I've just been researching artists residencies to get a sense of what's available to apply for and what kind of work artists engaged in residencies are doing. I can't help but wonder: how much of the artworld is bullshit?
It seems like art is a gimick. It's like a game of who can be the most suave salesman. Slippery. Used car salesman comes to mind.
Is it more about strange ideas than the actual work itself? Some days I feel like I should just sit a shoebox on a pedestal and declare, "ladies and gentlemen, behold! My new masterpiece!" All I'd have to do is develop an elaborate, surreal story and bam! It's art.
But maybe these people are geniuses. They know how to play a game...one I've never been very good at playing because I find it too hard to be an actress. Plus I'm no good at lying.
Maybe I should start making work that basically says "fuck it and fuck you." Maybe people like that sort of thing.
Take the artist Riikka Makikoskela, for example. She completed an artist residency at Aberystwyth Arts Centre in 2010. I was interested in the identifying image used on the website so I looked up more of her work. I found this. What is it? Yup, you've got it - a sugar angel.
It seems like art is a gimick. It's like a game of who can be the most suave salesman. Slippery. Used car salesman comes to mind.
Is it more about strange ideas than the actual work itself? Some days I feel like I should just sit a shoebox on a pedestal and declare, "ladies and gentlemen, behold! My new masterpiece!" All I'd have to do is develop an elaborate, surreal story and bam! It's art.
But maybe these people are geniuses. They know how to play a game...one I've never been very good at playing because I find it too hard to be an actress. Plus I'm no good at lying.
Maybe I should start making work that basically says "fuck it and fuck you." Maybe people like that sort of thing.
Take the artist Riikka Makikoskela, for example. She completed an artist residency at Aberystwyth Arts Centre in 2010. I was interested in the identifying image used on the website so I looked up more of her work. I found this. What is it? Yup, you've got it - a sugar angel.
And this is what she says about it:
"I make this piece all over again into every exhibition space of loose, granulated sugar. First I shape about an oval sugar heap, then I do a snow angel on it by my own body. The snow angel is upside down, because I want to emphasize my feminity and also to get the feeling of material being all over me. In my opinion, the dual meaning of sugar is very interesting. For example, it presents the good and the bad, it's not healthy but very tempting. The same kind of dualisms can be found in sex and religions."
Seriously, Riikka? Bullshit alert! It's a snow angel. Apologies - sugar angel. What a waste of perfectly good sugar! Do you have any idea the number of delicious, wonderful desserts I could have made with that sugar? I hope you used Fair Trade Certified sugar, Missy!
OK. So maybe I'm a bit jealous. It also makes me think that maybe I don't apply myself as much as I could (should). Still. I mean, come on! Yes you are right: sugar is tempting. But it's only bad for you if you have too much of it - and I would say the amount it takes to make a sugar angel is enough to be considered unhealthy. Sex or not.
"I make this piece all over again into every exhibition space of loose, granulated sugar. First I shape about an oval sugar heap, then I do a snow angel on it by my own body. The snow angel is upside down, because I want to emphasize my feminity and also to get the feeling of material being all over me. In my opinion, the dual meaning of sugar is very interesting. For example, it presents the good and the bad, it's not healthy but very tempting. The same kind of dualisms can be found in sex and religions."
Seriously, Riikka? Bullshit alert! It's a snow angel. Apologies - sugar angel. What a waste of perfectly good sugar! Do you have any idea the number of delicious, wonderful desserts I could have made with that sugar? I hope you used Fair Trade Certified sugar, Missy!
OK. So maybe I'm a bit jealous. It also makes me think that maybe I don't apply myself as much as I could (should). Still. I mean, come on! Yes you are right: sugar is tempting. But it's only bad for you if you have too much of it - and I would say the amount it takes to make a sugar angel is enough to be considered unhealthy. Sex or not.
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