OK well this is a bit of a confession here. it has been probably a month now since i have been in the studio. i am not sure because it has been that long now. i took this year off from shows or pressures to just see what it is i would make and do. as it turns out not as much as i would have thought.
so far this year i have made roughly 60 cane cups and learnt a lot about making cane and fancy cane. i have started this blog.
i have also found many ways and excuses to not be in the studio and making work. i guess the good thing is i am not happy with where i am at.
i am unhappy i am not in the studio making more. but i still have a few key things to get my head around.
like why am i making stuff? for an exhibition just doesn't seem to be a good enough reason, and selling work also isn't that much of an incentive, especially when you make work that is priced correctly is very expensive compared to the mass produced items that are available.
why am i making stuff in a world full of stuff? personally i am much happier when i am in a space that is less cluttered and one could even say minimal. so why do i want to make stuff that other people have to deal with? why make stuff to sell to people who don't need more stuff?
it seems i am happiest making things that are useful and small, easy to own or actually find useful. right now my only ambition is to make myself a nice collection of spice jars with rubber or cork stoppers and a case for my ukelele and work in my garden.
i have some ideas of other things to make but it seems when i make "art" i always feel the need to find a reason in it or find the meaning in it and the message. but what i need to learn is to just make things for beauty or to tell a story or be funny or something other than an important message. i need to remember what creativity is.
i think that in using one material often like me and glass, and perhaps especially glass when the energy used to make it is so high and valuable you feel funny making for making sake and making without concrete reason. i need to try and let go of that. i also need to try and make with out glass. make things less process based and more spontaneously.
so far i haven't been very good at this. how does everyone else deal with these issues? or deal with these moments of "writers block" for artists?
back to my cups for a minute though:
so i have 60 or so cups and want to make more and will once i get my wrist sorted and can blow glass again. ( i will probably make those spice jars too) but i have the idea to hold an event in an artist run space where i set all the cups out and publicise the event as a trading event. there would be perhaps some writing about the value we place on things in our lives and i would ask people what do they value, object or otherwise. anyway i would somehow invite people to bring something that they valued to trade with me for one of my cups. for me the cups have value because they have taught me skill, they are made by a person who is not making for money or need of survival but for the need to make. the cups are valuable because they are useful and nice to look at. i want to see what other people value and get away from the money system and do some trading of things that matter.
the only catch is this. i don't really want anything else.. i am interested in what other people value but then what am i to do with the stuff i am given. i feel like if i trade it i can't just give it away, i need to have some other ending for these valuable things that people will exchange with me. who knows i might be surprised what people offer for trade i might want it all and it might not even be tangible stuff..
this idea has been in my head for so long now i just needed to write about it an get it out to see what people thought. if you think it will work. what do you value? any suggestions for how the installation/event would work?
Really i want to make, but i don't know what. i want to do but i don't know what. i am a bit lost and hopefully by putting this out there a bit i can get some feedback from others and get back into my studio and my practice.
i have it on my calendar to spend this public holiday monday in the studio after a breakfast date with a friend. even if i spend it doing nothing i need to be there thinking about my work and what to do.
i will keep you posted on the progress but in the meantime please leave me your comments.
sorry for so much typing.
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2 comments:
I think your desire to make something that is useful - as opposed to making something for the sake of something - is very noble. If it feels unnnatural to make some frivolous, why would you? There is a difference between an artist and an artisan and by no means is one better than the other. Why would you think that being practical is something you have to get over as an artist?
catch? that's not a catch Chris! You're going to gain more than objects from this project - this is an awesome idea investigating our own values on our own belongings/importance and communciating/sharing that with others.
this is pretty multi dimenstional. the exhibition of exchange is step one. this could be the first in a series of exhibitions challenging (or observing) the way we give and receive, the way we value ourselves and others, the way we relate to objects. maybe your practice isn't about objects its about us interacting with them?
i say do it!
xdebbie
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