Big City Dreams
The Observer reports on London’s struggling artists:
We’ll get to that creative critical faculty in a second.
We’ll get to that too.
The cost of renting a studio in which to be abuzz with creativity is, we’re told, a major issue:
Ah yes, the engine room. Powering the city of London with their ceaseless shovelling.
The indignity.
Indeed, of those surveyed, only 12% “can support themselves solely through art.” Given such difficulties, the words supply and demand spring to mind, and readers may wonder whether a different, more viable line of work may be in order. Or at least some relocation – say, to a place where studio rents and general living expenses are much more affordable. However, Ms Kwan, our successful artist, is having none of that:
At which point, readers may suspect that the imperative is not so much being creative, but being creative in London, a notoriously expensive city, but in which one can draw attention to the fact that one lives and works in London, a notoriously expensive city. Thereby glowing with a kind of location status.
That bottom of the pile business must really chafe.
Readers may also note the article’s, shall we say, coyness regarding the art on offer – all that cruelly underfunded creativity. None of which is displayed to sway readers of the Observer. The nearest we get is a photo of Ms Kwan standing next to a creation that we cannot actually see, and a photo of Grayson Perry in a hideous frock.
Poking about elsewhere reveals that Ms Kwan’s area of expertise is “political and ecological positioning through fine art practice,” as seen so boldly here:
It’s a “sensory banquet,” the creation of which “had a profound emotional and conceptual effect on my sense of the relationships between objects, personhood, and ancestral and collective meaning.”
As you can imagine.
Other dizzying creations can be seen – nay, beheld – here and here.
Given the aesthetic uplift conjured into being via piles of plastic milk cartons, it is of course astounding that Ms Kwan and her equally high-minded peers, all doubtless schooled in political “positioning,” aren’t feeling sufficiently rewarded.
“It is like a hostile environment now,” says Ms Kwan. A sentiment that may conceivably be shared by those members of the general public who venture to art venues in search of aesthetics and objects of wonderment, but who find only unattractive tat, ponderous press releases, and piles of plastic milk cartons.
If the basic thrust of the Observer article sounds familiar – the need to be seen being creative in a suitably happening city, while living above one’s means – you may be thinking of this Guardian article. In which, a self-exalting novelist named Brigid Delaney tells us that creative people, people much like herself, must live in locales befitting their potential and importance, not their budget. And hence the imperative for public subsidy.
You, taxpayer, come hither. And bring your wallet.
“Berlin is seen the coolest city in Europe – and the third most visited tourist destination after London and Paris. The city is also adding 30,000 residents every year – despite Germany’s population stagnating.”
Brigid Delaney in 2014.
I wonder how that’s working out for Berlin? Probably plenty to write about.
That.
Mystery solved.
I suppose seeing the goods on offer might jar somewhat with the claim that London’s artists are “an underpaid group.”
Not seeing a lot of expertise, to be honest.
And yet if you ask GPTrolley whom it would save.
Oh, I dunno. If you take expertise to mean using fashionable political pretensions to excuse banality and tat, then some effort can be detected.
Don’t you Philistines get it??
She has to be in London to collect all those milk bottles. Her work is intimately bound up with the life of the city. An ongoing dialectic.
My guess is she herself is a vegan.
or the old joke line about “giving up show business? “
Those other sorts of artists, dahlings. Not moi! Perish the thought!
OK, I laughed. cheap studios from Acme, I expect the “artists” will have much the same outcome as the coyote. I am also pleased to see that Khan has London’s big problems sorted so that this existential crisis can be addressed.
Another resounding victory for the Po-Mo Gibberish Generator™.
And yet if you ask GPTrolley whom it would save.
TBF, that mess would pick Pol Pot over anyone two microns to the right of him. See also, to no one’s surprise.
My guess is she herself is a vegan
Judging from her “work” I think you misspelled Vogon.
Er… what the hell are they? More bad sculpture?
They’re, um… [ squints, checks notes ]…
Though why they’re so dreary and artless, as in displaying no aesthetic qualities or evidence of uncommon skill, I couldn’t say.
Beyond the obvious, I mean.
I’m guessing we’re supposed to be moved by the news that, “Few [artists] can afford to live in London, let alone find another £500-plus a month for a small studio.” And I’m guessing we’re not supposed to wonder whether that might be a consequence of failing to produce work of discernible value, and which customers might wish to pay for, directly, with their own money.
Though I do confess to a brief smile at the anonymous bitching about “untalented artists” who “take up precious studio space” by paying for it themselves. Likewise, the claims that artists are “understandably sick of contributing to the vibrancy of an area and then being booted out,” with Hackney Wick in East London being cited as a case in point.
Just another shallow-minded fool hating on civilization. If you were to take a time machine back 1000 years you would find that “dairy pollution” everywhere there were cattle, because there will be runoff into streams and cows will even poop directly in those streams. So let’s abolish all animal farming so that the kulaks can be chronically undernourished–it’s what those “uncreative” types deserve, after all, right comrade?
Well…seems to be something of a contraindicator but testing the edge cases…and not-so-edge…according to GPTrolley:
Elton John > Mick Jagger
Joe Biden > Donald Trump
Dick York > Dick Sargent
however…
Donald Trump > Klaus Schwab
so there’s that…
I preferred her when she was making music.
“Everybody Chong Kwan tonight”
Dude. You are sooooo confused. She was the lead singer for that funk band Rufus. Do your research, buddy.
I’m guessing we’re not supposed to wonder whether that might be a consequence of failing to produce work of discernible value.
TBF, failing to produce work of discernible value* got this guy the same honor as Douglas Bader, which is a strange twist on “when knighthood was in flower”.
*(YMMV)
JFC
To be an artist is to get paid to spend you life doing something fun that is utterly non-utilitarian. Not fixing roofs. Not driving a truck. So it attracts lots of people, more than the market will bear. Subsidies would just attract more. Many of those attracted to this life have no talent, no creativity, and no ambition. They often think that the lifestyle will enable them to NOT work. I’ve known quite a few. My parents were artists and we lived in the suburbs because they were talented and worked hard and understood that it was a business. They never did prog art or conceptual art. My mother and her friends opened their own gallery to showcase their work. So much me me me going on.
Feel the creative vibrancy.
The vibrancy intensifies.
Bears repeating.
Creations that are useless and pointless to anyone but the artist are not priorities for most people. Artists would do well to get some kind of marketable skill to support themselves while they do art as a hobby.
If the art turns out to be of value to someone then the artist will possibly have a career … it’s the same for musicians. Stop whining and get a job while you pursue your art.
There are millions of artists and musicians … most of them are not so great and will not succeed … but they still need room and board and food etc. I do not owe them that … they need to support themselves as I support myself.
In the world of art and music there is only so much room at the top and the rest need to face reality.
Artists would do well to get some kind of marketable skill to support themselves while they do art as a hobby.
That, and/or get over their pretensions.
I have more than one friend and/or acquaintance who made comfortable livings as commercial artists or photographers so that they could do art for arts sake on their own time (and a couple who were also successful at that).
Of course that presupposes that the alleged artist actually has skills sufficient to make a box of cereal look like a box of cereal, and I haven’t seen a lot of evidence of that in some of the enlightenment with which David has favored us.
Couldn’t help but note “Grayson Perry, one of the talents who was supported by Acme […]”
Acme should have stuck to supporting Wile E. Coyote.
Not sure why. It still situates them far above any situation their talents and capabilities might earn them.
Anyone who contributed to the ‘vibrancy’ of Hackney Wick in East London got off lightly by being ‘booted out.’ A sane society would have dragged them on a hurdle . . . as a start.
No refunds. Credit note only.
they were talented and worked hard and understood that it was a business.
“business” is trade. I have/make something you want, you have/make something I want and we voluntarily make a swap that benefits both of us.
But that also implies judgement. You like what I have more than what you have to trade for it.
And that’s what these “artists” can’t stand. That any peasant be so uppity to think they can judge their work and walk away? HOW DARE YOU!
So the constant whine to big Daddy government to force the peasants to support them.
Little old ladies making wind chimes out of shells to sell at a county fair are far and away better artists (and better moral agents) than these moochers.
Snort. Have one yourself, barkeep.
It’s a “sensory banquet,”
Does that mean she didn’t clean the milk bottles first?
Bless you, madam. May you be mistaken for someone half your age.
“It is like a hostile environment now,” says Ms Kwan. A sentiment that may conceivably be shared by those members of the general public who venture to art venues in search of aesthetics and objects of wonderment, but who find only unattractive tat…
Somewhat related, this guy was mentioned yesterday. Compare and contrast.
Should we assume eating corn through a picket fence is one of the criteria?
“The bottom of the pile” describes the art perfectly.
So would “sensory banquet,” if they were trying to say it stinks.
[ Pulls thick wad of credit notes from pocket. Pauses in silent contemplation. ]
Can I use them at the fine establishment next door?
I do wonder about the people who choose the winners.
Big Wendy’s Pleasure Emporium? Closed on Mondays.
For cleaning, I believe.
“Few [artists] can afford to live in London, let alone find another £500-plus a month for a small studio.”
Proceeds from the sale of just one work of fine art per month by internationally famous painter Hunter Biden would be sufficient to provide studios for several hundred of this lady’s talented comrades.
Explains the hazmat suits
And I call this work: Trash on a stick adorned with purple prose.
Applicable to so many situations:
“Close to a third of those asked said lack of funds might force them out within five years“
Honestly, is there anything I could do to make this faster?
Remember the Goodlife traitors in Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker stories? Consider goodwhites
Some great art came out of dingy garrets. Wonder what motivated the creative spark, given there were no subsidies and for some – few sales; works now snapped up for tens of millions. If the talent is there it will find an outlet regardless of any cosseting by the taxpayer.
The Dingy Garrets.
Great band name.
No. Really.
It occurs to me that the assumptions above are not unlike those seen here, in the Guardian, regarding squatting:
There is, I think, a shared conceit.
And especially attractive is squatting while the owners are elsewhere: Imagine being sent overseas for a year only to return to find your home occupied by strangers. Now imagine finding that the law protects those squatters: I have been told that in parts of Western Europe it is in some circumstances necessary to hire house-sitters to keep a home occupied, as otherwise squatters may be legally entitled to break in after which they can be removed only after long legal processes.
What struck me, re-reading the piece, was the attempt to frame a recipe for freeloading, theft, and irresponsibility as somehow being the opposite of selfishness. Rather than, say, selfishness writ large.
Oh, and the claim that not wishing to live in squalor, like a perpetual teenager, is merely “political apathy.”
Artists would do well to get some kind of marketable skill to support themselves while they do art as a hobby.
Also this WRT degrees in Intersectional Poetry and the like. If the subject interests you, good. But if it doesn’t put food on the table, it’s a hobby, and you’ll have to buy groceries some other way.
Not entirely unrelated: Do a quick Google search for the day jobs of famous writers before they hit it big (and often afterwards). My favorite is ‘Kurt Vonnegut, manager of a SAAB dealership.’
Squatters: to keep homes occupied, my niece travels the world house-sitting while working from her laptop. The law is an ass but in the case of squatters, a particularly ugly ass.
Huh. I had assumed that people just hired locals to do that.
I’m not clear on the details of these European laws, such as how many days of vacancy are needed to make it legal for squatters to break in.
The vibrancy intensifies.
Someone did that “ART” graffiti on an advert poster on the wall in the basement room of an engineering building that was a sort of grad student lounge where we had a microwave and a table and chairs. I added an “F” to the “ART” on the poster, and labeled that as “performance art”. I was a fledgling visitor to this fine establishment, and at the time, performance “art” was a regular feature here and so was the source of inspiration for my defacing the defacing of the original poster. Someone else changed my “F” to a “P” and I’m not sure if they found the word offensive or they were correcting the abbreviation, since P ART could also mean Performance ART.
I’ve been an artist all my life, in an, ahem, traditional, a.k.a., figurative vein. I was, in fact, at one time, pursuing a Master’s in Fine Art at an academy in San Francisco well known for its high standards in the craft of art. I gave off the attempt after completing a signiifcant part of the degree because of 1) the time constraints of a career in IT, which paid the bills and 2) the gradual wokening of said academy, ultimately ending in the inclusion of a required DEI course for graduation, at which I balked. Having thus been involved with art at a fairly high level of instruction and practice, I can say with some assurance that there are, in fact, plenty of artists making a decent to fine living from their art, while living and working pretty much anywhere, particularly in the age of the Internet. These are artists who actually qualify as makers of art, as opposed to makers of “statements”. Strangely enough, there are still many people who find room on their walls for art, and reserve their bumpers for statements. I should also add that some of the greatest artists to have ever lived made their living doing something aside from, at least, the main stream of their art.
I may have to borrow that one.
Remind me who said, “If you want to send a messzge, use Western Union.”
She has made landscapes out of rotting food
Before or after the sensory banquet?