3o artists crammed into a relatively small gallery (and fighting for their corner) does’t exactly sound like recipe for success. Minor spats aside, our exhibition at Gasworks went surprisingly well.
To anyone reading this who is not an artist, in case you haven’t noticed already, artists are intrinsically selfish. I realise that I’m stabbing myself in the back here but it’s true. As an artist you spend a lot of time by yourself, thinking, reflecting, reading and observing. And then there is actually making the work, and unless you’re Damien Hirst, you are usually making that yourself and often alone.
You know that single aunt of yours that has spent the majority of her life doing what she wants and in turn doesn’t understand the concept of sharing? Yeah. Thats what artists are. Often problems arise when you mix young, not-so-established artists with their egos, eh I mean their work, together in one small space. We all dream of a solo exhibition at a disgustingly large, fabulous gallery like Hauser and Wirth, but for most of us that ain’t gonna happen anytime soon. So we are stuck fighting it out against other artists for gallery space.
I don’t mean to make us sound like brats but we all feel like we have something important to say with our work and truth be told, most of this work, good, bad or indifferent needs space around it to be fully absorbed and understood. Sticking a lot of pieces together, like a salary hang at the RAA, can sometimes cause work to interrupt and invade each other.
I have experienced some interesting hissy fits at gallery set-ups in the past but our Gasworks curatorial project went rather smoothly. In fact the only real complaint the artists seemed to have with the show was that it was too polite. I was a little amazed, though I suspect with some, that ego was still there just begin choked down quietly.
My own experience was easy enough, as my work consisted of a glass box placed on the ground. However, my ego came through at the opening when I watched like a hawk, as people kept bumbing into and falling over my work. One girl managed to hit it three times (seriously?!). As well as the exhibition went, I’ll keep dreaming for that solo show!
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