EVENTUALLY, IT WILL ALL BE IN YOUR MIND, TOO

Vivi-Mari Carpelan: "Elsewhere, and the Stars Above",
handmade mixed media collage
copyright 2013

After a lot of video editing, I decided I should try and work with some physical media again. I didn't have any specific idea but this is what I came up with this time. Encouraged by the fact that Outside In has invited two of my "Project X" pieces (and very blatant they are too!) to Outside In West in Somerset House, Taunton (July-September), I have decided to try and persevere with Project X and the ideas surrounding invisible illness and fatigue in particular.

You may not have "real" mental issues, and your illness may not be "all in the head", but sooner or later, the issues with a chronically decripit body will get to your psyche. This image is meant to describe the sense that life goes on somewhere else, while the disabled person is a prisoner in a decripit body that they feel less than proud of. And of course, it's not just about what the body looks like (personally, I'm a master of camouflage), but what it feels like to the person in question. The old suite is the emblem of poor body image - can you guess what it originally was? As usual in my art, wallpaper  signifies the idea of covering something up. Red stands for blood (life, energy) and stars for hope and dreams... and where the seat of the life force should be, there's a black hole.

WHY JOIN THE DISABILITY ARTS AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Myself giving an artist's talk at a DAC,
Disability Arts Cymru launch event in May 2012

Someone asked me why I would want to label my art as disability art. I'm sure it all looks quite mysterious to the outside world. Well, to be honest, I'm still not sure how useful it is as the art has to be able to stand on its own regardless, and real practical support is hard to come by. However, it's something I had try out when I realized that there is such a community and tradition in the making. I was clearly no longer able to compete with able bodied artists, and it was not about trying to take an easy route as some people seem to think. Rethinking my approach was a pure necessity, and I gained a few things from this new way of thinking throughout 2012 . Here are some of my points;

Anyone who is disabled and creates art is a disabled artist. They can be deaf, dumb, blind, bound to a wheel chair with spinal injuries from an accident, suffer from chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, arthritis or any other disease that is more or less debilitating. I didn't know this until I discovered the supportive community for disabled artists and art here in Wales. Most people encounter some form of disability in their lives so there is no need to think of disabled people as very different from "the normal" human beings. Whether we like it or not illnesses are a fundamental part of our lives. Most people gain from a supportive and positive community even if it's only in a moral and emotional way.

Of course the definition of disability arts is controversial - but I won't go into that as it's all a bit complicated (you can read about various view points on the internet). Some of the disability art reflects peoples' disabilities, but usually it's not expected, or a condition even. Of course, some of my art does reflect these issues and it's seen as a positive thing by some people who help govern these communities. The disability arts in general is basically a community that supports the battle against inequality. Just as people have accessibility issues in the physical world - athletes being a case in point - artists with disabilities have accessibility issues in terms of how they are being treated and what kind of opportunities they have compared to able bodied people. Not least, as in my own case, a matter of not managing on the "normal world's" terms. I'm not sure the support is sufficient in my case though because I'm still considered "too articulate" and have "too great a body of work" behind me (in the Arts Council's rather devastating words since suddenly being good wasn't right). It's terrible politics in the end that govern who gets really useful support.

Outsider artists meet similar criteria, they get help to exhibit their work from charities such as Outside In because their disadvantaged position makes it too difficult for them to compete with "normal" and able bodied artists. In reality, these people tend more often than not to have serious mental issues and even a low mental age, and the art work is more often than not the kind of art that the art world doesn't recognise as valid art. I'm clearly on the fringe of this group of people, and I can see that it's the extremer end of the spectrum that gets most of the attention within this community.

The art world is ruthless, and this is something that has become even clearer to me while in Britain, and it's also something I have decided not to participate in any more. Part of my problem has been trying to push myself beyond my limits to compete with able bodied artists, and it simply wasn't working. I have been feeling burnt out and lacking in the joy of creating. As it was putting me under extreme pressure I decided to join these groups of marginal art. But - having tried it out I'm not sure it's right for me either. It's not so much being part of these groups per se, as being part of anything at all. Sometimes I feel more like an uber-outsider, someone who is always on the outside of everything, including that which is already on the fringes... perhaps it sounds a bit big headed but I simply don't know if I am able to be part of any community for real, so far I haven't found one that would meet with my needs in a really snug way. I continue to support the disability arts and fight prejudice, but other than that I don't know what lies ahead and how I'd like to define my art in the future.

EXCLUSION AND INCLUSION - HOW TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE ART WORLD?

Vivi-Mari Carpelan: "Important English Furniture", collage 1993

My previous article on outsider art has made me think a little about art criticism. If you start out with the assumption that an exhibition is going to comprise a specific group within society, then you have presumably set some specific premises for the process of selecting and judging the art work that these people are presenting. 

I think Outside In is doing a great job in attempting to disregard an artist's background. Basically, if an artist feels they belong with this group, then they are welcome. I guess one can assume that only disadvantaged people would want to take this opportunity. I've had to discard my hopeless attempts at fitting in in the normal world and admit that I could really use a support group that is designed for people who cannot function like "normal" people. This decision wasn't that easy to make.

At least in theory, an artist's history isn't important to the Outside In team - some of the outsider artists have been educated within the arts and therefore do not fit in with the old definition of outsider artists as being self-taught. It's just a new and progressive way of looking at this type of art and it's certainly moving in the right direction. Many of us have complicated and difficult lives that prevent us from being fully functioning artists with the aim of becoming acknowledged professionals. I may have had some training in art colleges, and that seems to count when I present my work to the general art world. We all know how artist's today seem to get onto the career wagon just from having had a successful degree show. Those of us who aren't such young promising artists with the luxury of having such a show, are often disregarded. Even for a normally functioning artist it can be incredibly difficult to get anywhere if they are over 30. 

Of course, if I have to deal with people within the normal art world, I make an effort to appear as professional as possible or at least secretly hope that my CV will be impressive enough and that I managed to use the right buzz words. Yet the truth of the matter is that I'm not very good at communicating my intentions in a way that would fit in with the contemporary art scene (this is especially hard without compromising my true self), and I don't have all that fancy stuff on my CV that seem to matter so much these days, for instance awards and commissions. My actual training in fine arts is also minimal and I basically taught myself how to express myself artistically rather than commercially. I don't suppose anyone at Outside In really cares what background I have, as I'm sure they care only about my present life circumstances. Yet I can't help but wonder whether there is some kind of agenda at the back of the minds of the judges to award art work that doesn't appear to be backed up by formal training.

Vivi-Mari Carpelan: "Xclusion",
handmade collage with artist's photograph,
copyright 2012

The question around exclusion versus inclusion within the art world is not simple. How do you create a new paradigm for art criticism? Outsider art is a reactionary movement that attempts to reject typical value systems within the art world, but how far can you go in being reactionary without losing touch with society at large? How is such art to be judged if it's not judged in accordance with a general consensus within the art world? All this raises the question whether this kind of art can be judged and written about in the same way as any other art. 

I think there are ways in which experts can judge a piece of art in a fair manner, although they may not all agree. In other words, there is an objective stance which is independent of the art market or art world today but also of any knowledge about the artist. Being able to have an acute eye for good art but also disregard any knowledge of the artist's life, reputation and former achievements isn't easy, but it can be done. 

I do believe that art work has to be able to stand on its own regardless what predicament  artists finds themselves in. I have often wished that my art would be judged with the understanding that I have limitations and that this comes across as imperfection in my work. But this is never going to happen and shouldn't happen either. I can only hope that the imperfections are only obvious to myself. I can only hope that my message is strong enough to make people think highly of what I do. I obviously don't want to be a pity case! I do however think that it's great that my art is being seen by people who intentionally look for meaning and value that is based in a concern for the equality of all artistic people. On the one hand, you are being supported in the difficult task of getting your art out there. On the other, your art is being seen as potentially supportive of humanistic values and judged on the basis of the human message your art sends out (either by contents or through its pure expressiveness - or both). While this process of inclusion may not always be 100% successful, I do think it's revolutionary and will hopefully become more and more influential. Won't people eventually get tired of conceptual art without a connection to true human sentiments and ethics?

I hope these attempts won't be jeopardized by the inclusion of the wrong kind of art work, i.e. work that is only therapeutic and not really artistic. I think there is a real danger in allowing immature work due to matters of equality to be displayed along side with highly proficient work, as the former can drag down the standard and how it's all being seen by other authorities in the arts. This revolution has to be a truly serious minded and not give any reason for ridicule from other serious institutions. I realize this may not be entirely possible in the world of today, as someone out there is bound to find a reason to disregard such noble efforts. But there are ways in which these things can progress more smoothly and one is for instance the inclusion of outsider art in a prestigious gallery such as Pallant House. The beautiful presentation of art work in this gallery raises the social profile of unusual work considerably. Another  thing is not getting stuck with being politically correct and pleasing members of society who are guilt ridden or driven by anger (i.e. strong negative affects as opposed to positive and more constructive ones). 

Instead of standing on the barricades shouting that everyone should be equal one must work towards a real and genuine interaction with opposing forces that builds up a sense of trust and benevolence. I'm not sure how it's supposed to work in practice, but I do know that you need to show that your efforts are serious minded and that your art has a clear message that would benefit society. You don't throw this message in people's faces but gentle offer it for people to ponder. The hardest thing is to get that sort of work in front of people. In today's climate, people don't want to know about complicated world views or deviant personalities, poverty, or any kind of illness. It's hardly surprising since life is hard and most of us get a fair share of suffering regardless. Therefore it's of the utmost importance that what you have to say somehow rings a bell for that potential audience. A sense of recognition and sympathy is what opens people up. It's all about connecting. Without connection there is hardly ever any form of compassion, and without compassion there is no social progress. That's just my humble opinion.

Vivi-Mari Carpelan: "Marilyn and Picasso", collage 1993

Read this interview with Bobby Baker, a performance artist who was one of the Judges at Outside In National; some years back she "went mad" and used drawing on her way to recovery - she's talking about the process of making art about mental illness and the question about being an outsider or an insider.

I HAVE INADVERTEDLY STIRRED THINGS UP A BIT...

"Contemplating the Nature of Triumph", copyright Vivi-Mari Carpelan 2011
Art work featured in the Pallant House Magazine, March 2012

After a bad dip during which I seriously considered the validity of my artistic career, a number of things have happened. First, my better half Martin has received a small grant from the very elusive and mythic Arts Council! He worked very hard on the application. Apparently, the number of applications they receive these days are record high due to hard times, so they decided to distribute the money among a larger portion of applicants. Though Martin hasn't gotten what he initially hoped for in order to do research and produce an exhibition with supportive material, it's still a start. I sense that this will allow him to get going and that things will follow in a natural way so that he will get the recognition he deserves. 

As for myself, I seem to have stirred up a lot of feelings/reactions/caused an outcry due to being rejected by the Arts Council (The Creative Steps Programme), and am getting massive support from the disability arts community. People who work for our rights here in Wales have complained about the selection process, as it isn't seen as being fair and have "pointed out the absurdity of the situation" as Rachel Stelmach put it. Although no one has told me exactly what they are upset about, I venture to guess that it starts with the fact that I was considered too articulate and have too great a body of work to fit their scheme, i.e. I'm "too good". I did read through the programme (which was easy to read) and didn't see anything that should have immediately disqualified me. It certainly didn't suggest that you shouldn't be too intelligent, or that you must be an emerging artist. Of course I'm by no means suggesting that anyone would equate disability with "learning difficulties"... They did state that they wanted to be challenged, to be taken on a ride for a different point of view on life. Allegedly, only the quality of the applicant's work should matter, whether this applies within this programme I don't know... You could argue that the government wishes to support those who never get a chance otherwise, this makes them look benevolent and I'm sure the general public thinks it's great. This, however, leads to people like me who are not well enough to be accepted by the general art establishment (we don't have enough fancy stuff to show for) nor ill enough to be considered sufficiently marginalized, to be cut off from any sources of funding whatsoever. There is very little funding for individual artists to begin with.

I have found myself in the surreal situation of basically being punished for having tried so hard to make it as an artist. I am on disability, still I try and work to the best of my ability. The fact that I didn't get any financial support basically means that I cannot at the moment develop my ideas and message much further. I'm stuck trying to make do with the means I have at hand, and it's not great. One of my biggest problems is that I don't have an ink jet printer so I have to make do with small laser prints of much lesser quality to be used in my collages - until I run out of ink that I can't afford. I can obviously not set up a photo exhibition anywhere. I cannot involve other disabled people in my art project either, since I don't have the means to go around visiting these people. This means whatever art I may continue to produce will only be about myself. There is also the issue of mentoring and help with creating gallery contacts. From the official at the AC that I was dealing with, I was given the name of one gallery, and I did contact them via mail but of course I haven't heard from them. It's extremely difficult to approach galleries and I wouldn't even know where to start. When I do contact them, they are more likely to turn me down because I am not backed up by the Arts Council. I also have great trouble dealing with authorities on the phone as I have a horror of talking on the phone with strangers but also easily get things wrong due to a bad line, not catching numbers well, or due to linguistic reasons. It was not funny when I needed the IBAN number from a company and the lady had a New Zealand accent. Seven was "zieevn", for instance, and there was a confusion about the amount of zeros which were five and not two! (Martins says she probably said double O triple O, which would not be evident to me!).

The point of view of the AC is that I should just apply the normal way like everyone else who is articulate, but this is contrary to the reasons I applied through the Creative Steps Programme in the first place. I may be articulate, this doesn't automatically mean that I'm any good at reading complicated guide lines. I know it can be hard to believe but those who know anything about fibromyalgia know that this can be very true. The guidelines are hard to follow even for normally functioning people like Martin. And it seems to me that I don't know how to get the wording right for any "official purposes". I am and will remain a person with my own subjective language and point of view.

Gareth Foulkes who is the new North Wales officer of Disability Arts Cymru said this in an e-mail to me: "Your work is very important as it is identifiably Disability Art and makes powerful statements that will be of interest to those involved in the Arts in Wales". I did at the time of my rejection ask the Arts Council why my artistic messages about disability and specifically invisible illness where not considered important enough, and the answer I got back was that it was not relevant for the scheme because there were priorities of a more pressing nature. It appears that the disability community disagrees with this point of view and are now trying to help me further. The first step is that I will be giving a talk about my experiences, and though public performances always take a toll on me I have agreed to continue my fight for the rights of marginalized people.

The other aspect of all the rejections I have experienced recently (apart from putting me so close to giving up) is that there is no longer any doubt that I am part of the outsiders in art. All these years I have found myself putting on a straight face and pretend to be normal, for fear of rejection. If people know you have health issues, they are not very likely to ask you to contribute with any form of work. For instance, I may not have been considered for the talk and the workshop I gave in Finland in November 2010. The reality, however, is that I am hardly ever asked to do anything because I'm not able to push myself out there enough. Even if I did, it would take a huge toll on me unless I was given a bit of "special treatment". Who would want to do that unless they felt that what I had to give was important enough? So this has been a Catch22. The decision to stop trying to fit in is nonetheless the better one, as I can no longer play along with the normal people. I need to set my concerns and worries aside and just do what I feel compelled to do, which is to continue exploring ideas surrounding invisible disability. At least know I know that there are people out there who believe that this is important and that I have something to give even if it's not on the larger scale it could possibly be if I had more help. We shall see how it goes. It's the irony of life that I have never disclosed the fact that I dropped out of art school in France because I couldn't take it any more. I tried to cover this up as much as possible for fear of not being taken seriously and to be honest it was alright as long as I didn't deal with any art authorities in Finland. In reality I was kicked out of that school for not keeping up and was not welcome to try again. At that point I was so sick and tired of the harsh mentality that I was very happy to return to the scholarly studies at The University of Helsinki. I didn't do too badly during the first year of Arts Foundation in Perpignan (France) in spite of the language barrier, but the studies in graphic design and illustration that followed were rather pointless. So in practice I'm pretty much a self taught artist. Now it's been disclosed.

One of my pieces was featured in the Pallant House Gallery Magazine because the article mentioned the upcoming Outside In exhibition for outsider artists which effectively takes place in the Pallant House Gallery. I was astonished at the quality of the magazine and proud to be in it. I will definitely submit two pieces for the exhibition, only making a choice is very hard as usual. I have also sent a proposal for an exhibition in Brighton... it's specifically for non- or semi professional artists. I think I have to concede that because my CV lacks any fancy commissions, awards and more than just a couple of small grants over a period of 20 years, I can probably not call myself professional no matter how much I might have wanted to. After all, Axis doesn't want me! Surely that says it all.


Martin is finally able to speak up about his new project:

"A new project has been hinted at for some time, and now we can reveal... This season's big news is that after a lot of hard work, Martin has secured funding from the Arts Council of Wales for his new project, "Synthesis". The name reflects the fact that it's about using new media (specifically, at the moment, material from the Internet, and from 3D fractal-based computer modelling) and combining it with deeply traditional drawing techniques to create an innovative new body of work.

There are 2 strands to the project - the first and most extensive concerning the use of open-source text from sites such as Project Gutenberg as material for new illustration projects. The first candidate will be the Irish fairy-tale-for-grownups "The Crock of Gold" by James Stephens. The book was suggested by Vivi-Mari, and contains a wealth of rich imagery in the Celtic tradition. At the top of this mail is a test piece I made during the planning stage - "Character Study for Aengus Óg". The project begins in earnest on the 1st April, with all the artwork to be completed by the Autumn, along with a signed and numbered limited edition hardback and a downloadable e-book version. Not much to do there then!

The great news is that the whole project will be exhibited at the Radnorshire Museum and Gallery in Llandrindod Wells from 1st Nov through to January, and will move to MOMA Wales in Machynlleth in April of next year. Other exhibition venues are currently being courted! More details about the exhibitions closer to the time, but before that there will soon be details available about how you can get involved with the project ahead of the first exhibition - watch this space!

At the same time as all this is going on, the second strand of the project involves developing the work that Martin has done with 3D fractal modelling, to create new objects, fauna and flora after the style of the 'unlikely realms' series of abstracts, but again using them as source material for drawings using traditional media. You can see a piece in similar vein on the blog here. This will form the start of another major exhibition project, hopefully to be continued in 2013."