Issue Two / MARKET

PIGEON

M a r ke t

student of , and a of what aduating . Putting dit to good Chris is selling his el. Plus The one of the this year.

Ben Lewis Chris Hughes Rebecca Lewin

Sarah Rowles Rebecca Jagoe NEETNAC

Neil Cummings Jasper Joffe Sal Randolph

CFAP FIRST YEARS Encouraged to place equal importance on both theory and practice, Critical Fine Art Practice keeps students on their toes by assessing work both in practical and theoretical terms. Sat around the paint-splattered table in their studio, the CFAP first year students are drawn together in discussion and debate considering what it means to be an art student today.

Current students from our own course, CFAP

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EZE ART FAIR 2011

Issue #2 Spring 2012

GRADUATED IN LAST 5 YEARS

Follow Very S

BEN LEWIS Best known so far for his awardwinning documentary film, The Great

I s s u e #2 S p r i n g 2012

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Editorial

Pigeon

Dear Student Bank Account

Pigeon

The Art of Hustling

Critical Fine Art Practice First Years’ Discussion “The Art Market is Bigger and Dafter Than Ever”

Ben Lewis Filmmaker / Art Critic 19 - 21

S[edition]

23 - 29

“I’m Not the Ideal Artist Package”

30 - 35

Putting Aside the Bleak Statistics

36 - 42

network (net’wurk’) n. a system of co-operating individuals

Rebecca Field Co-Editor of Pigeon Chris Hughes Artist

Rebecca Lewin Curator

Sarah Rowles Director of Q-Art 43 - 49

One Man’s Folly (extract)

50 - 52

NEETNAC

53 - 58

Are You the ‘Wrong’ Sort of Artist?

59 - 65

Integrity, Meritocracy and Jumping Off Buildings

Rebecca Jagoe Artist / Recent Graduate Neetnac Artist Collective / Current Students Neil Cummings Artist / Professor

Jasper Joffe Artist / Founder of Free Art Fair 66 - 71

The Value & The Valuable

Sal Randolph Artist / Writer

Editorial

From the collection of ideas and opinions, through the release of its message and the moment it reaches its intended audience, our publication, Pigeon mimics the activities of carrier pigeons that historically transferred messages from one location to another.

Implying direction and address, our message has a destination and a specific recipient: students. Providing a filter as student editors, we have been probing, questioning, exploring and revealing the exchanges, economies, and infrastructures of the contemporary art market, and now we are expressing our findings to you.

Attempting to digest the immensity of this market ourselves, we have stimulated and focused discussion and debate with students, graduates and professionals alike in order to offer an insight into these economies for you as readers.

In order to understand our own position in the art market as editors, and indeed as current art students, we have sought to gain a grasp on this world as a whole. Pigeon wishes to reveal something about the market, explore its infrastructure, and discover its relationship to the art student of today. With many of our readers and indeed ourselves nearing graduation, we recognise the poignancy of such an act, when money’s relationship to art seems all too relevant.

Without the regulatory mechanisms that apply in other markets to prevent insider trading and price fixing, it has become possible for the art market to be ‘played’, not dissimilar to the Monopoly board where losing the game can have real effects. The top end of the market sees money change hands, distributed and practically controlled by the bankers of the system going under the name of gallerists, dealers and collectors and perpetuated by the Boot and the Iron playing pieces of the seemingly lowly artist. At the top end of the art market, the fate of art is predominantly tied to money, along with exposure, and has become a game where only the millionaires can continue to live in the red plastic hotels of the board. But the art game as a whole is not just about the

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big players. As we have learnt there are many art forms that thrive outside this international art market, half-in and half-out, and in smaller-scale economies. With exchange often existing in non-financial systems and gift economies, and artist-run spaces overcoming the obstacles often associated with lack of significant capital, the focus of this issue considers both the millionaire’s world and the world the rest of us inhabit.

Considering our own economy as an independent publication, through this issue we have explored our own relationship with both economic and non-economic value. In the society we live and work within today our relationship with finance can be critical. What can the art market give back to us, and what does it mean to exist as an artist today? In this issue we hear from the cynics of the systems, the enthusiasts of the market, and those forming their own means of exchange, providing a base from which you can draw your own conclusions.

Join us in getting closer to understanding not how to avoid the market, but instead how to avoid landing on the Chance card, navigate the board to your advantage, and pick up as many Get Out of Jail Free cards as you can on the way.

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The Art of Hustling Critical Fine Art Practice First Years’ Discussion

For the last three years we, editors of Pigeon, have been studying Critical Fine Art Practice (affectionately known as CFAP) at the University of Brighton. Encouraged to place equal importance on both theory and practice, our work has always been assessed against a programme of discussion and analysis, questioning our own authorship, the context in which our work is situated, and how it engages with an audience and society. On the course, the choice of media, approach and context is extensive and constantly evolving, and the diversity of working methods, media and attitudes amongst the group is an important aspect. Emulating this approach of discursive critique, this publication has allowed us to research areas of our own interest within each thematic issue, and also to encourage the participation of others in talking through and fully debating each and every theme.

In this issue we have money on the mind. The close and sometimes tense relationship between money and our practice Pigeon has become more evident over the course of our art education. Noticing that our practice was different from our peers in this consideration, we set about instigating conversation with others, probing their views on the relationship that art has, or could potentially have, with 4

The Art of Hustling / CFAP / First Years’ Discussion

Stills from Critical Fine Art Practice (CFAP) First year discussion.

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might themselves be open for change, intervention and invention we sat down with the first year students from our course, to talk about what matters to them when it comes to exchange, how art is made, received, and distributed within art. For an art student’s relationship to money, is as a ‘professional’ artist’s relationship to the market, whether that be in the upper realms of the million pound market, in the systems of smaller galleries, or in the alternative exchange economies that many practicing artists utilise, swapping work and paying in kind.

Providing an arena, through Pigeon, where students were comfortable within their own studio, resulted in a heated debate on the importance of maintaining integrity as an artist in this era often dominated by the fair, the auction and the money that constantly changes hands.

On the next page quotes are taken directly from this discussion 1 .

1. These replies illustrate our own train of thought as editors, tapping into our own research previous to this issue, and the conversations since this discussion, continuing the debates for you as a reader.

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The Art of Hustling / CFAP / First Years’ Discussion

money both within and beyond our education. Discussing how these relationships

“I’m really not sure I even want to be an artist.”3

“I respect Damien Hirst, but as a business man and not as an artist.

I feel like if you start letting the business lead you then you might be losing your authenticity and true intentions.”5

“At school I assumed being an artist meant a ‘famous artist’. Education has taught me there is a lot in-between the extremes of famed individuals, and the depiction of the poor artist. I would rather be part of an art world that wasn’t so driven by money.”4 “How can you do both?

Make good art but still earn a living.”6 7

The Art of Hustling / CFAP / First Years’ Discussion

“Success would entail being able to support myself, in order to carry on doing something that I really enjoy.”2

“Thinking that our art practice could not sustain us financially, stems from the belief that when we leave university there will be hundreds of thousaands of other graduate artists in the same position, wanting the same things and there are only so many ‘spaces’.”1

particular realise that money is not the only measure of their successes in life. Artist

1. As course director for Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art, Dereck Harris tells us there are 149 art courses in this

Martha Rosler details the

country, who produce anywhere from 20 to

non-economic successes that

60 graduates every year. Look at this over

artists can achieve, having the

a period of ten years and the number spirals

opportunity to be resourceful, inventive, hold the respect of form and illuminate what we already know as a society.

5. How many graduates will go on to confuse exhaustion with fulfillment, labour with occupation and reason with purpose?

into a considerable number of graduates fighting for recognition.

6. As art critic Ben Lewis states, “Who is a better artist, Cornelia Parker or Tracey Emin?”

The lines are easy to become blurred.

4. There are many other kinds of market that don’t involve money, (or money

3. Although many students

as we know it) such as gift economies

will not become artists, Maria

and barter economies. We are fully in

Walsh writing for Art Monthly’s

agreement with Neil Cummings when

Special Education Issue,

he says that all kinds of art practices

highlighted the benefits of

can exist in all kinds of economies,

an art education, “students can think independently, have an acute awareness of the language of images and participate in a new way with the discourses they encounter.”

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innovation, inspiration and diversity proliferates these economies (thank God!).

The Art of Hustling / CFAP / First Years’ Discussion

2. We have noted that artists in

“I came across a talk the other day, on TED talks and it was really interesting. He was saying that the most important thing about life is improvisation and that’s something that artists especially are really good at.”8 “I think that, in any line of work, if you want to be rich you have to be a bit unethical.”10

“I think a massive part of being an artist is the ability to hustle and the “An artist could make work ability to talk that he compromises on a little, but also makes work yourself up.”9 that he wants to but he doesn’t sell it, and they don’t sell because they wouldn’t in the market, but they are integral to his practice. Is he immoral?”12

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“Money gets you exposure.

Everyone has heard of the artists that sell the most.

Everyone’s heard of them.

Exposure and money can go hand in hand.”11

The Art of Hustling / CFAP / First Years’ Discussion

“Artists are finding their own opportunities in this current economic climate. Artists outwardly search. This is the time to find the opportunities, because maybe there isn’t as much to lose?”7

to be under the immense financial weight of the potential £40K debt of tuition

8. Literary critic George Bernard

fees straddling them, is it

Shaw stated “The reasonable man

unsurprising that both future

adapts himself to the conditions

and current students may be searching for change, for renewal and for alternative options?

that surround him, the unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. All progress depends on the unreasonable man.” In Art Monthly Gareth Jones once likened art students to these unreasonable people, the source of society’s progress and innovation.

9. Check out the documentary series, ‘Goldsmiths: But Is It

11. Is that you, Damien?

Art?’ on youtube, and get back to us!

10. Where does one draw 12. Jasper Joffe pretty much says it all

the ethical/unethical line?

in his article within this issue, “I think it is

Ethics is a moveable notion.

best not to worry too much about being

Art critic Matthew Collings

morally perfect, it’s the downfall of most revolutionaries to be endlessly selfhating. The people in power are human.

They just have more money, more talent, or more power than others. And like most humans, they are sensitive to criticism and worth talking to. It’s best to start the conversation rather than to boycott it.”

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believes that the art market is not evil, but it certainly is not good.

The Art of Hustling / CFAP / First Years’ Discussion

7. With future graduates soon

artcar.jpg Interviewee.txt

BEN LEWIS article_title.txt

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"The Art Market is Bigger and Dafter Than Ever"

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In a technological age where an online presence can represent you and your work without the need for face-to-face interaction, we are increasingly existing in a world where your location is irrelevant.

Embracing the vehicle of Skype, we interviewed award-winning documentary filmmaker, author and art critic, Ben Lewis. And got an in-depth profile of him eating a banana, thanks Skype!

Ben’s influential documentary The Great Contemporary Art Bubble had already proved to be a valuable watch when initially researching this issue. As we have previously referenced, the perceived game of the Art Market and the literal game of Monopoly are not that dissimilar. With the fate of financially ‘successful’ art tied to money, the market has indeed become a lingering game to be played. In his film, Ben Lewis documents his encounters from artist to art dealer, following the big players of the system and revealing something of the truths of how the system really works.

We spoke to him about how many interns it takes to change a light bulb, the “spineless fuckers” that - unknowingly or not - propel the system, how he admittedly was wrong in his prediction of the bursting of the bubble, and how he feels now that “the art market is bigger and dafter than ever.”

[21/12/2012. Both parties sit waiting for 10am to arrive.

Authorisation requested from Ben Lewis. Skype rings and at the click of a button we are face to face. We see Ben in his home environment; he seems shocked by our youthfulness] BEN LEWIS Are you 20 yet? When I was your age I was DJ-ing in Berlin and thought I wanted to go into the art world. I was doing a degree in Art History at Cambridge and I got a scholarship to go to Germany. My college tutor called me in and said, “Well Lewis, your application was an absolute disgrace but we’ve decided to give you this

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award,” he then left a small pause, “…because no one else has applied.”

I had always written about art when I was at university and often indulged in organising art events, ‘happenings’ so to speak. When I returned to the UK a connection through a friend resulted in a job at the Richard Demarco Gallery being offered to me. I remember being sat in the back of a taxi with Richard, “Your salary before tax is going to be seven thousand a year,” to which I replied, “I haven’t spent five years in higher education to earn seven grand a year!” I got out of the taxi and got a job at MTV three weeks later.

There weren’t really any jobs in the art world in those days because there wasn’t a booming art world in Britain yet; it was the late eighties that this materialised.

The problem is the way this industry is organised today; it is so oppressive. How many interns does it take to change a light bulb? When I was your age I worked for the Saatchi Gallery and they still paid me £80 a week. These galleries have enough money. If you want to work in art galleries you have to do internships and the fact is that they don’t pay much. On reflection, I jumped out of the art market’s sphere before it became so saturated, maybe if I’d made a few more financial compromises I might have ended up running a gallery.

PIGEON You stated within your 2009 film, ‘The Great Contemporary Art Bubble,’ that the art market is notoriously secretive and difficult to access. How far do you agree with this now? And if so, how are students expected to have an understanding of it?

BEN LEWIS My film can tell you how it works, but I wasn’t entirely right when I predicted the system would come crashing down. It hasn’t happened yet. But what I got right was explaining how the top end of the art market operated. It is formed like a pyramid and the few people at the top are holding it together by manufacturing and manipulating very high prices for a very small group of artists. The reinforcing effect of this small group of people at the top dictates the activities of a small group of galleries, auction houses and its prices. The excitement that those big prices generate makes everybody else’s prices go up and dictates what everybody else wants to collect. If your gallery is selling ten George Condos for price ‘X’,

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when one George Condo comes up for auction it would be beneficial for you to pay price ‘X’ plus 50%, because then it would make George Condos look extremely expensive.

PIGEON Talking of big prices, in this documentary film you managed to get hold of a set of documents from a high profile gallery, detailing a list of all unsold art works by Damien Hirst, with their minimum prices for sale. How has this type of information that seemingly obliterates the commonly believed notion that there is a waiting list for works produced by such artists not been revealed sooner?

BEN LEWIS Because they are a bunch of spineless fuckers. All those ordinary people working in those artists’ studios witness how the art is manufactured. All those ordinary people working in auction houses witness the dodgy ways art is bought and sold.

It is these ordinary people who tell me what they witness, and every time I offer to do an anonymous interview they bottle out. It’s like a Casino. Everyone wants the chance to win a million, so no one is going to cry wolf and say this system doesn’t work.

PIGEON The ‘system’ can be seen to follow market aims and priorities; do you think that if artists adhere only to what the market demands, the standard of art might decline?

BEN LEWIS There are so many artists on the planet, so I wouldn’t want to make a generalisation that artists are making lesser work. There is often a tendency for the media to focus on the wrong artists, and therefore the public equally focuses on the wrong artists. Art is frequently over-priced and I think successful artists fall into producing too much of the same work because it’s easy to make money out of it, when instead they should be innovating.

Ben_Lewis.jpg

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PIGEON Do you think it is possible to be an innovating and financially successful artist?

BEN LEWIS Sure. Who is a better artist, Cornelia Parker or Tracy Emin? Who is a better artist, Damien Hirst or Richard Wilson? It depends how we measure success. Richard makes a living; he makes good art and he probably has quite a nice life. He doesn’t seem to give a shit about the market.

PIGEON There can often be an emphasis put on artists to network and hustle, to pander to those higher up in the chain. Do you find this hierarchical process of networking to be true?

BEN LEWIS Sadly, many students aren’t going to become successful artists. Most of them are going to end up in other jobs. But some students will become successful artists; some will make a decent living from their art and not be part of the inflated art market. Only a handful of these artists will end up exhibiting in very successful or powerful galleries and they are the only ones who will have to think, ‘shall I pander to the market?’ I don’t think that someone like Damien panders to the art market, I think he’s got it in his DNA. PIGEON The art market’s lack of regulation has inaugurated much controversy in the past; can you give us the most ridiculous story you have heard within this sector?

BEN LEWIS There was an auction that took place in December 2010, organised by art consultant and private dealer, Philippe Segalot. Journalist Sarah Thornton wrote a revealing article about the event, A Passion That Knows No Bounds, for the Economist. The event was an auction within an auction, and described as ‘the sale of his dreams’. Philippe was seen to be bidding for works of art against members

Are You The ‘Wrong’ Sort of Artist / Neil Cummings

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of his own company, all representing collectors. Acting for buyers as well as for sellers on the same lot constituted an enormous conflict of interest, it looked like an insider stitch up. The works of art were sold for absurdly inflated prices and the sale made $117 million, a record for the auction house. I thought it was pretty outrageous.

PIGEON Nearly a year ago today Arts Against Cuts protested outside Sotherby’s auction house, mocking the selling of art for millions of pounds. For those students that stand against these systems, do you think protests like these will cause any longterm change?

BEN LEWIS Recently a few art collectors have been shamed. Adam Lindemann wrote about refusing to go to Miami Basel, “I’m not going to Art Basel Miami Beach this year. I’m through with it, basta. Why should I be seen rubbing elbows with all those phonies and scenesters, people who don’t even pretend they are remotely interested in art?”

And Asher Edelman, once a big art dealer now writes about politics and supports Occupy Wall Street. Even Charles Saatchi has expressed how he doesn’t like the spectacle of art nowadays.

But the market keeps on going because any one person does not determine it.

It’s a whole system that has a lack of transparency and regulation. The people at the top still have a lot of money, and with the flagging economy art seems like a relatively good investment. Once upon a time £5,000 was a hell of a lot of money to pay for a painting. Nowadays, people don’t even think much about spending £10,000. We have created a very unequal society in which people at the top have much more money than everyone else. It is a reflection of our society’s evergrowing and intensifying equality problem.

PIGEON The art market can be seen as this immense, almost mythical, structure. What would your advice be to young students about to graduate, if this is the area they are interested working in?

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BEN LEWIS Don’t worry about the fucking market, you probably see me as quite a successful documentary filmmaker, right? I have enormous trouble making a living out of what I do. I could turn around and blame it on the market; no one will pay me properly for what I do. But actually it could be the fact that I’m not very good at what I do. And unfortunately, the same rules apply if you’re an artist.

My advice would be to not think about the market. Be creative in your own way.

It’s impossible to be creative in another way, and you can’t impersonate someone else because it never works. You only have one life, all you can do is follow your own creativity as best you can.

[Call Ended 31 minutes 48 seconds] www.benlewis.tv

S[edition] : Art Goes Viral Rebecca Field Co-Editor of Pigeon

Maybe we are missing something. Relatively unacquainted with digital art, perhaps there is a technical term that we are lacking when seeking to understand the meaning of the name, S[edition]. The ‘edition’ element to the name is self-explanatory considering the nature of the business that it titles; the newly founded online market place for the exchange of limited edition digital reproductions of art work. But what is to be understood by the somewhat cryptic entitlement of the company, ‘S[edition]’?

Created by established art dealer, Harry Blain, and internet entrepreneur, Robert Norton, the venture attempts to perform the combined roles of the shop, the gallery and even the social media site. Representing and selling the work of the ‘big names’ in contemporary art, the company already has Damien Hirst, Michael Craig-Martin and Tracey Emin under their wing. Emin’s own statement within the promotional material for the hosting website details the perceived benefits of such a business endeavour, “When you are an artist and you get to a certain level, it means that you have forced yourself out of the market for a lot of people, and this makes pure art available.” It sounds idealistic from the start, but with the name S[edition] itself already marginalising those of us who lack the appropriate knowledge, how is this company to draw in wider public engagement? Take away the brackets, or attempt to define the title online and you are left with ‘sedition’, a word used to describe mutiny and disorder. Coincidence or prophecy? Regardless, not exactly the welcome mat the majority of us would wish to step onto.

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alone draws in around 5 million visitors per year. But S[edition] is offering something new to the mix: trade. As the former CEO of Saatchi Online, arguably the biggest digital database of art, Robert Norton has infinite experience in the art of representing artists online, and is now seeking to instead develop a market place online for buying and exchanging artwork. All artists that S[edition] represent can be seen in their individual portfolios online, detailing their work for sale, the run of each edition and how many have been sold already; once each edition is sold out, the marketplace element to the site will be opened for collectors to trade works. Deemed affordable by the gallerists behind S[edition], each piece of digital art can be purchased from the website costing between £5 and £500, which is then re-formatted specifically for the purchaser’s connected device (their computer, iPad, iPhone…if you own one of these), and stored within the purchaser’s digital ‘vault’ along with a certificate of its ‘authenticity’. As Emin reminds us regarding her own limited edition of work on sale, “If you were to buy a neon, well most people couldn’t, so this way they could actually have a neon in their room, in their living room, at a party for example on their screen, and it is reasonably inexpensive.” Of course. Who needs endless club classics on MTV for a party stimulant when you can bask in the fluro-pink light of a digital reproduction of a Tracey Emin?

The first disparity becomes apparent with the difference between ‘digital made art’ and ‘art made digital’. For artists like Bill Viola, the benefits of displaying video work on screen are clear, along with those artists who primarily produce digital art whose works are inseparable from a digital output. It makes perfect sense; the most successful works are those that are explicitly engaged with the medium. But despite the further coverage and potentially beneficial platform for digital art, S[edition] sells mainly digital representations of painting and sculpture. And installation shots of existing work hold little more than which Google can provide for free.

There is proving to be a place for this kind of distribution with online presence in art becoming increasingly dominant, and S[Edition] is only one example of a number of online art markets that exist. But how valid are these infrastructures to the future of art distribution? You can after all buy countless art prints on Ebay. But just like the minimal value of said prints, the editions of digital reproductions seem to shout 20

S[edition] : Art Goes Viral / Rebecca Field

Making art available to the masses is hardly an original undertaking. The Tate Modern

environment such as this propelling sales, will contemporary art follow the same path as music? The fundamental difference that S[edition] is firmly holding onto is the established collecting notion with art. And S[edition] is arguably more about the ability to collect than the collection itself. With the goal of each edition being stamped with a ‘sold out’ notification in order to open up a market place for trade, does the art actually matter? Creating mass editions does nothing to ease concerns of the dilution of the represented artists existing works. They are labeled ‘limited editions’ but since when was something deemed special when it came in an edition of 10,000?

The most poignant quote of the S[edition] marketing campaign was delivered by artist Sue Webster, “There is an immediacy of the internet, the spread of information which is faster than a disease. And I suppose instead of a disease being spread, why not some of our imagery.” A worrying yet apparently perfectly suited metaphor.

With 25,000 likes on Facebook as a significant popularity measure for an online endeavour, S[edition]’s claim to provide a “platform that brings contemporary art into many more peoples lives” seems to be working to some extent. And perhaps it does just this, bringing awareness to artists’ work and allowing their work to be sold and traded. But the most popular edition as yet stands as the video of Elmgreen & Dragset’s work for Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth project, and this is primarily because S[edition] offered the piece for free for a limited time. Even our very own designer Jake got his hands, or rather his hard-drive, on one of the edition. But as a public piece of art installed in one of the most populated areas of London, where you can view it to your heart’s content in its original, desired form - for free - why would you choose to spend the given price of £35 to own a video of the work? Most would agree that seeing a piece of art in the physical reality of a gallery or a studio has a profoundly different and arguably more significant effect on the viewer, rather than viewing somebody else’s image on an internet browser.

Novel or novelty? Twenty-four copies of Damien Hirst’s £500 video of a rotating diamond-encrusted baby’s skull may have been purchased, but we are not sold. http://www.seditionart.com/

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S[edition] : Art Goes Viral / Rebecca Field

commodity, not art. The question of intellectual property could be raised; with

Five Years Time Published at a time when many of our readers and ourselves are nearing the end of this stage of education as students, we increasingly have the pressing question on our minds of what will happen next? With graduation looming, this issue has gone some way to unraveling the knot of threads that form the art market and its economies that many will be navigating in the next step of their careers within art.

Pigeon itself is near to graduation! To celebrate those who have been ‘successfully’ living and working within the art world since graduation and hear their views on what it means to be an art graduate in a contemporary art world, in the following section we are showcasing four Fine Art students who have graduated in the last five years.

Writer, Curator, Artist and Director; they may have chosen different pathways but they all hold their values close and their practice even closer.

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“I’m Not the Ideal Artist Package” Chris Hughes Artist

Chris Hughes is a remarkable example of a former student who has maximised his art education, graduating four years ago from Critical Fine Art Practice, the same course as Pigeon’s editors. Utilising all opportunities and seeking advice from those he respected, he has grown from strength to strength. Within this article Chris discusses the importance of his education and the lasting values it has instilled in him, taking him from student to success. Literary critic Meyer Howard Abrams’ theory of a mirror and a lamp could come into play here. If adopting the stance that education serves to illuminate, unlike a mirror that merely reflects, art students whose inner lives have been illuminated with a deeper level of thinking and understanding are therefore able to utilise all aspects of their education.

This illumination translates in his approach to making work in a contemporary art society. Revolving around the relationship of painting and other mediums and addressing the media’s portrayal of trauma within society, his work has been shown throughout the country and recently commended by the London Art Fair’s curator, Pryle Berhman. His career as a practicing artist post-graduation, and his selfassured attitude whilst being willing to play the long game the market encourages, is 23

it so much, the qualms and queries about making money and being labelled ‘the next big thing’.

As

current

art

students,

the

whispered question that circulates around the faculty is something of universal concern, what will we do when we graduate? Could you detail your steps from art school to art world, and how far you feel that your degree prepared you for the reality of what came after?

My steps towards a creative career began through attending Art College in the 1970s. I studied Graphic Design at Eastbourne College of Art & Design and earned a qualification called a DipSIAD (Diploma for the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers) after which I managed to secure a very junior position at an Advertising agency in the small Midlands market town of Uttoxeter.

Apparently I got the job because I could draw. I then spent a pretty successful 27 years in advertising, the last 9 as a Creative Director, before me and the business fell out of love with each other.

I then decided to apply to university, returned to my home town of Brighton and almost accidentally ended up in CFAP. The three years in CFAP were 24

the most enjoyable of my life and I was determined to get as much as I possibly could out of that time. I realise that being a mature student is totally different from being a young student. To me being at university was ‘work’.When I left home every morning I said I was going to work, not to university. The work ethic that had developed within me over the years stood me in very good stead and I was very happy to work very hard every day I could. You have to take advantage of the opportunities that come to you in life, studying for a degree is a massive opportunity and should be grabbed with both hands and I think that the majority of CFAP students do that. I was determined to do the very best I could and I made sure the tutors knew that and that I would not be satisfied with not doing very well. I took whatever help I could find, and chased and pestered for more. This resulted in a First. Some people say that getting a first or a 2.1 isn’t important - I think it is, or it certainly was for me. It proved to me that I could keep up and do better than most - and more importantly, could go further.

“I’m Not the Ideal Artist Package” / Chris Hughes

something we admire. Chris talks to us about the value of art, why the world needs

25

top art schools in the country, and then shown in galleries you never really imagined your work would appear in.

The idea from the mentoring was to ‘court’ the two galleries by visiting to look at their shows and to try and talk to the owners/curators. A softly, softly approach. One of these galleries wasn’t interested, however the other, ROOM, paid off (or rather is paying off to some extent). After a couple of visits we began to talk about my work, they asked to see some and then asked me to put a piece in a group show called Collaborators2. They also came to the New Contemporaries show at the ICA and shortly after asked to take some of my work to the London Art Fair.

Whether

deemed

opportunity

or

a

as

a

missed

lucky

escape

(perhaps this is where luck comes in!),

your

age

means

you

would

be unable to be nominated for the Turner Prize. Does your age make a significant difference to the way in which you are treated within the art world?

I think it can. However I think it is a two edged sword. It helped being a mature student at university because you are more confident about speaking out than most younger students. On the other

“I’m Not the Ideal Artist Package” / Chris Hughes

The MA was very important to me as well, it allowed me to develop my practice - to take all I had learned and discovered, and make it better. It allowed me to continue working and for my ‘art’ not to just disappear into the world of everyday work.

During the MA we took part in the Mentoring scheme. In the second year I pestered to get Matthew Cornford as my mentor. It’s important to get someone who you respect, and is interested in your work. I knew he was rigorous and serious and would treat the process properly. Between us we crystalised what I wanted to get out of the process and Matthew set me two very targeted goals: to find a studio to continue working in once I was no longer within the protective boundaries of the institution, and to find one or two galleries to help me get my work shown. These two simple sounding goals helped me make the transition from student to artist I think.

At the same time I was fortunate enough to have my work selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries, which obviously was a massive boost to my self-confidence. If you have selfdoubt (which I guess we all do), it makes a big difference to have your work selected by such a respected institution alongside the work of artists from the

Through

this

publication

we

have

balanced a mixture of luck with the opportunities we have created for ourselves – meeting certain people with a certain amount of influence at a certain time. In order to get a foot on the art world ladder, to what extent do you feel luck has had a part to play?

Luck – being in the right place at the right time – definitely does play a part.

I was lucky enough to be selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries.

But I used that to make me seem more appealing to ROOM. I invited them to the Private View and they asked for my work to be on their stand at the London 26

Art Fair in 2011. Unfortunately none of my work sold at the Fair and although I still courted ROOM things did go quiet.

I kept in touch with them and visited whenever I could, and continued to show them more work.

It was quite hard to keep going, but then RiseArt announced that they were having a stand at the London Art Fair in 2012 and they wanted to take some of my work to promote, which was a stroke of luck just at the right time. The show was a success for me as two pieces sold and I was one of six artists chosen by the curator of the Art Project Spaces at the show as ‘Ones to watch’ in an online article in the Independent titled, How to spot the next Damien Hirst. Well, obviously I’m not the next Damien Hirst, but mentions like this in press releases are always welcome to ‘struggling artists’.

At the same time an open call came for a show called ArtErotica and I sent two pieces. Luckily they were both accepted for the show at Cork Street Galleries and one was awarded the Directors Purchase Prize. This allowed me to go to ROOM with quite a bit of positive news, and they immediately invited me to have a piece of work in Collaborators3, and shortly afterwards they have mentioned the possibility of taking my work to the Basel Art Fair in June. I have been lucky? Yes, but I have

“I’m Not the Ideal Artist Package” / Chris Hughes

hand I would like to think that if I was younger and had less responsibilities I would have more time to concentrate on ‘being an artist’.

I’m definitely not the ideal artist package – art is supposed to be glamorous which I ain’t. I always thought I was in a difficult position, even at college – white, male, middle aged and middle class are not what makes an interesting, or marketable artist these days. I’d love to be in the position I am in now and be in my twenties or thirties, or even forties, but I’m not and I have to try and use my age in a positive manner.

The

uncomfortable

relationship

between money and art has been highlighted

to

us

as

students

throughout our degree. The idea of putting a price on our own work is a struggle and it is difficult to see this

changing

simply

because

we

will graduate and enter the reality outside of the institution. Why do you think artists seem to be coy about money and the relationship with their work? What experience have you had with the art market complexities of selling work?

It is very hard to make the jump, especially if your work is not particularly commercial. Much of my work is quite dark – murder, trauma, death – it’s not what everybody wants to put on their walls. I think what is harder than putting a price on one’s work is negotiating that line between what you want to do, and what the market wants you to do. I would rather have some sort of reputation than making tons of money and I would imagine that Jack Vetriano would give up a large chunk of the millions he has earned for turning his art into tea towels for a place in the ‘serious’ art market and a show at Tate Modern.

However I have never felt ashamed of 27

putting a price on the work – either people want it or they don’t. The way I do it is very simple. I value each piece on a very simple choice – would I rather have the money, or keep the work?

This doesn’t mean you will necessarily get what you want for the work, but it is a starting point. My work isn’t very expensive at the moment, but I hope that some day it will be valued more highly. The main thing to remember at an early stage of your career as an artist is that you do have to give up a fair bit to the galleries for commission. I was very excited to sell the two pieces at the London Art Fair at £1300 each, but after commission and framing and VAT I only received £588 for each piece which was a bit disappointing. If I do sell anything with ROOM they would take 50%, which is quite standard.

You are represented by the online art ‘dealer’ Rise Art, which gives the public the option to rent an artwork for a small monthly fee, and potentially buy the artwork for the full fee if desired. An online rental site for art is a fairly new concept, what are your views on its ethos?

Firstly, I am not represented by RiseArt. I would say that what they do for me is to present my work rather than represent

“I’m Not the Ideal Artist Package” / Chris Hughes

worked quite hard for that luck.

in a print of something. I think there is a difference between an artist whose practice is printmaking, and an edition of prints of something else. I don’t see any value of a giclee print of a drawing or painting, and I’m rather inclined to think that these online works are a bit like that. But I’m willing to be convinced otherwise.

You mentioned earlier your recent showcase in The Independent as one of the top six artists to watch this year and your work is acclaimed

by London Art Fair curator, Pryle Behrman. How do you feel about the instant gratification/fame idea of being endorsed by a respected corporation

(especially

under

the

With this in mind, what do you think

article’s guise of ‘How to spot the

of the recently conceived S-Edition

next Damien Hirst’)?

site, the online digital art dealers who claim to allow you to ‘experience a

whole

new

world

of

art

and

collecting’? Is an online presence the future of the art market?

I hadn’t heard of S-Edition so I had a look at their site. It’s a rather strange concept I think. We’ll have to wait and see if it takes off. I’m not a great fan of prints myself as I’m a bit of a fan of Walter Benjamin’s Aura and I’m never convinced there is much of the artist 28

Actually, I quite liked the instant gratification of being endorsed alongside the likes of Ryan Gander and Roisin Byrne. However, I’m not stupid enough to think it makes any difference to my place in the art market. If I am to have a career in art, I am right at the very beginning and it will take a lot more than selling a couple of drawings and a mention in an online article. Unless I follow that mention up with further activity it means absolutely nothing.You

“I’m Not the Ideal Artist Package” / Chris Hughes

me. I’m not represented by anyone and I don’t know what being represented would be like. However RiseArt has been quite important to my progress, as they have provided a showcase for my work, which makes it easily accessible.

As for the rental scheme, I have no problems at all. If you want your art – and your name - to get out into the wide world you have to let it go and stand on its own two feet so to speak.

Why shouldn’t people have the chance to live with the work for a while? It gives the work a chance to be properly enjoyed and understood. It will never be a way of making loads of money, but at least your work is ‘out there’ rather than sitting in your studio.

Speaking

to

writer

Sal

Randolph

highlighted to us the idea of value and

the

valuable,

and

the

moral

value vs. the financial value. How do you value your own art? What do you value in the artwork of others?

I sincerely hope that my work has value beyond a financial one. I’d like to think that there was a value in the craftsmanship, the rigour and the subjects I choose. I’d like to think that there was a value in the seriousness of the work. I value my own work, as I said earlier, by settling on a price at which I would be prepared to let it go. If it doesn’t attract that price I would rather keep the work.

I see all kinds of value in other people’s work. In some it is just the pure quality of the technique that elevates them above the norm, others have more of a social value (highlighting a social issue or bringing something to public attention), and others have a real aesthetic worth which, on occasions, really shows us the value of art and why the world needs it so much. I think all these things are more important than any financial worth individual pieces of art may have.

29

www.chris-shaw-hughes.com

“I’m Not the Ideal Artist Package” / Chris Hughes

have to play the long game, and I just hope I have enough time to play the game well enough to succeed.

Putting Aside the Bleak Statistics Rebecca Lewin Curator

With the financial burden of student loans predicted of being up to £40,000, future graduates could be forgiven for becoming increasingly resentful and concerned. The significant rise in tuition fees imposed by the coalition government has provoked outrage and despondency in art graduates from the next generation. Critic Clare Bishop passionately argued in her essay Con-Demmed to the Bleakest of Futures, that these future generations face immense pressure, inescapably ‘condemned to a lifetime of liability’, financial debt and acceptance of unstable employment or no employment at all, all the while made more challenging by the economic downturn. Jeevan Vasagar detailed the unsettling statistics in an article for the Guardian, suggesting that one in three arts graduates are unemployed three years after graduation. In November 2011, those in the NEET category (Not In Education, Employment or Training) hit a record high of over 1.16 million, most significantly those within the age bracket of 18-24.

It would be all too easy to assume our futures will hold only ‘doom and gloom’, financial struggle, limited opportunities and a compromised career. No one would begrudge the cynic. But despite this grim view, there are those amongst us who 30

are successful in spite of this. Rebecca Lewin is an example of an arts graduate who has defied the stamp of the ‘poor arts graduate’ – but not necessarily in monetary terms. Merely a few years post-education, her career in arts administration from curator to writer has offered her a rich layering of opportunities in many aspects ultimately leading to her current position as Assistant Curator at The Serpentine.

Speaking from her personal experience, Rebecca gives us an insight into her own views on what it means to forge a path as an arts graduate, how fundamentally beneficial it is to have a balanced view on the art market, and how she has achieved a sense of accomplishment by climbing the career ladder.

As

current

art

students,

the

Could you recount your steps from

whispered question that circulates

education into the art world and

around the faculty is something of

how far you feel that your degree

universal concern, what will I do once

prepared you for the reality of what

I graduate? Can you detail your steps

came after?

in higher education, both BA and MA?

I began in further education by taking an art foundation at Chelsea College of Art & Design in London, but soon realised that rather than practicing I was keen to study art in a more academic framework, so I went to Oxford for a BA in History of Art. Immediately following that I went to the Courtauld, where I took an MA called ‘Curating the Art Museum’ graduating in 2009, which focused on the history of museums and the process of curating in large-scale institutions today.

31

To answer your first question would take quite a long time! I took several internships while I was studying for my BA and MA courses, but as for many people, getting a paid job was difficult.

I took a patchwork approach, working as many as 5 jobs a week, some of which were paid (and not always artrelated); others were unpaid. Of course it’s impossible for an academic degree to prepare you for the practicalities of looking for and working in any position, but on one level my degrees did prepare me for this, as I was constantly able to draw on my academic studies, research skills and writing.

Putting Aside the Bleak Statistics / Rebecca Lewin

accept the current economy and the bleak statistics, who have a positive outlook and

Magazine

and

This

Is

Tomorrow,

how do you see your relationship between art writing and working in the art world? Do you consider art writing to be part of your career, or a side project which isn’t financially rewarded?

For me, writing has always been something I have done outside of my main job. This is partly because although I consider it an important skill to keep practicing, I have so far viewed it as secondary to curating. As a result I haven’t pursued paid writing jobs but plan to continue to do so. The relationship between the art critic and the art world can be a tricky one to negotiate. If you are working in one institution you have to be careful about what you review, but it is possible to keep these separate. Very few jobs in the art world are motivated by money, it’s more important to look for ways to put your interests into practice, and once you have gained experience, to find a way of getting paid!

In order to get a foot on the art world ladder, to what extent do you feel luck has had a part to play? Has nonfinancial exchange acted within this also?

32

Timing and relationships, both professional and personal, will play a part in every decision you make and every offer you receive throughout your career, not just when you start, but the idea that luck is crucial to this shouldn’t be overestimated. The amount of enthusiasm and commitment you bring to your job is more influential in shaping your CV than luck, as it will help to foster those relationships that may prove helpful further down the line.

The

uneasy

money

relationship art

has

been

highlighted

to

us

as

throughout

our

you

and

personally

between further students

degree. experienced

Have the

complexities of selling an artwork?

There is no easy way to price artworks; like any other marketable goods, art is only worth what someone is willing to pay. The factors that go into pricing (number and variety of exhibitions, prices already paid, quality of collections in which work is represented, how prolific the artist is, etc) can be complicated, but once a few of these have been established it becomes easier.

I understand that this complexity leads to discomfort on behalf of the artist trying to put a price on their work, but - as was raised in a seminar I sat in on

Putting Aside the Bleak Statistics / Rebecca Lewin

As a regular contributor to Glass

You have previously worked with world famous institutions, showcasing and

a smaller public institution than Tate, has achieved a comparable status through the quality of their programming and presentation.

It was always important for me to look for placements that would enable me to learn as much as possible about as many different aspects of the art world as I could, and it happened that the internship I began at Tate Britain as part of my MA turned into a short-term job. I applied for the White Cube and Serpentine positions independently but I am well aware that all of my previous experiences (and year of patchwork parttime jobs after I graduated) informed the decision of those places to take me on.

dealing big money for big names.

33

What first attracted you to work with

What are your views on the ethos of

these organisations, and was it a

these big organisations? Is it possible

difficult process for you to enter this

to both critique and support these

‘prestigious’ work sphere?

institutions whilst working with them?

All organisations have achieved ‘world famous’ status for good reason - Tate is exceptionally good at presenting thoroughly researched, interesting exhibitions, which often make available selections of works that would otherwise never be viewed in one room. White Cube selects its artists very carefully, works with them closely over long periods of time and is enormously successful at selling. The Serpentine, as

There are positive and negative aspects to any institution or organisation (too big, too small, too much bureaucracy, too little internal structure) and each one you work in will be different. I think that it is really important to be able to both critique and support wherever you are working; if you lose the ability to critique, you won’t be able to help it continue to improve. If you are unable to support it, you are not doing enough

Putting Aside the Bleak Statistics / Rebecca Lewin

recently, it is possible that art schools are partly responsible for this. It is obviously crucial that art students are given the chance to focus on their practice, and are given the space and facilities to do so. However, the question was raised as to whether it is appropriate that considerations and experience of being paid is excluded (and denigrated) to the point that students graduate feeling as though they do not have the right to demand payment for their skills. I don’t have a right answer to this but thought it was an interesting point.

The recently conceived ‘S-Edition’ site, is an online digital art dealers which

claims

to

allow

you

to

‘experience a whole new world of art and collecting’. As an assistant curator at the Serpentine, what are your views on this kind of distribution of art? Is an online presence the

I think it is the wrong approach to think of success as an artist being equated with fame or international success. It is certainly possible to succeed (depending on what that means to you) without being known internationally, or receiving high financial awards. There is rarely anything instant about careers, whether you are working as a practicing artist or in arts administration.

future of the art market?

What do you value within an artwork?

I cannot speak for the Serpentine, but I think there is certainly a place for this kind of distribution. S-Edition is only one example of a number of online art markets that exist at the moment onlineauctions, art gallery shops, the VIP art fair, even ebay has the capability of selling art and prints to a wide audience.

The exciting thing for me is that it opens up a new platform for artists working in the virtual realm; internet art, digital art, audio and systems works can exist more comfortably online than in the gallery space, so if anything it could be the future of a certain kind of art.

Do you think that in order to succeed financially an

artist

and needs

internationally to

become

well

networked, and in a sense famous as an individual?

34

Its ability to change me.

Putting Aside the Bleak Statistics / Rebecca Lewin

to change its ethos!

35

network (net’wurk’) n. a system of co-operating individuals Sarah Rowles Director of Q-Art

When Sarah Rowles entered our own studios at the beginning of this year, it quickly became evident that she, and her organisation Q-Art (Questioning Art), had taken a journey that we respected, as editors and founders of a publication. Materialising during her degree and proliferating post-graduation, Q-Art has become a forum for students, graduates and self-trained artists from across London, seeking to provide an additional learning environment to the institution; to break down the barriers between various art schools, their departments and levels of study allowing a crossing of perspectives. Centred around discussion and exchange, through ‘convenors’ or critiques within the London art schools and panel discussions, Q-Art acts as a stage to demystify issues of art education.

Sarah believes that creating a familiar and supportive environment, in order for artists to present and critically discuss their own work and to ‘read’ and respond effectively to the artwork of others, is a fundamental element for engagement. This can be seen as an example of philosopher Pierre Bourdieu’s theory that ‘reading’ art requires the tools of using a particular language. Importantly, the events that Q-Art hold are free, in both financial and non-financial senses – it is an opportunity 36

Aesthetics details the fundamental shift in the role of the contemporary artist moving away from being the producer of art objects, towards acting as a catalyst for social relations and activity amongst the audience or public. Q-Art is the embodiment of such a practice, whether Sarah believes it to be an art practice or not. With the current generation of artists engaging more directly with specific social situations and working with constructed live events and individuals, Sarah and Q-Art does what we seek to achieve: creating conversation and buzz around contemporary art issues and getting the individual’s voice heard loud and clear.

As

current

students

who

founded

Pigeon during our second year of study, we chose not to include this collaboration

within

our

assessed

university work until our third year, because

the

project

would

have

suffered if not made the primary focus of our now heavy workload. Why we chose to keep the project separate in the initial year of its conception has much to do with our uncertainty as to whether it was a suitable practice for our course. You have said to us that you were in a similar situation when studying Fine Art at Goldsmiths; can you detail this?

When I first arrived at Goldsmiths, I was told I could do anything I wanted. I set about interviewing London gallerists, putting the interviews up in the studios for fellow students to read them, and staff became excited.They asked, “what’s 37

your role now? Is it editor? Is it artist?”

And in response to this pressure I began to attempt to turn the interviews into art pieces, sound recordings, maps of my routes and drawings of the demographics of the areas I had visited. Q-Art as an organisation which encompassed the interviews was not part of my practice in my second year, simply because I didn’t think it could be. Instead I produced other work, setting up discussions, painting, stuff that I felt was almost more legitimate. Then, as you yourselves have experienced, Q-Art started to dominate my time. Tutors would then come along and state that I had not been prolific in terms of what they could see in the studio, and it became really clear that my interests were just not there. Instead, it was my efforts with Q-Art as an organisation that was the accumulation of my work.

By third year, I was adamant that I

network (net’wurk’) n. / Sarah Rowles

to ‘talk art’ where anyone can participate. Nicholas Bourriaud’s famed Relational

Q-Art has a large following and has indeed

been

successful

in

many

respects. Would you be able to detail the

processes

that

have

enabled

you to develop the project to where it is now and offer some advice to students who might want to initiate such a project?

38

Setting up my first event was pivotal.

Getting staff and students alike involved to promote this event, pulling people in and creating a mailing list to keep everyone up to date, eventually led to 90 people attending. Elements of the organisation, including creating a website, was fundamental, along with the decision to invest my money into doing this. I have always had an anal approach towards savings, but it is critical to realise that when you are 60 years old, the initial £400 you spent on founding your business will no longer be relevant. The business office at Goldsmiths offered me financial support to publish the first book, these two stages were crucially important. It was important for me to take a risk; you cannot expect people to follow you unless you have confidence in it first.

Events have all been pivotal points in their own right, and their success measurable in the level of participation.

One held at the Triangle space in Chelsea, had over 100 students sign up in two days, reaching full capacity.

Another, at the Cubitt Gallery, had about 200 people sign up in one week.

This co-marketing approach, a mailing list and being affiliated with other organisations, propelled the events and their popularity forward, and a network of people developed. Not only students

network (net’wurk’) n. / Sarah Rowles

wasn’t doing anything else other than Q-Art. It did make me realise what my values were, and what the organisation was doing. I had learnt however that art education can mean doing other elements, other than producing contemporary art objects. With this in mind, for the degree show, I held a lecture on my art education over the last three years at Goldsmiths, rooted to art education and what it actually offers, highlighting the difficulties faced and some of the reasons I had set up Q-Art. It wasn’t necessarily a critique of the institution; it was the only thing I felt I could do. I then went and interviewed a lot of the course leaders that fed into my second book, creating a version of the Student Handbook and gave them out as people came into the lecture, which ironically was on the same day as a University Open Day. The parents coming in couldn’t have been a better audience.

partnership, a link that had been previously forged. I have not been sat in a pub waiting for relationships to form.

People hate that word ‘networking’, but it isn’t a bad word. You do not have to ‘schmooze’. When you have something to say and your passion is evident, others with something to say in return will be interested and maintain contact, organically creating a network – that is ‘networking’.

‘Convenors’ are classically defined

Through

have

by the formal assemblage of people

balanced a mixture of luck with the

this

publication

we

for an official purpose. What are you

opportunities we have created for

offering that is different from the

ourselves – meeting certain people

currently provided ‘critiques’ within

with a certain amount of influence

the art school?

at a certain time. In order to get a foot on the art world ladder, to what extent do you feel luck has had a part to play?

I think luck is massively overplayed; the crucial term is effort. Placing yourself into the correct context, the right room, introducing yourself to that person, it’s more down to research and risk than luck. Fortunate things can happen, but they only happen on the condition that you’ve put yourself there in the first place. Getting Patricia Bickers to write the forward to our 11 Course Leaders: 20 Questions book came out of a previous 39

Those who make up the convenors are a mix of students from across the London art schools, in addition to graduates and non-students. The dynamic constantly changes, there is no pressure and the audience will always adapt to the person presenting. The whole experience is a method for us as an organisation, to research how best to provide an education with critical and constructive feedback on artwork, using the best possible format to avoid alienation.

Finding the right tools to critique or ‘read’ a work of art with proficiency is a crucial part of art education that can

network (net’wurk’) n. / Sarah Rowles

got involved, tutors began to meet and compare pedagogy. The process became an in-depth look at each other’s ethos.

The final crucial moment was creating new branding. Letting go of the personal pride I had in the original logo was a principle to work with, knowing when someone has more knowledge than you in a specific field is important!

All contributions towards Q-Art in the last year have allowed us to grow; collaboration is fundamental.

selection of people, is better than keeping it apart - you could be missing something really vital. It’s interesting on a microlevel to see what other institutions are doing and offering, what the tutors and art students are thinking, to pull all this knowledge and research together, to if necessary, initiate re-evaluation. What I would resist saying is that we’re an alternative art education; we are more a collaboration with existing institutions.

I think what institutions do now is phenomenal, and what we really need to do is show what they do and connect them together.

In

your

book,

12

Gallerists:

20

Questions, you seek to de-mystify the art world on behalf of students, through

questioning

respected

London gallerists on how the art Q-Art opens up the systems of higher

world truly exists, how artists are

art

evaluation

‘selected’ and who are the arbiters

through discussion and exchange,

of taste. What did you find most

using

revealing

and

education the panel

and

platform

art of

convenors

discussions.

Similar

when

putting

this

book

together?

discussions have proliferated across the country in galleries, art schools and even in the studios we inhabit today; do you think these discussions will initiate change?

Essentially bringing together different expertise and knowledge from a large 40

The most interesting aspect was how often the word ‘subjective’ came up.

The art world seems to be such an impenetrable mass, it is easy to question how on earth you are supposed to enter such a system. Regardless as to what kind of space each gallerist was operating in,

network (net’wurk’) n. / Sarah Rowles

often be overlooked. Because this skill is not often taught in art education, and because I didn’t gain it from my experiences early on in life, I do wonder whether the French Philosopher, Pierre Bourdieu’s, idea of ‘cultural capital’, where he refers to individuals as having different levels cultural capital may hold some weight here? With cultural capital being achieved over time, education is seen as a personal investment of cultural capital. Is there a presumption, when we enter higher education, that we already have these skills, these intellectual assets? Six months down the line from now we hope to have collated research from tutors, galleries and students alike providing their expertise, case studies and examples of how to create the right atmosphere for these critiques.

To what extent do you think your research can help equip students with knowledge of the art market that they might not have discovered until after graduation?

41

Many read our published works and state how helpful they have been, using it within their dissertations and informing their opinions. I have never actively sought feedback but many galleries treat the 12 Gallerists: 20 Questions as a kind of working manual. The rewarding aspect is that every person attending an event we have organised buys the books, knowing that the money raised through sales funds the next event or the next project. It helps us, to help them.

There is no mystery where the money goes then?

None at all. We think the books are valuable, we won’t give them away for free. But producing an annual report and documenting our decision-making is important. Identifying our values this year was pivotal, and how they run through the book and the organisation.

We know what we do and we know why we do it, and being transparent in our report is crucial. Our financial reports, all of our spreadsheets and all of our accounts to date will be available for everyone to see, meaning that everyone who has bought the book can directly see how their money has gone in and out of the pot. There is no need to put a veil over what we do.

network (net’wurk’) n. / Sarah Rowles

it always came down to personal taste.

The question of what informs and influences taste, for me, is the most fascinating. It is commonly known that Charles Saatchi has previous experience in advertising, and that he has significant PR backing, as a result he is hugely influential. It’s all about value creation that people can do themselves. It is no different from taking my mate, putting him in a gallery, circulating PR and having everyone buy into that story.

I am happy to admit that at first, I was extremely cynical. I was of the opinion that many of the best artists aren’t being represented because they don’t network with the wealthy. Chris Hammond shifted my view, stating that instead, artists, especially students attempting to enter this field can peer represent. It is possible to penetrate it by doing something different, for example if you don’t like how it is then you can do something else. PR goes a long way, but realising that it is simply an infrastructure set up by people, and you are equally a person, is important.

‘the

art

market’

with

first

year

students only just embarking on art education, when

their

considering

primary money

concern in

the

equation of art was centered around the

artist’s

ability

to

maintain

integrity and morality. What is your stance on this?

I often refer to literature relating to business and economics, and looking at patterns in an industry. There are indeed a significant number of young people setting up organisations that are ethically orientated. The money isn’t following yet, but it might come soon, and it is okay to not know the answers at first. There has never been a more exciting time to make change, experiment and do something away from the mould. Compared to 50 years ago, the technology we have access to and the ease of creating networks online through email and social networking sites is immense and extremely beneficial if utilised carefully. Young graduates are able to create new spaces, publications and work that they believe in, and have the balls and the confidence to output this to the world through the media.

Personally, I have never taken money from Q-Art as a wage for myself, and I never will unless the entire team can.

42

But we are running, expanding and evolving without monetary rewards or even a wage. It is simply on volunteerran faith in this organisation at present.

I do have confidence we will bring in money – but for now I know the people working with me are doing it for the right reasons. If someone came along and said simply, I want a job, I would say, Yeah? And? www.q-artlondon.com

network (net’wurk’) n. / Sarah Rowles

After discussing the glorified term

One Man’s Folly (extract) Rebecca Jagoe Artist / Recent Graduate

43

- Andy Warhol I want to make something for you, and I want it to be pure. As clean as white porcelain, as a crystal ornament, as pure as driven snow.

This thing shall be Art. It will not be commercial.

And it will not stink.

44

One Man’s Folly (extract) / Rebecca Jagoe

“I’ve decided something: Commercial things really do stink. As soon as it becomes commercial for a mass market it really stinks.”

business, requiring a great deal of skill. It is a skill that I sadly lack, please do not ask me to do it.

Were I to call him Robert, you might 2. Deftly skirting around the murky think of J. Robert Oppenheimer, that philosophical ground that is the theory of eccentric yet brilliant physicist, forever object/name- which begets which; the haunted jointly by his contribution to necessary territorial element of titling the nuclear bomb and his cross-spectrum etc etc- giving someone or something mental illness. a name provides a differentiation Or you might think of Robert, better that identifies it from everything else. known as Robbie, the Similarly, the naming of ginger one at the back Giles and Jeffrey, say, easily of the class in primary skips the need for me to school.You know; the one say “the man with the who had to sit with the greying moustache” and special needs teacher. The “the one with the shifty one fond of squashing eyebrows and peculiar the pilfered contents of turn of phrase”1 his nose on the underside In this story, though, This is not an affectation. we do not need this tool of his desk, till it built up No, my reason is twofold: for distinguishing for, to a gummy wad in one corner. aside from a few minor My point being: a players, there are no other name will instantly situate one in a characters in this story. So little did he certain place, at a certain time. This can associate with the lives of others, that he often be used to a writer’s advantage, was barely aware that they had separate as it can bypass the need for lengthy lives, beyond the role they played in his introductions. Yet when said writer does own. Once their encounter was over, not want to provide a back story, when they might as well have imploded into he or she actively seeks to avoid this, the anti-matter, or puffed into a cloud of naming of one’s protagonist becomes dust that dispersed in the wind. difficult.

1. Though I can’t imagine actually wishing To be frank, choosing a name for to elaborate on the trials of these fanciful and exotic creations, surely straight out of one’s hero is a delicate and very tricky a Victorian Parlour.

He Shall Remain Nameless

45

One Man’s Folly (extract) / Rebecca Jagoe

1. A rather obvious, but pertinent cause: that of association.

46

others2.

One of those enormous grouper fish you occasionally see on wildlife documentaries, ambles along in its solitary existence. It lives in symbiosis with shoals of wrasses, ‘cleaner fish’, that feed on the ectoparasites living on the grouper’s skin. Yet while these tiny grooms will follow this leviathan wherever he should choose to meander, he barely acknowledges their movements. To him they are mere trifles, nips and bites so minute as to be inconsequential.

So his childhood was unremarkable, not punctuated by periods of severe illness, nor cases of bullying. Instead he trod slowly and carefully along the path decided for him by powers much larger than himself, his life through primary and secondary school nothing more than a waiting game until he could exercise the limited freedoms of this society.

There is nothing of consequence to note of this time.

Early Life

1 For some reason I think of this line as purple, the dots as orange.

2 Perhaps here we might draw a direct comparison to how two people might usually affect each others’ lives, in friendship, say.

A spindly and infinitely peaked ochre line collides with a confident, cerulean curve, combining to create a muddy purplish smudge.

One Man’s Folly (extract) / Rebecca Jagoe

I am going to describe for you a line across time. Occasional dots, miniscule pinheads, bounce and ricochet off this line. Their own trajectory is decided by this encounter as they are deflected away.Yet this thick, stolid line1 continues its determined course, unwavering, and unaffected by the swarm of circles.

Or perhaps imagine a car driving slowly along a recently gritted road. As the tyres crunch along this crystalline surface, some particles become embedded within their tread. Others jump upwards and away from the vehicle, whilst still others dance lightly and quickly towards it, glancing its side and bouncing quickly away.

Perhaps these latter will make a saltine smear on the paintwork, but it is nothing that cannot be wiped away.

These images are easily comparable to the early life of our protagonist. So self-contained, so entirely self-absorbed, was he, the intrusions of others upon his being were mere irritations he barely noticed. Throughout his school years he seemed to drift along as if in a padded bubble, forming no lasting relationships and largely ignoring the existence of

“though the birds of the air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, … in modern civilized society no more than one half of the families own a shelter… The rest pay annual tax for this outside garment of all”

Early Adulthood

-David Henry Thoreau, Where I Lived and What I Lived For He liked this thought. The gentle individualism of Thoreau appealed to him; here was a man who sought simply to live entirely apart from the rest of the world, in entire self-sufficiency.

What Thoreau underlined, was that man is not free to simply be, he must always do. This is because of a world that is dominated by the vile necessity 47

of commerce. He must always toil away, a cog in an infinitely large and infinitely intricate system, that he may stake his claim on some small territory. And so, he cannot do as he chooses, but as he must, and time obtains a monetary value. The purity of his existence would be tainted by the vulgarity of money.

He wanted to imagine his life as a drop of oil suspended in water. Living around others seemed like some vile emulsion. On a daily basis, how could one transact and converse with others, and still think, create? How could one even know who one is?

One Man’s Folly (extract) / Rebecca Jagoe

Now please do not think, as I embark on this chapter, that I am about to begin some lengthy political diatribe. But throughout his early adult years, as he wished to forge the path he wanted to, what he could not figure out, was how free he really was in this supposedly free society. Was it “freedom to” or “freedom from”?

In his writings on economy, Thoreau said the following:

2. “As the white swan soars to heaven, Leave no trace below” Yukio Mishima, Runaway Horses

He remains unnamed and so unsullied by the associations of an era, like snow on the road before it turns to slush.

Can one make a piece of art that transcends the buzzing irritations and superfluous trivialities of pop culture?

And is such an aim too lofty, too romantic, some higher pursuit of ART that is a landscape littered with ivory towers?

To make an object in the world, one must first select one’s materials.

Yet no matter what you choose, it comes with those same dreaded associations. A material will speak of when the object was made, where the object was made, the financial constraints and freedoms of its maker.

It becomes, in the end, a question of finance, a question I do not wish to address. Materials are as shifty as nomenclature.

And so I choose words as my building blocks.

Perhaps I am being petulant. But like the grouper fish ambling slowly and methodically along, I am determined not to let the nips of the wrasses, mere vulgarities of the quotidian, taint or sully my tale.

Two Quotes on Lightness:

I have been thinking more and more about his wilful refusal to engage with the world.

As if he himself is hidden deep within the heartor maybe the central compartment, between the two front seats- of this car coasting along the gritted road, entirely untouched by all his encounters. Yet is it really possible to remain so separate from the world? To coin a cliché, can one man be an island, permanent and unmoving against the crashing sea of time? (Did I really just write that?)

I have also been thinking of my need to aid this character in his plight, to encase him in a protective carapace as delicate and beautiful as a glass bauble.

48

www.rebeccajagoe.co.uk

One Man’s Folly (extract) / Rebecca Jagoe

1. “What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?... that is the question. The only certainty is: the lightness/weight opposition is the most mysterious, the most ambiguous of all.”

- Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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NEETNAC Neetnac, Artist Collective / Current Students ‘We Are NEETNAC’ Neetnac operate as a collective of two. We have and will continue to bring together different methods of interaction, through the act of feeding and being fed. Currently, on its most rudimentary level, Neetnac exists as a canteen. A platform invested in different methods of giving and receiving food without monetary exchange. It also acts as a vessel for interactive performance, a forum for learning and a place to receive a free lunch.

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NEETNAC / Artist Collective

Neetnac relies on the initiation of its process through the use of shouted instructions. Sparked by two internal instigators, who demonstrate the tools needed and available within the structure, to facilitate the feeding process.

A Polish Education, January 2009

Neetnac relies on the initiation of its process through the use of shouted instructions. Sparked by two internal instigators, who demonstrate the tools needed and available within the structure, to facilitate the feeding process.

Neetnac also requests that if you have received you are expected to give. This factor forming part of the performances momentum, the physical exchange of roles abolishing all divisions between server and consumer.

51

Neetnac is a partially functioning object, when not in use as a live space it exists in its aesthetic construction, as an installation and an object in itself.

Neetnac as a concept attempts to act as a metaphor for systems of exchange- the primary tool of food, providing its collaborators with a physical discursive hub in which to question and negotiate what is being provided.

52

NEETNAC / Artist Collective

Neetnac therefore is donated to its spectators; they themselves becoming free to corrupt or preserve the system that has been put in place. This allows Neetnac to sit in flux, as both object and performance with no preconceived outcome.

Are You the ‘Wrong’ Sort of Artist?

Neil Cummings Artist / Professor

Writing about the Art Market is hardly an unexplored territory. Scrupulously trawled over by news teams, exhausted by Twitter feeds and glorified or criticised by journalists, the media loves to talk market. Regularly writing for The Economist, journalist Sarah Thornton has exhausted the inner workings of the art market, its series of high-publicity and even higher-scandal perpetuating auctions, and the leading figures that drive this economy forward. In her book Seven Days In The Art World, Sarah provides an account of seven disparate days spent in the excessive and increasingly loopy world of contemporary art, acting as a guide to understanding those who make, market, sell and buy art. Completed after five years of research, and with 250 people interviewed, the book attempts to help us understand the inner workings of the market.

As art students, it was amusing to read about the ‘lunches and brunches that lubricate this system’ that our next contributor coins. But understanding how the infrastructure operates as a whole is fundamental, before considering the decoration of personal relationships and favours dealt that Thornton uncovers. In order to gain this understanding, we used Professor Neil Cumming’s article Circulating Artworks as 53

of this issue. Neil details the clear cut ‘rules’ of the art market economy, its primary and secondary markets which constitute the system, before referencing, like Thornton, the dense flow of gifts and obligations, debts and favours, loans and discounts that lubricate it.

Importantly, Neil is part of Critical Practice, a cluster of individual artists, researchers, academics and others, supported by Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, that intend to support critical practice within art, the field of culture, and organisation. Perhaps even more importantly, he is an art tutor. With the relationship of the art market to art students difficult to define, we identified elements of his original article and posed questions to Neil that extrapolated his ideas and opinions further, with students in mind. The original article acts as a beginners guide to the art market, but the subject itself hardly applies to the beginner. As a realm dictated by big players and professionals with recent graduates battling to penetrate it, it is perhaps more important to take the infrastructure as a reference point, and to instead create our own infrastructures. As Neil states, practice can exist in all sorts of economies, and one should not shy away from constructing alternatives to what is laid down already. Setting the rules, breaking the rules, and creating one’s own economy invent new contexts for art, new ways of being an artist, and ways of making change.

You detail in your article the necessity of being ‘right’ in order to succeed in the primary art market. Complying to

sociologist

Pierre

Bordieu’s

‘economy of taste’, gallerists dictate who is given the opportunity to buy an artwork they represent. Could you elaborate on this?

Within my article I attempted to locate the idea of being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ at the point of sale, where a gallerist is looking 54

to sell an artwork, and trying to manage its evaluative trajectory. This entails selling to a person that already has an important collection (right), rather than someone just in off the street (wrong).

If you are not already known to the gallerist, and therefore outside of their economy of taste, then you are definitely the ‘wrong’ sort of person. Nurturing the ‘right’ collector, and placing an artwork with them for the ‘right’ reason is the principle means of controlling the

Are You the ‘Wrong’ Sort of Artist? / Neil Cummings

a reference point to build our knowledge around, it quickly becoming the foundations

55

Are You the ‘Wrong’ Sort of Artist? / Neil Cummings

“A l l m y wor k has been by p u blic comm issio n, an t hrou d gh w orkin publi g wit c ins h tituti Ther ons. efore , from prim ar y a a nd seco ndar y ma persp r ke t ect iv e I am defin itely the ‘ sor t w ro n of ar g’ t i s t .”

56

If you were to be placed in the context of our own art school, how would you address and advise students on the issues and workings of both the primary and secondary market?

I’m not sure that advise is the right word, but if artists are interested in being represented by and exhibit in, commercial galleries, then it makes sense to me to try and understand how they work. No? The primary market is convened by the gallerists who organise and manage ‘commercial’ galleries, working directly with artists to promote their work through exhibitions and sell their artworks to potential collectors.

This relies on deep, personal and complex relationships between artists, gallerists and collectors. The secondary market is structured through auction houses, relational competitive markets and breath-taking theatre. Artworks circulate through looser, more diverse and contingent networks outside the manipulation and monopolisation of the primary market. While the primary market is reproduced within established communities of taste, the secondary market has to continually perform itself.

It seems disingenuous to focus on studio production, and ignore (primary market) exhibition-based distribution.

Are You the ‘Wrong’ Sort of Artist? / Neil Cummings

circulation of an artwork through the primary competitive market.

Selling for the ‘right’ reasons include, placing an artwork with a prestigious collector who will add to the evaluation of an artist and artwork – not necessarily the person prepared to pay the highest price. The ‘right’ collector might already have, or be in the process of building an ‘important’ art collection. The ‘right’ reasons might include the collector being prepared to sign a resale agreement, a quasi-legal document guaranteeing a ‘right of first refusal’ on any future sale back to the gallerist. The ‘right’ reason could be encouraged if the collector promised to donate the artwork to an important public museum collection at some future date. Gifting an artwork to a national collection removes the artwork from circulation, but also lends prestige to the artist – and therefore future artworks, the generous collector, and perceptive gallerist.

On a personal level, I have never knowingly sold an artwork through a gallerist or to a dealer, or collector. All my work has been by public commission, and through working with public institutions. Therefore, from a primary and secondary market perspective I am definitely the ‘wrong’ sort of artist.

In

your

article

you

detail

how

collectors are often referred to as supporters or ‘friends’ of the gallery.

The

lubricating

you

discussed

they love art, and prefer not to let commerce and the market ‘complicate’ their relationships. And yet when they discuss gallery stock, or their private collections, they know exactly how much they initially paid, the last market evaluation, any potential discounts to be offered to select collectors or museums, and of course the artwork’s financial appreciation.

signifies the presence of more than

57

simply financial exchanges used to

Therefore,

propel the market, can you further

successfully exist without a business

this explanation that non-financial

consideration in the ‘real world’ of

exchange is equally fundamental?

art production and circulation?

The article seeks to simply model the primary and secondary markets to understand how they work because they have been the dominant distributive mechanisms for artworks over the past thirty, maybe forty years. Because of this dominance, their values are consistently reproduced creating competitive markets with endless repetition and slight variation.

In the extraordinarily dense flow of gifts and obligations, debts and favours, loans and discounts that lubricate artworks in their circulation, economic transactions merge into relational exchanges. Gallerists talk endlessly about supporting young artists, they love visiting studios and ‘hanging’ exhibitions;

YES! All kinds of art practices can exist in all kinds of economies. Outside of these markets and the businesses that work within them, are amazing, inspiring, provocative and varied art practices. Thank goodness!

Indeed, primary

can

if

an

art

discounting

and

secondary

practice

both

the

market

from our consideration, what is the measure of success for a recently graduated artist leaving the safety net of the institution?

A measure of success? I’d suggest contributing too and being nourished by a dense network of fellow artists, collaborators, and friends.

Are You the ‘Wrong’ Sort of Artist? / Neil Cummings

With this in mind, the work I do with the research group I am involved in, Critical Practice, is explicitly anti-competitive market, and is predominantly event and discussion based.

‘Circulating Artworks’ available at: http://www.neilcummings.com/content/ circulating-artworks

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Are You the ‘Wrong’ Sort of Artist? / Neil Cummings

s k e e s e l c i e rt h t a l e e d o “Th ry m a y d l n p o m c i e s s o t d d n n a a t y s r r a e m d i n r u p se o t u a s t c e e k b r k a r m o w y e he h t t n w e e ho b e e v v i t a u h ib r t s they i d t n a n i or m f o s d m s i n a e h h t c e r e m v o s e rk b o y w a t m ar , y t hir t t s pa .” s r a ye y t r fo

Integrity, Meritocracy and Jumping Off Buildings Jasper Joffe Artist / Founder of Free Art Fair

‘The art fair where all the work is given away.’ This promise does not exactly emulate the stereotypical image of the contemporary art fair, the Frieze, the Basel and the Armory of the western world that we have grown so accustomed to, which begs the question, are we are all too accepting of a model where art and money exist only to compliment each other? Referenced within critic Robert Hughes’s revealing (bordering on resentful) documentary in 2008 The Mona Lisa Curse, the proposals for a new fair to be held in Dubai were shown, illustrating how today’s mercenary art market has made the price of a work of art more significant than its meaning. Hughes scoffs at the fair and its shiny surfaces, but four years on ArtDubai is ‘booming,’ even if the city itself is not.

When it boils down to facts and figures, around 15% of those attending the Frieze Art Fair are there to make a purchase. In 2010, Matthew Slotover as the co-founder of the fair, debated whether art fairs are about money, coming into close conflict with Louisa Buck, Matthew Collings and artist Jasper Joffe who had his work banned from the 2010 fair. Draw your own conclusions. In their book Multitude, philosophers Hardt and Negri explain how capitalist globalisation has enabled uneven development 59

labour of others less, and the labour of some has almost no economic value at all.

David Graeber stated in his review of the Art and Immaterial Labour conference held at the Tate in 2008, that it is never clear within the context of the art market, who exactly is scamming whom. With everyone - artists, dealers, critics, collectors alike - continuing to pay lip service to the market, this seems never more explicit than within the white washed walls of the fair. Might it be naïve to think that artists do not circulate around the dilemma faced when trying to maintain some kind of space of autonomy in the face of the market? The art fair can be seen as one of the ‘sites of exploitation’ that Hardt and Negri could have been referring to, where acts of refusal and exodus, resistance and struggle arise.

This is where the concept of the free art fair makes an entrance. As a poignant act of refusal to fuel the existing giants of the art fair, in 2007 Jasper Joffe founded his own art fair with a twist. Emulating Marcel Mauss’ gift economy, the Free Art Fair involved 25 artists who gave their work away for free. Offering an alternative to the art market’s focus on price and status, it allowed artists ‘to make work that they always wanted to make but felt like they couldn’t.’ Although the fair only continued for three years its legacy remains, with Jasper providing a voice for those who strive for an alternative art exchange, free of money’s control. We talk integrity, meritocracy and jumping off buildings with Jasper Joffe.

As founder of the Free Art Fair, your involvement as an artist within the art world seems fundamental to your practice. The very nature of an art fair - whatever its financial stance forces us to question the purpose of art. Can you detail the development of your practice that has defined how you exist as an artist today?

I make art because I want love and to make my family proud. When I was 11 I 60

started a new school and during the first day in art class, the teacher came up to me and said, “you can draw”, invaluable encouragement and validation. My practice has been going in weird and out of control directions, ever since I did my first show from my Royal College of Art MA, which was 24 paintings in 24 hours at The Chisenhale. I came up with the idea to win a competition. I always wanted to make really good paintings, but I keep doing things like free art

Integrity, Meritocracy and Jumping Off Buildings / Jasper Joffe

and unequal exchange, where the labour of certain workers has more value, the

Integrity, Meritocracy and Jumping Off Buildings / Jasper Joffe

Giveaway Draw Free Art Fair 2009

Giveaway Draw Winner Free Art Fair 2009

Best advice: make good art.

That’s the point of all the other crap, otherwise why bother.

Happy Customer Free Art Fair 2009

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self-hating. The people in power, the big names, whatever, are human. They just have more money, more talent, or more power than others and like most humans they are sensitive to criticism and worth talking to. It’s best to start the conversation rather than to boycott it.

Would you be able to offer advice to

students

on

how

to

establish

themselves as artists once graduated from the bubble of the art school, taking

into

account

the

current

climate of a money-driven art world?

As an artist you have been involved in discussions such as ‘Art Fairs are about Money not Art’ held at The Saatchi Gallery, alongside some of the perceived ‘big names’ within the art market. Have you ever felt that this association with said organisations could affect your own integrity as an

Best advice: make good art. That’s the point of all the other crap, otherwise why bother. People need money, but as long as you can do and make what you like, don’t obsess about it. Be generous to friends, other artists, people, and help each other to create more good art.

artist seeking to return said integrity to the art world?

Fairs

claim

selection

No. I don’t have integrity, perhaps I try not to be too mean to people. I hate words like integrity and respect. If there is a platform, I will stand on it. Waiting for the tube. I am not running a crusade like Gandhi, and even if I was, I think it’s best not to worry too much about being morally perfect, it’s the downfall of most revolutionaries to be endlessly 62

of

to

be

the

exhibiting ‘best

a

artists’,

however we understand that you are of the opinion that a meritocracy is not being met. Could you explain this further?

Fairs are businesses, as are galleries.

Therefore they select what they can sell. This sometimes correlates with ‘best’ but not necessarily. There is a herd

Integrity, Meritocracy and Jumping Off Buildings / Jasper Joffe

fairs, 99p shops, Nazis, etc. It is part of the fun of life that willpower only gets you (or me) so far. I guess how I exist as an artist is about carving out a space, outside of the commercial art gallery, which like it or not I am not inside of. I have found a way of reaching audiences through unusual shows and providing a critique in some way of the worship of power and money (prevalent in art world and society). My own politics and personality have leaked into my pursuit of good painting.

Fairs are made up of galleries normally.

Artists need money and the gallery gives them this money. Therefore, artists are scared to offend, upset, or otherwise piss the gallery off. Galleries have positive effects, the artist shows, the artist sells and the artist gains attention for their work. This really helps them to develop.

You need someone to care. Having said that, the artist can become an ass-licking plaything of the rich... churning out the same old saleable junk.

Co-founder

Matthew

Slotover

has

You compare the art fair to a cartel

defended Frieze Art Fair using the

that incorporates a ‘magic circle’; in

statistic that 85% of the public came

what way does an art fair replicate

to his fair to look at art, with no

the systems of a cartel and what

intention of buying. If considering art

constitutes the circle?

fairs as we know them are the last in the list of rewarding ways to view art,

Most art fairs have a selection committee composed of gallerists who are already part of the fair. They select the people in the fair, with their own interests, meaning that like a cartel they can restrict which people are included.

Hardly the meritocracy or ‘free market’ that they are promoted as.

then why does the public still attend such fairs?

People will look at a corpse lying in the road. A crowd will gather if someone is about to jump off a building.

You once boldly claimed that money makes artists servants, and in 2007

Fairs are by definition about trade

you set up the first ‘free art fair,’

and money. In what way do you feel

established as an alternative to the

an artist’s practice might be affected

existing art fair. Detailing both its

by this relationship?

intentions and function, in what way did your fair offer an alternative?

63

Integrity, Meritocracy and Jumping Off Buildings / Jasper Joffe

mentality amongst collectors who only want what everyone else wants. If you look at how woefully under-represented women are in art shows and commercial galleries, you can quite easily see it’s not a meritocracy. However it’s not a conspiracy, often good art is shown in art fairs.

For the reader’s benefit, I suggest you view this video of the debate at the Saatchi Gallery http://www.saatchigallery.co.uk/debates.htm “Art Fairs are about Money not Art.”

...it’s not a conspiracy, often good art is shown in art fairs.

Signage Free Art Fair 2009

64

Integrity, Meritocracy and Jumping Off Buildings / Jasper Joffe

Henrik Giveaway Free Art Fair 2009

Art fairs are unavoidably related to money and speaking to writer Sal Randolph highlighted to us the idea of value and the valuable, and the moral value vs. the financial value.

What do you personally value within your own art and the work of others?

As I say, ad nauseam, I like good art, which of course is hard to define. I strive to make it myself, and look for it from others.

The choices made by those who can afford to trade art can be seen to shape the very nature of what art is.

If considering collectors and dealers are, in a sense, the arbiters of taste, what do you think this means for the future of art?

65

Capitalism shapes most of our relationships, in good and bad ways. It distorts us into wasting our precious time earning money to pay the rent when there are plenty of places for people to live. It also motivates us to get out of bed and allows us to score our achievements by how much we can sell them for. It drives us on to want more, better, new, stuff. It confuses our sense of value to the point where we are not sure whether our paintings are worth anything unless we can sell them.

www.jasperjoffe.com www.freeartfair.com www.worldwidereview.com

Integrity, Meritocracy and Jumping Off Buildings / Jasper Joffe

My fair was a publicity stunt to highlight the fact that artists work for more than just money.We gave away what we loved, our art. It turned out that when you give stuff away you are rewarded with a good feeling and a nice relationship with the person who receives the gift. With everyone talking money all the time, especially in terms of the fairs, The Free Art Fair provided the antidote, done without money changing hands. It was perhaps not a sustainable model, more a gesture. An escape.

The Value and The Valuable Sal Randolph Artist / Writer

“Once upon a time I suggested that art is just another form of money (a beautiful money) - that artists are like tiny nations each minting their own currency, and the art world is an instrument for calibrating the values of all those currencies as they move against each other. Though I meant this in a somewhat flip way, I think now I was actually quite wrong.”

With work surrounding gift economies, social interactions, public spaces and publishing, artist and particularly eloquent writer Sal Randolph deals with the concept of value. Writing extensively on art’s entanglement with money, her own art illustrates a point. Free Words (‘a book infiltrated into bookstores and libraries’), and Money Actions (‘an ongoing series of interventions in which she has given away several thousand dollars to members of the public’) are two such examples of her interest in the shifting relationships between the two.

Her honesty is what initially drew us in. Openly admitting her shift in opinion since Beautiful Money (Art as Money, Art as Experience), Sal retracts her assumption that art is just another form of money within her written piece, Uselessness, Refusal, Art and Money. As editors, we have ourselves fallen into the trap of assuming that 66

explains, the common assumption is that, “since capital and its attendant forms of value are so clearly dominant, then everything that happens in the world somehow partakes of its essence.” However, as he states himself and what we have now come to appreciate, this logic is fundamentally flawed. Over the last few centuries, artists have endeavoured time and time again to create their own environments and methods of production, and the exchanges they facilitate. And despite many of these spaces being made possible by money filtering down from those at the ‘top’, these are not necessarily products of capitalism themselves.

You

mentioned

experiments

of

the the

Anti-Market 1960s,

which

stubbornly refused to die off even as the commercial gallery system ballooned

-

could

you

give

our

readers the context of these and what accounted for their stubbornness?

I was thinking of the work of the Conceptual artists, as well as early Happenings, Fluxus, Mail Art, Performance Art, Land Art, and Political Art all of which incorporated antimarket impulses. There was a feeling that art should belong to everyone, and this resulted in experiments with artists’ books, multiples, video, public actions, and more. Art lost too much of its potential to transform society if it was locked away in museums and collectors’ houses. In general, all of these artists resisted producing the kind of 67

singular, unique, high production-value objects that could easily be bought and sold (paintings and sculpture, sumptuous photographs), and focused instead on the ephemeral, the cheap, the reproducible, the immaterial, or the immovable (land).

Much of this activity has continued, even as the art market swelled during the 80’s and beyond. Some of the antimarket experimenters began to operate within the museum and gallery system, in part by making more unique objects, but others kept working with the immaterial and the reproducible. One of the results has been that in the present day there are many “art worlds.”There is of course the art world of glossy magazines, biennials, galleries, and wealthy collectors. But there are other art worlds: networks of political artists, social practitioners, zine and book makers, street artists, public interventionists, alternative art spaces,

/ Sal Randolph

economies in which to work within, allowing them to experiment with their work, their

The Value and The Valuable

capitalism forms a total, encompassing system. As anthropologist David Graeber

investigating

notions

of

the

studio within our first issue, Pigeon became intrinsically concerned with ideas of art education. This quickly led to a fundamental interest in the alternative

art

schools

that

have

come into manifestation in the last five years. Similarly, you mention the recent growth of underground artistic

gift

economies,

the

time

banks, DIY granting agencies and other alternative ways of organising counter

to

the

art

market.

What

do you consider to be the most successful 68

of

these

alternatives?

schools are yet to be measurable, but do you feel that the alternative exchange platforms that have been created have themselves acquired success?

There are a number of examples that come to mind. A small collective in Chicago called inCUBATE (http://incubate-chicago.org/) invented “Sunday Soup” - a monthly meal of soup where people contributed $5 each and then voted to determine which art project would receive the resulting funding (usually $200-250). That project has spawned dozens of similar micro-granting dinners all around the US and now internationally. It has also been part of Creative Time’s recent mega-exhibitions of social practice, “Democracy in America” and “Living as Form.”

Another project, Trade School (http://tradeschool.coop/), was started by two New York collectives (Our Goods and Grand Opening). Trade School organises classes on all kinds of subjects where the teachers receive bartered goods in exchange for their knowledge. It has operated out of independent community spaces and alternative galleries, but has also been in residency at MoMA in New York.

/ Sal Randolph

After

The successes of the alternative art

The Value and The Valuable

collectives, etc.

What accounts for the stubbornness?

The sense that the context in which art is shared affects its meaning. Art can’t be part of the commercial art system without being affected by the meanings inherent in that system. Artists who are concerned with interrogating those meanings, and especially artists who are interested in forms of social change, often feel they have to operate in other spheres. Today, there is a desire among artists to invent new contexts for art, new systems with meanings that reflect the questions they want to ask in the art itself. Context and content can’t be separated, so the necessity is to invent contexts as well as forms of art.

to Dada or the Surrealists. Basically these were groups of artist-friends who decided to invent for themselves and each other new ways of being artists.

Marx raised a question about our society, “how is it that we have taken something priceless, like the capacity for human creative action, and made

When we spoke to Ben Lewis about the

it into something that can be bought

‘bubble’ of the art market, he was of

and sold?” Considering that we live in

the opinion that the market ‘bubble’

a Capitalist society where everything

is refusing to burst, and is “bigger

is measured by the gold coin, could

and more ridiculous than ever.” With

art exist (and artists survive) without

this in mind, do you feel that there

the money that is generated by the

is a need for these alternatives? To

drive of the market?

what extent do students and recent graduates contribute towards these alternatives?

The art market is bigger than it ever has been. There are more art schools and more artists than ever before. One result of this is that there are more ways of being an artist than there were in the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s. For some artists, the commercial art world is the only one that matters.

For others, there are endless possibilities.

Students now have the chance to create as many alternatives, organisations, and situations as they want. In fact, that’s always been possible - think of Fluxus, or the mail art networks, or farther back 69

Making a living is always hard, surviving is always hard. This is as true for people who are artists and people who love other things. Most of what we really desire doesn’t generate money. Art and the market are not inseparable; here are art forms that need the market and others that thrive outside the market (poetry comes to mind, or experimental theatre, or many of the forms mentioned above). There are also art forms that survive half-in and halfout, in small-scale economies (think, for instance, of the world of graphic novels, most of which circulate in a modest underground economy). Perhaps the

/ Sal Randolph

human life and labour in a capitalist

The Value and The Valuable

But when you ask what platforms have been successful, it brings up the deeper question of what is “success?” Is it when projects like these grow and thrive in their local communities, is it when they spread internationally, is it when they are recognised by the upper hierarchies of the art world? Is Trade School “better” when it’s at MoMA?

Our own practice could be compared with the relationship referred to in David Graeber’s project Toward an Anthropological

art have within an immediate and

which tries to link moral values and

practical society overwhelmed with

financial values. As editors we take

immediate and practical problems?

individuals’ opinions and ideas which

If art was a value rather than a

cannot

valuable, it should be outside the

and place them into the context of

realm of exchange and commodity.

a printed publication – an object

But if the market did not exist and

which can be considered valuable, ‘a

financial value was not placed on art

treasure’ and therefore has monetary

works, would Fine Art simply be the

value.

square peg to society’s round hole?

struggling between

Everyone spends part of their life doing practical things, and part of their life doing impractical things they love.

The balance between these is a vexed question for most people. One role art might have is to remind people of the value of the impractical, the non-instrumental, the purposeless: to encourage people to keep more of that space of possibility open. Another role might be to intervene more directly in real problems, social and political, the way much current “social practice” art does. It strikes me that intervening in the ordinary flow of things (being a square peg in a round hole, for instance) is itself a form of action, a way of calling attention to what fits and what doesn’t, a way of making change.

70

be

We

Theory

of

measured

financially,

have

found

with

the

art’s

value

Value,

ourselves

relationship both

morally

and financially, as do many other students when it comes to placing their work in the context of society.

What advice could you provide to students and recent graduates to help them navigate this relationship?

Mainly, I’d say, as I suggested before, that these relationships are themselves open for change, intervention, invention.

There’s no reason for young artists to feel they have to fit themselves into the existing parameters of how art is made, received, and distributed. If the existing systems feel wrong, create new systems.

There’s also a question of how valuable is your ‘valuable’. The social implications are quite different if something costs as much as a cup of

/ Sal Randolph

It could be fair to ask what place does

The Value and The Valuable

challenge today is to discover and create the new economies that fit our desires.

as

Graeber

discusses,

our

own project has inevitably had to consider the commercial art market.

We

are

concerned

about

values,

ideas and opinions, and by doing so have we inevitably made ourselves

What do you value in an art work?

into a valuable? We are struck with the concept that indeed the more we resist the call of the commercial art

I like artworks that expand my sense of what is possible.

market, the tighter the knot might become. Do you feel that the notion of the art market and the financial intricacies of being an artist today need to be taught within art school education?

I definitely think art students should be taught about all the practicalities of working within the art system - how to write grants, work with galleries, keep accounts, as well as the more subtle questions of operating within the art world’s social context. Making a living as an artist is like being a small business in many ways. Everyone should have the knowledge, whether they decide to 71

www.salrandolph.com

/ Sal Randolph

Just

work inside of that system or out of it.

Nevertheless, I would question the word “inevitably,” which you use above.

The art market has reasons to try and consume alternative and resistant art forms, but that doesn’t eliminate the possibility, for any individual artist, of working outside it.The problem is really the lure of wanting to be accepted by that world. The question is one of defining your own notions of success, of context, and of audience. It’s your choice.

The Value and The Valuable

coffee, as much as a car, or as much as a house.With a publication, you have many options, making it expensive, making it cheap, giving it away free in electronic form, giving anyone permission to copy it, even all of the above through multiple editions and forms.

Editors Rebecca Field Tamsin Devereux

Design & Art Direction Jake Evans javaknees.com

Printing Hato Press hatopress.net

Website pigeononline.co.uk Info/Submission pigeononline@me.com

With special thanks to BeePurple.

Copyright Š Pigeon 2012.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission from the author, artist or editor. The views expressed in Pigeon are of its respective contributors and do not necessarily reflect opinions of the magazine, or its team as a whole.

mar·ket [mahr-kit]

MATEUS DOMINGOS Already familiar to us after featuring in our first issue, current Fine Art student, filmmaker and writer Mateus Domingos is proving his creative versatility with his fingers in all available pies. Maximising his location in the Midlands, his involvement in the Vanilla Galleries’ new studios project 2 Queens and being showcased by UK Young Artists are just a few of his recent accomplishments, and for this issue he did us proud designing the inside of our A3 cover poster.

noun 1.an open place or a covered building where buyers and sellers convene for the sale of goods; a marketplace: a farmers’ market.

2.a store for the sale of food: a meat market.

3.a meeting of people for selling and buying.

4.the assemblage of people at such a meeting.

5.trade or traffic, especially as regards a particular commodity: the market in cotton.

PIGEON

CURRENT STUDENT

Featured in Issue One

a collective that combines es of two Fine Art Bath Spa University, an and Tom Maryniak. gether some innovative interaction from omelettes tea to microwave cake, hrough the act of feeding ed. Existing as a ey are cleverly titled as ds ‘canteen’

h previous contributor nby at Slade Education

CHRIS HUGHES

Chris Hughes is a our very own cours pretty impressive could happen for t with a degree in F luck aside and giv old-fashioned hard working to produci art on a professio Independent listed top six artists to

Graduate from our

REBECCA LEWIN Having only recently graduated from her MA in 2009, curator Rebecca Lewin is one to keep an eye on.

Successfully cultivating her career, through top London Galleries including the Tate and White Cube,