The best artist’s statement is about the work at hand. You should cover two aspects of your work: description and interpretation. Even though there are images of your work on line, it is nevertheless important to describe the work in the slides shown. The on-line images cannot do them justice. Moreover, some work may be impossible to portray with static images. Your description will help the viewer to visualize your work. Your interpretation, on the other hand, forms the connection between this description and the work’s content and meaning.
Describe what the work looks like. Describe the subject matter – person, place, object, event, etc. Remember that the form or medium of a work can be its subject.
Describe the technique. Which general category of technique does your work come under (e.g. installation, video, painting, sculpture, etc.)? Be aware, however, that these divisions are cultural conventions and are becoming less and less precise, exact, and enforced.
Tell the viewer about your specific materials, for example oil paint or found objects. If your media are unusual, describe them in detail and tell why you use them.
Be sure to talk about the form of your work. Tell us the relation between form and subject matter, i.e. how the content of your work is made manifest through the form. Form includes scale, composition, structure, color, light, etc.
Also include any additional information that is relevant to the work you are showing. Connect your work to your social environment but avoid “biographical determinism,” the idea that you are limited by your race, gender, or past experience to producing a certain type of work.
All artwork is interpretable. Many points of view may be applicable to your work, not just your original intention. Additionally, no single interpretation can exhaust the meaning of a work of art. The artwork is interpreted, not the artist.
The purpose of interpretation is to uncover the meaning and content of your work. Interpretation invites the viewer to continue looking at, and to look deeper into your work.
Base your interpretation on evidence from inside and outside the work. Include ideas from other disciplines if they clarify the interpretation. Explain any connections which are not immediately apparent. Strive to make your ideas coherent and relevant to your work. Show the interpretation through examples, rather than just telling the reader.
All art is, at least in part, about other art – your work does not develop in a vacuum. No one exists outside of our image-saturated, highly mediated culture. Become aware of your sources. As Peter Schjeldahl said at the Painting Matters symposium in 1994: “It’s hard to conceive now of a way that a painting can be made or look that isn’t immediately claimed by some precedent. The emphasis moves from how you make a painting to why you make a painting.”
|
© 2008
Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission 800 2nd Avenue South, 4th Floor P.O. Box 196300 Nashville TN 37219-6300 |
Page revised: 25 Sep 2007 arts@nashville.gov (615) 862-6720 fax (615) 862-6731 |
Americans with Disabilities Act
|
|