Critical consensus versus creativity

Indigo Editor, Charlotte Grimwade, considers awards’ relationship to creativity in her first editorial

It’s time to check in on your fellow film and music bu s. Emotions are running high. You’ve guessed it, it’s awards season. Whether you stay up to catch the Oscars live, or simply stick to the comfort of watching the Baftas at a more sensible time, artistic communities inevitably split around this time of year.

The past few weeks have marked the announcement of several nomination shortlists, as well as some ceremonies like the Golden Globes. It’s an odd time to be thinking about academy awards. Following the online celebrations of the art world’s finest during the pandemic, once again glitz and glam return to Los Angeles, London and other cities. With streaming services taking over the film, television and music industries, popular opinion very much seems to be shifting.

Why do awards matter to us?

There are broader theoretical issues that come with the concept of awarding ‘Best Film’ or ‘Best Album’. How are we quantifying ‘best’? Is it down to artistic merit, something undeniably subjective? Or is it according to streaming statistics? More than anything, big names seem to consistently come out on top. Steven Spielberg is back with The Fabelmans as Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis maintains an expected presence across nomination shortlists. Meanwhile Harry Styles and The 1975 have once again experienced nomination success in anticipation of this year’s BRIT Awards ceremony. Why do awards matter to us? If, in an ideal world, creatives are producing ‘art for art’s sake’, why bother with unnecessary gratification? Having recently watched 2013 film Kill Your Darlings, an energetic portrayal of literary creativity in 1940s New York, there’s something almost soul-destroying about the heightened prioritisation of arbitrary awards. The film’s characters, including Allen Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac, maintain the mindset that formal education sucks the joy and passion out of intellectualism.

Content

Music (page 3), Film & TV (pages 4 & 5), Books (page 6), Stage (page 7), Style (pages 8 & 9), Features (page 10), Interview (page 11), Travel (page 12), Food & Drink (page 13), Visual Arts (page 14), Creative Writing (page 15).

Indigo logo: Adeline Zhao

Cover image: Victoria Cheng Artwork of the week: Victoria Cheng

It’s overly reductive to presume that awards are inherently bad. Awards season sometimes has the potential to highlight underrepresented stories and artists. Michelle Yeoh’s emotive speech after her Golden Globe win for Everything Everywhere All at Once is only a recent example of this. However, as we near the mid-2020s, it feels as though the art world is lacking the spark of creativity seen in artistic groups from a century past, such as Dada.

We consistently hark back to this notion of legendary, avant-garde creativity

In Kill Your Darlings, there is a noticeable romanticisation of Dada’s revolutionary spirit and inspirational creativity. Characters attempt to formulate a similarly impactful and iconic name to describe their group of disillusioned writers and thinkers, struggling to find a more memorable method than German artist Richard Huelsenbeck sliding a paperknife into a dictionary.

We consistently hark back to this notion of legendary, avant-garde creativity. You only have to look at the band boygenius’ iconic album announcement on the most recent Rolling Stone cover. Mirroring Nirvana’s 1994 photoshoot, the trio situate themselves in alternative music’s hall of fame, playing on rock ‘n’ roll’s stereotypically masculine tropes. The band’s members, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus assert their authority, clad in matching suits and each carrying a knowing smirk.

I can’t quite say that I’m being honest as I, like Kill Your Darling’s protagonists, similarly idealise Dada’s creative spirit. When I write one of my many summatives this term, I inevitably prioritise a mark scheme and my preferred grade. Though I’d love to view my attempts to grapple with academia as a wild and flowing art form, it’s clear that this isn’t always the case.

However, there’s hope. As indie favourites like Aftersun feature in the big film award categories and boygenius announce their imminent return, artistic originality seems to have a chance after all.

Despite my mainly cynical perception of the art world’s current state, this edition of Indigo is a testament to the exciting cultural opportunities the UK has to o er. As Style consider the revolutionary impact of Vivienne Westwood’s work, Film & TV discuss some of the most exciting frontrunners in this year’s Academy Awards. As always, I hope you enjoy the subsequent pages, especially because our editors and writers’ creativity shines throughout this edition.

Team

Charlotte Grimwade, Cameron Beech, Melissa Rumbold, Roshni Suresh Babu, Siobhan Eddie, Elizabeth Buckley, Theo Mudhir, Alexa Thanni, Amelie Lambie-Proctor, Lydia Doyle, Lily Lake, Ruhee Parelkar, Annie Pickup, James Macfarlane, Rae Rostron , Alice Purves, Emilia Williams, Isabella Harris, Tom Harbottle, Millie Adams, Eve Kirman, Agnes Shu, Caitlin Ball.

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