adminStephen Garan’anga Visual Art
Visual artists have their ultimate power of expression in their ability and desire to transform their visual perceptions into expression in material form.
Their intelligence enable them to choose materials which allow them to express what they want in various media.
Their products are phenomenal, the kind that records history of an era, make crucial life changing statements, provoke or amend volatile situations anywhere in the world. This is how these creative cultural practitioners maintain their sanity, earn a living, be happy and appreciated. But for a considerable amount of time art dealers including galleries have been asking artists to write their statements which have proven an insurmountable task for many.
For time immemorial many artists have been wealthy and renowned because of the phenomenal of what they created. No one ever bothered them for artists’ statements.
Some modern artists too have done remarkably without having to open their mouths or scribble anything for anyone. Why then should artists be given what has proven to be a treacherous terrain to cross being requested for artist statements or give formal presentations, or casual talks about the body of work they have created for any given show whilst their power of expressiveness is not literary? What is an artist statement anyway?
An artist statement is not an explanation of individual pieces, a manifesto of one’s philosophy on art, or an essay about how one feels about being an artist.
An artist statement is a concise summation of the ideas you’ve based a body of work on, and/or a concise explanation of your creative process and the formal concerns that fuelled either a given body of work or your work as a whole.
Gallerists and other art dealers have recognised numerous benefits of the artists’ involvement in the marketing of their art work. The marketing process has become a collaborative process between gallery dealers and their artists.
The artist statement not only represents one in his or her absence to provide an access point for viewers into one’s creative process, but it also help the artist develop a structure around which one base the elaboration of content for a talk one may give during his or her show.
Generally, an artist statement is one sentence to no more than a couple paragraphs in length but it’s extremely complicated to put together. How does one cull all of the complex ideas, experiences, emotional and creative processes one has gone through to create his or her work into a brief explanation that offers insight for the viewer without telling them one’s life story, or denying them the experience of having their own discovery and responses to one’s work?
The point of the artist statement is to help guide the viewer to way or ways of seeing one’s work; to help show them things, not just tell them things. This requires an artist to really think about the essence of his or her work or creative process. The first artist statement is not the only statement the artist will ever write, many artists write a new statement for every body of work they produce. A statement belongs to the artist and it is as unique as his or her artwork, it has to be creative, serious, but being very present and real with it.
Depending on the situation that prompted the artist’s need to write, he or she may have to consider some elements like the audience, one’s purpose or motive, the materials and medium in which the work is, the subject of the work, the theories and methodologies that influence one’s work and one’s own personal perspective or background. It is usually impossible to break this information down into separate categories, as it is all somewhat interrelated. Most artists’ statements are written in the present tense, but the voices vary significantly. Some statements are playful, some are extremely intellectual, and some play with the visual form that words take on the page.
It is very important to consider that an artist’s statement must reflect what it is one wants to emphasize. An artist may have to put down a number questions and strategies to assist him or her not to forget crucial information.
The order in which one present this information will depend on the purpose, occasion, audience, etc. The questions should also prove to be useful if one is to write a proposal for a show, a grant application, or a letter of intent.
Some of the critical questions one may want to consider are: who are you? What is your background?
What medium do you prefer to work in? What did you initially set out to explore, investigate and discover? How did this perspective change as your work took shape? Are you a student, a practicing artist, or both? What is your educational background? Is this your first show, or one of many? What are your interests? How did your ideas develop? Are you a collector, an observer, a traveller, an adventurer? Are you curious about other cultures? Are you interested in exploring gender issues, theories, memories, questions of identity, the relationships between form and function, etc? How does your background influence your work? What is it you like to explore?
For an excellent statement an artist has to be brief, two or three paragraphs of no more than three sentences each is a good length for an introductory statement. The artist has to indicate why he or she creates his or her art and what it means to him or her. An artist has to appeal to the emotions, convey feeling about his or her art, avoid complex explanations, obscure references, and art speak. One must not to categorise his or her work or compare him or herself to others. And ultimately one must use the language that everyone can understand.
Truly an artist statement is complex taking into account truckloads of critical elements an artist has to wade through to make a satisfactory representation of him or herself whilst elsewhere.
It is imperative that artists make their statements as they are modern day essential tools of marketing aimed at increasing pedigree and revenue for the creative practitioners as well as the various art dealers and collectors who revolve around them.
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