What Am I?

What do you want to do when you leave uni? That question that gets utters more and more as third year comes and (in not to long) goes. I'm a student doing a joint honours degree in Fine Art and Art History, so this immediatly raises questions as to what I am, and what I want to do. While it is not easy for any student who graduates and then has to decide upon their future, it seems increasingly difficult for arts students who don't appear to have any set career path in front of them.

This problem has many dimensions and many different angles and I don't pretend to be aware of them all and I certainly don't pretend to understand them all, but what I can say is that becoming increasingly obvious that any arts student has to be versatile. There has to be an openness about the arts almost as a given due to the nature of many arts based organisations, i.e. an open mindedness to dance, music, poetry amongst many others on top of the traditional fine arts. After this though I find that many graduates are trying several different roles in order to develop themselves, this includes writing, curating, selling as well as physical craft based skills. Many roles in the arts include several skills but also there comes the problem of lack of experience in a certain field, this is where the versatility comes into play. A Broad range of skill sets will allow for doorways to open without perhaps overly specific experience

All of this is well and good, but it doesn't answer the perhaps maybe initially simple small talk question of "what do you want to do when you finish uni?". Given my above thoughts I would say that any answer will probably just list off all my previous work experience as a specific field hasn't yet emerged, so perhaps in order to answer the question, the best answer might just be "Art stuff probably"...

Uni Summer Holidays = Art crisis

The summer holidays are a a time of mixed emotions for Art LAD, why? well because of several things. First; no studio, the university closes the studios and doesn't allow you to use them until about one week into term. Second; Where has all the decent art gone? Art LAD feels as though this summer has been relativly     poor on the art front. There have been several good shows, Hirst, Invisible, Deptford X; however, most of London hasn't quite cut it for me! I wanted more. This I suppose is a question of taste and thus I shall say no more.

Back to the studio problem though, where can one have a space to do work without having to pay asecond rent effectively? For students who are already paying £3500 to have the use of studios it seems a little ridiculous to have to pay over the summer, but yet still be expected to carry on working and thinking about work. This is another area where the Unis let down the students. Virtually all artists like to have a separate area to do their work, they like to have some  type of separation.

While this studio down time has been an inconvenience to me and my work (having to complete work for two shows in my bedroom was, excuse my French, a ball ache), there is the added benefit of being able to do an internship with ALISN at their gallery Lubomirov-Easton and write for Artfinder (check out my profile). In all I felt a slight art crisis this summer, by way of lack of quality art in London and from myself!

Invigilating delight

Many gallery interns and workers alike spend many hours every week invigilating various shows and works throughout the various galleries in our fair town. Many of these interns also find themselves doing this without previous knowledge of the entailment of a gallery interns duties. While invigilating is an essential role within a gallery as one serves to protect the artwork as some kind of art bouncer (although in reality there isn't much one could do as the chances are that the intern is scrawny and arty), and also there to provide a Q and A type service for customer who assume that because you spend all day sitting there in the same room the work, that you know every last thing about it.  While I might have had some of the easier invigilating jobs, working in smaller galleries hence being allowed to sit and use a computer, I feel that there is a certain sense of duty as an art student and art lover to start at the bottom and to quote a great man, Mr. Bean, "And my job is to sit and look at paintings". In this fast paced social media world, a few hours of contemplation breathing in the aura of the art (haha) can't be all that bad. I still maintain that it isn't the most enthralling job; however, the corniness of the aura of the artwork, being around the physical object itself rather than viewing it on a screen, can really help in the understanding of works, and can possibly really help draw out some useful criticality for young artists and critics.

Are art students losing out to art conversion students?

 I have noticed recently an increasing amount of people involved in the arts how have either taken a secondary degree in the arts or who have had some kind of conversion/postgrad qualification. Now there is nothing wrong with this, but perhaps it would be prudent of Arts based educational establishments to further prepare thier students for life beyond university with more applied skills. Now of course there are many creative entrepreneurial students from arts backgrounds; however it remains that there is still a low employability rate from this area post graduation. 

In order to solve this universites, colleges etc must provide at least some lessons in some form of business related areas, this would give all students a better founding when they are released into the real world, whether they go on to be artists, gallerists or waiters. Even though there are great career services at many of these establishments, not enough of the students regular see or visit these services. 

Because of this I propose the introduction of some kind of compolsaory careers lecture for arts students to attend once a term in order to give them a better chance of getting a job within the arts to ensure the developement of the field upon them graduating. 

try this one out IdeasTap

Escaping South London

Don't get me wrong, I love south London, especially South East London where i have been based for 2 years now; however, after putting on a show this week in Peckham at the Last Refuge, and inviting everyone under the sun, including bosses dads, mums, uncles, aunties, various contacts etc, south of the river just seems to far for anyone with the dollar or the interest to come. Traditionally arty types have moved to wherever is cheap and infested and overrun that area until it is expensive. They then migrate with the new generation to a new area and do the same again. It seems as though South East is where this is happening again with areas like Deptford seeing a large number of galleries etc popping up; however, while the art types in terms of the practicing artist are in great number, the buyers are not, and this leaves me with the sneaky suspicion that perhaps crossing the river South was a bad idea.

Now while I am aware that while being a Goldsmiths student Deptford seems like the perfect area to get work shown as it is just up the road, I do worry that I will get stuck here and never escape, I can already feel that worry of crossing the river to go North to visit friends and family, the classic North/South divide has hit me and I'm worried that it might soon be too late...Despite this I am glad to have such a fantastic art community around me, I just hope that we can move our work North of the river, to the business side of things when the time comes. 

Art World Pretence

A rather skeptical and cynical friend of mine (who is a self claimed artist's son) has a huge problem with the art world and its lack of accessibility to the everyman.  It's something he has always believed; however, there was one night last year in particular that exaserbated his feeligns on the matter. This was a private view at the White Cube for Christian Marclay's work The Clock whereby mate friend preceded to get very drunk and was refused entry, in light of this he preceded to call the Director "a pretentious c#%t" due to his rage that he wasnt allowed in. Here we see an obvious and probably very justified resistance to the LAD; however, the main focus here is some notion of  pretentiousness exerted by the art world.

I think despite my friends perhaps overtly hostile reaction to the justified reason to not let him in, there was perhaps something more sinister as the director would not let any of us in, it was especially disconcerting when he looked at the three sober members of the group (one of them being a relative of his) as if we were not fit to be allowed in due to our appearances. While LAD culture and behavior might not at times align itself with the "appropriate" nature of such events, it did highlight the the overtly snobbish attitude that is often held by the "art crowd". 

Much of the claims of pretentiousness relies on the continued attempts by many to live up to some form of stereotype as an art folk, this quite ironical as stereotypes are something that many artists try to critique. This does not mean that the LAD culture itself doesn't live up to some kind of stereotype; however, it never pretends it doesn't. The rise of the LAD culture does have some roots in the ironic behavior of guys laughing at actions that they previously laughed at, but now by making it ironic they have in fact become the LADs themselves. This last point is perhaps something that the art world could build upon, by this I mean making fun of the pretense that covers so much of its sphere, maybe trying to not dumb down, but laugh at its own ridiculous behavior. Art for everyone is a lovely idea; however, the commercial side of art excludes and reduces the possibility of this happening. 

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears? - Not Being Able to take Photos in Galleries

I feel incensed that I am not able to take photos of works in galleries, by this I mean non-flash as obviously this can damage some works; however, especially when I have payed good money, such as any of the shows at Tate etc, i feel as though i am entitled to. Anyone who sees artwork in galleries on a regular basis knows that there is absolutely know comparison between a photograph of any quality and seeing a work in the flesh, in real life in a gallery. 

I understand there may be some gripes in commercial spaces such as Hauser and Wirth, but even so I don't  feel as though me taking a photo on my phone and uploading to for example this blog will make any difference to the work, there are already pictures available of the shows online, and in most cases pictures are taken because the work is not well known, or there is a particular aspect that one's own photo will highlight. 

In all, while we can all understand various copyright, and value related reasons for no photographs, we al know that at the end of the day the best way to view a work is in person, so an online photo or a picture in a students sketchbook isn't going to make any real difference, and in the end just creates an annoyance, and also possibly puts people of the art world.

The Big Art Gallery Dilemma

Tweet I found recently that it is increasingly difficult for me to view some of the big shows at the capitals major galleries, e.g. Tate, Saatchi, National gallery etc. This isn't due tot he nature of the shows, but more down to a guilty feeling I have myself. I want to go view these shows, but with lack of time an issue I feel I should be viewing some of the art in the smaller galleries just to get more of a feel of what is in the Zeitgeist. 

Another thing that doesn't help is that when I do see a bigger show, my tutors kind of expect me to have seen these so me going to these instead of other shows leaves me stumped when they say "what have you seen?", when I reply with "um the Richter show" they kind of of go "and?". Now I no this is no fault of my tutors and it is solely mine, but I just hope there are some of you who can empathise. There is no solution to this problem other than get up earlier and spend more time with my head In the game, even so The Big Art Gallery Dilemma remains.

Book review- I, Partridge

Steve Coogan reprises his role as Alan Partridge in this Autobiography of anecdotes and stories about his life. There are many memorable lines where we laugh at the small mindedness, or lovable arsehole, often spiteful, nature of Alan, "The divergence between our two lives (mine: successful, his: pathetic) is best illustrated in our choice of garden furnishing. I've enhanced my lawn with a rockery. McCombe has chosen a broken washing machine."

However, there is something i think a little sinister in our apparent likeing of Alan and his misguided ways. It is perhaps just as bad to laugh at his belittling un-pc way of thinking, as even though it is intended for us to be laughing at him for being to backward in his views, we should perhaps find it insulting that we can in fact say, "o i know someone who says that" or "my mate Jim is just like that", maybe showing the lack of acceptance in our society. Some say that in order to get over things such as this we need to laugh at them, while i appreciate the sentiment and admit begrudging to loving this sort of humor at times, i do think that there is something fundamentally wrong at finding someone like this funny.

Modern Day Superhero?

Today while at work handing out flyers in Leicester square for 99 Comedy Club, i encountered a rather strange event, which has lead me to think about the notion of "the people", and to a possibility of its functioning within the city. I was told by a colleague that there had been a gang setting up a game in the streets and were ripping people off by having people planted in the crowd, then handing out fake money to winners if they bet on the game. As i went to have a look at a distance a man in his mid 20s grabbed the guy on the stall and pushed him against a fence, at this point I was thinking police, then it became clear that this was more a reprimand or threat than an arrest. The thought of a rival gang member crossed my mind, but luckily the violence ended with the threat, and the throwing away of the man's equipment to play the game further. If this was indeed just an innocent bystander standing up for the unsuspecting members of the public, it makes me think about unity and a feeling of duty. 

This hero of sorts raises thoughts of the functions of these acts in a society divided by communities and beliefs, or even a city like London divided by the same issues, and the importance or role of looking out for one's fellow man. Is there a show of unity here or is there something more personal, this we will never know; however, i like the romantic idea of someone genuinely caring about the others around him.