact situated in a warehouse ( you might expect something of the sorts from the description "alternate" and "chameleonic" that weren't there when I submitted my pieces). You didn't really know where the gallery ended and where the workshops began. I didn't mind this per se but it's not what I expected. The art was not bad but seemed very young and immature, as if compiled of projects done at art college.


Some bad laser copies of even worse photographs of something nebulous hung on a washing line. A series of photographs showed a young woman in various corners of a bedroom. The obligatory bleached out polaroid photos (in case you hadn't noticed, this as well as photography with old plastic cameras is a big trend) were present. Two big charcoal drawings highlighted the pattern of old dresses. There was an arm chair that was painted white and some rusty objects were laid out in front of it. A room had some rather nondescript photos that I didn't have the patience to figure out arranged in gold frames around a fireplace with an ornate standing lamp. Cardboard boxes filled up another small room and there was some old thread and some lace. The third room had a installation we thought was the most interesting of the pieces; figure drawings were laid out in the midst of something that looked like the insides of a human being, suggesting a conflict between the portrayal of bodies on the outside as opposed to the inside.


There were also some other installation of some objects that didn't make much sense to me and I can't remember what they were, as well as some charcoal drawings of people in a nice, somewhat naive style.


I found the exhibition sadly lacking in any deeper references to a woman's reality (as it was supposed to refer to International Women's Day). It all looked contemporary, as if copied from a school book on conceptual art, and unsurprisingly therefore quite vacuous. In fact, our distinct impression, although possibly false, was that this was an exhibition of a group of young people who all knew each other.  At least my mind came to rest as I had no regrets about not having been part of this exhibition.

I'M NOT WELL ENOUGH TO KEEP UP WITH THE HEALTHY AND NOT ILL ENOUGH TO QUALIFY AS TRULY DISADVANTAGED

Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2011 "Tied Up" (copyright)

After months of encouragement from the Arts Council of Wales, the meeting that was due on Friday in my home was cancelled because there has been a great deal of interest in their programme for disabled artists, and others who are more deserving than me have taken precedence. I do get it. I don't blame them. At least they talk to you and inform you in person, and give some kind of explanation to their process of elimination.

The bottom line is, I'm too articulate and have too big a body of work, so supporting me and my development doesn't meet with the criteria that have been set up for this funding project. I think the idea has been that truly disadvantaged people with no voice but artistic potential can emerge. These criteria are not set up by the officials but come from higher up the rank. It doesn't matter that my CV is not as great as it could be because I have not had all the opportunities of a healthy person, nor that I have great trouble reading complicated guidelines, or that I have wanted to get serious messages across about the reality of invisible illness. In fact, if you're articulate enough to describe your need for a grant in great detail, it's probably the reason you won't get it through this programme. It's a Catch22, I fall into a slot, in a no man's land. I belong nowhere, fit in nowhere, and my art cannot be neatly categorized. I'm too healthy to be a real outsider and too ill to be able to keep up with the normal people. This makes for a very lonely journey, which to be quite honest is starting to look really pointless. And seriously - trying to save the world is such a juvenile notion.

The support would not only have included some money (I desperately need a printer in order to do anything with the abstract photography), but also mentorship and help with contacting galleries and reaching an audience. I admit that I broke down on the phone to the lady I've been dealing with. I know none of this is her fault, and I told her so. But my sense of desolation is very real, I simply couldn't hold back my emotional reaction. I guess by the end of the day, the encouragement I received was the last straw of hope I was holding onto. You could argue that it wasn't wasted, that I learnt a lot in the process, and not least, that I specified ideas that I might put forward through the ordinary grant application process. The reality is, however, that I feel really spent, and that Martin would have to be my mentor and assistant to make sure that I got it right. It's not fair on him, he needs to work on his own artistic process and on trying to make a bit of money that we can live off as our finances are not adding up at the moment.

As far as reading guidelines goes, that's exactly where my disability really hits me, as I have no ability to read complicated text without a great deal of difficulty and multiple re-reading and double checking. It may not seem that way, because I can write - this is the irony, I can more or less follow my own train of thought (though it's getting harder to reach my thoughts due to brain fog) but there is no way I can apply for grants as if I was a normal person. On top of that I find this country incredibly competitive, which to me simply soul destroying for someone as sensitive as myself, and I ask myself if I should withdraw altogether because this never ending struggle to receive some valid recognition is just taking too much of a toll on me. In fact I dream of relaxing in a nice country house and spending the rest of my days away from civilisation.

Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2010 in Hanko, Finland (copyright)

The ideas that I presented to the Arts Council was about my own development, about making it even more contemporary by integrating my abstract photography into collages about invisible illness. I was going to start with myself (well, continue doing what I have already doing but in a more poignant fashion) and then I was going to bring in other people's experiences in order to create a new and much more meaningful body of work.

Ah, in fact I just got some more feedback and it seems that the themes I wanted to work on were interesting to the Arts Council but for whatever reason that remains elusive to me were not at the top of the list of priorities.

As it is, I'm tired of seeing the old work on my walls and I am prepared to get rid of it at almost any price - in fact, I will have to lower myself to the level of an amateur artist in order to have greater chances of selling anything. Even then, there is no guarantee it will sell or that I have the energy to put into this process.

Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2010 in Hanko, Finland (copyright)

After the rejection from Axis, I started a discussion on Linkedin and the Facebook site for Disability Arts Cymru (Wales) about the difference between modern and contemporary art, A few people have joined in, which I have much appreciated. Some have been encouraging, and I thank them warmly.

One of the artists did not believe self-expression and social commentary were valid ways of defining either category. Another was of the opinion that the idea of a authority or "club" that gets to decide who is contemporary is against the very ideals of modern art, i.e. the freedom of expression. I answered: "The idea of freedom - that's very interesting and I wonder how one could analyse that even closer? I did a course on modern and contemporary art very long ago when I was at University, it was fascinating but I don't necessarily remember more than a vague distinction between modern and contemporary art. And much has happened in the art world since then. My illness and to be fair - a general lack of interest and a lack of information have been the reasons why I haven't pondered these issues until now when it's all opening up to me in a new way. The general definitions of these two categories were taken from some websites I quickly googled, I admit that I need to do much more extensive research. I do however think there is some general truth to the notion that modern art was a lot about individualism (hence the idea of self-expression), and that it evolved into the contemporary art scene where it's often the go getters with a strong sense of self or ego who manage to get the attention of collectors and funders. 

I do wonder, though, if anyone really knows exactly how to define these things, as the notion of freedom certainly implies that pretty much anything goes. It seems to me that you can make art the old fashioned way, in which case it's really almost a form of pastiche. There is a danger in not looking deep enough for more meaning than that, however. I have a suspicion, (though it remains a suspicion as I have no evidence to go by other than Axis's woolly guidelines) that the Axis judge who looked at my work went by a shallow interpretation of the elements of the work, thinking it all looks old fashioned, when in fact there is nothing old fashioned about my subject matter and my messages. And who knows... maybe he was also influenced by the fact that it is 2D, shock horror! 

I still maintain that there is much snobbery within the art world, and there is often nothing very exceptional in terms of message in work that suddenly "makes it" within the art world. As far as I can see there is also an even wider gap between the work that galleries are willing to represent because they know it will sell, art that collectors are willing to invest in because it seems novel, and art that public galleries are willing to show because it's not commercial. As usual, I personally seem to fall into a slot somewhere in a no man's land, and this is the reality myself and many other artists have to deal with. You do ask yourself if it's really worth the hassle."

All photographs are by myself and subject to copyright.

HOW I CAME TO BE WHERE I AM AS AN ARTIST

Martin and Vivi-Mari at the Hanko Art Society Summer Exhibition 2010

My latest thoughts on how I'd like to develop my art is that I want to merge my photography with my collages. I will increase the use of the technology at hand and print images on the laser printer I got last spring. In order to pursue my ideas to the fullest I do however need a new scanner (the cheaper ones are nowadays absolute crap because they try and make them thin) as well as a large format ink jet printer. 


I will continue to pursue social possibly criticism and commentary. Art wise, it seems to me that collages have a tendency of being the medium for social and political commentaries, perhaps because artists often find material in newspapers and magazines, and the allusions to existing or historical political personalities can be made obvious. Recently, vintage collaging and scrap booking has become a popular craft not to be mistaken for art, as imagery is often stereotyped and lacking in any deeper meaning or purpose beyond being "pretty". See political and social collages here.

I was in surgery for the removal of a umbilical hernia last week and am not feeling to good. I'm having to postpone starting the collages I have in mind. I'm in a hurry to get going. One of them is aimed at the MOMA Wales open exhibition next summer, the theme being "movement". It's inspired by the (dreaded!) olympics but doesn't have to conform to the subject of sports. I have an idea which is meant to illustrate dysfunctional childhood... another idea I have is to illustrate what is really wrong with me in a very direct way, in the form of a piece of art. I decided that I could do that if I make sure only the right kind of audience will see it. The point is, it's not always easy for me to quickly sum up the health problems and other social challenges I've always struggled with, and it might be a good thing to just point at the artwork. 

I'm excited to be interacting with the Arts Council, as I found out through networking that there is a programme for artists who are in some way disadvantaged. It's quite ironic that I've spent my whole life trying to cover up the fact that I have so many health issues and can't function on the level of "normal" people, and now I have to unravel it all! For instance, I've heard people say that looking at my CV and the quality of my work, I seem very prolific and professional in my approach. I've had lots of exhibitions and so forth. 

What is not so obvious at first glance, is that I have been doing this for a long time (undisturbed by working life or children for the most part), and that the exhibitions started to be further apart as I got older. I pushed myself a lot when I was younger, had to literally carry my own artwork a lot of the time (as I didn't have a car nor knew anybody who had one), and only occasionally I had some help (which was usually by my mother). It just got too difficult as time went by and I was less able to whip myself into action. I've only had two grants, both of which came to me fairly easily and really due to family connections. I never had the energy to seek bigger grants, and when I did try for smaller ones a couple of times it became obvious that I didn't know quite what to ask for and how to state my case. I also felt that what I had to say was not very interesting to the authorities, who were often incredibly snotty people. Thanks to the first grant I had an exhibition in a commercial art gallery in central Helsinki, but after that I've shown in all sorts of places (libraries, cafes, culture centres) that didn't cost anything or asked for some art in return. 

I did quite well in the 1990s, as my world was appreciated by the audiences in Southern Finland. But after the turn of this Century things got more and more difficult. The reasons were that I was very preoccupied by relationship issues, that I didn't have a clear direction (I felt I had said it all, already), that I had trouble drawing and painting by hand, and that I didn't have the energy or the help to set up many meaningful exhibitions. On top of that the art market was going down. In fact I was about to give it all up when I met Martin. He has the motivation, ability to focus, and physical strength to help me. Yet I cannot rely on him alone, as he has to develop his own art and try and market it. 

Arriving in Wales was very daunting, as I was suddenly anonymous. How was I going to reinstate a career in the arts when I really don't have a lot of extra energy to spend? Luckily, I do have a track record, and hopefully things will sort themselves out gradually. In spite of feeling quite bewildered, I try and flip the coin as often as possible and see all the opportunities rather than all the competition. As a result of my relocation I've had to do lots of inner work and reinvent myself a little. You get so shaken up that elements of your inner self start floating around like debris in water, only to settle in new places. Decisions about sticking with the arts and focusing my vision have been made - now all I need to do is put it all in practice at my own pace, and hope the money and mentors comes to support my endeavours. I also have some more creative freedom thanks to digital aid (I have a colour laser printer for instance, purchased when we had a bit of money). Similar processes are going on with Martin, who seems to finally be getting somewhere. He's now having a much sharper approach to his own artistic expression, and is in the process of communicating with funders about it. It's looking up!


Some more photos from my studio:

"Archangel Michael", artwork by Finnish-Swedish artist Ester Helenius (1875-1955) in the background.

"Russian Revolutionary Art", a little booklet from way back in time in the background

This costume drawing for my grandmother by the famous Platonov is casually stuck behind this frame,
it will be properly framed one day...