Brief: Investigate the following links and identify:
- an artists’ interview
- an artist talking about their work
- writing as creative work
In your research journal compare and contrast these different forms of writing, thinking about the nature and purpose of the writing:
https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/art-and-ideas/get-to-know-jennifer-packer/
IDENTIFY AN ARTIST’S INTERVIEW: The Lubaina Hamid article on Art Basel’s website is an artist’s interview. It follows the traditional Q&A layout of an interview.
IDENTIFY AN ARTIST TALKING ABOUT THEIR WORK: The Jennifer Packer article, particularly the video is an example of an artist talking about their work.
IDENTIFY WRITING AS CREATIVE WORK: Both the Helen Marten ‘interview’ and the Perec Readings piece reveal writing as creative work. Whilst the article on Helen Marten is disguised as a Q&A style interview, it is written that the ‘interview’ took place in the form of multiple written exchanges over email. This is evident in Helen’s responses, which appear to be overly-edited, unspontaneous, un-colloquial (very much in the style of what you’d expect when an artist writes creatively about their own work, as opposed to how an artist would talk were they to have an informal verbal exchange about their work.). Helen’s prose is almost poetic.
COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THESE DIFFERENT FORMS OF WRITING:
There is a very real place for all these forms of writing in the context of artists and their art. Whether it be the artist talking about their own art, or a journalist writing about an artist’s art, or a verbal exchange such as an interview, the information shared about an artist’s art can, in some instances, be as important if not more important than the art itself.
When it comes to Writing as Creative Work, I’ve always viewed art and writing to both be creative endeavours, but at the same time, I have viewed them as two very different and separate streams of creativity – somewhat of an either-or; that is, a person either makes art, or does creative writing, or interchanges between both, but not at the same time, and not as a singular project or piece. So for example, I have written a fictional novel, and found that to be a highly creative project. I’ve also drawn a lot. But never has my writing been about my art or vice versa. I’ve treated them as entirely separate projects that compete for my time. That has been my perspective for most of my life, but upon embarking on this MA, I have experimented a little with writing as part of my artistic practice, and it has come surprisingly easily. Now that I have been able to change my mind/view about how interchangeable writing and art can be, it has opened up another avenue for me.
ON WRITING AND THINKING:
When it comes to thinking about, writing about, and talking about one’s own artistic practice, this is not something I’ve paid much attention to up until now. So this module has really challenged my thinking – observing how other artists talk about or describe their work, whether by written explanation, or in a more informal setting, I feel that in retrospect, this thinking about and writing about is almost as important as the work itself. Case in point, the 4 minute video we watched about Jennifer Packer’s work as shown in the Manlaykhaf and McVeigh (2020) article, had I not heard Jennifer Packer talk about her work, her concerns, and the forces that drive her creative practice, I never could have guessed that that is what her artworks were about.
References:
- Perec, G, An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris (1974) https://iitcoa3rdyr.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/perec_readings.pdf (Accessed 1 November 2023)
- Simonini, R (2020): ‘I Can Begin to Learn Again’: Turner Prize-Winning Artist Helen Marten on Writing Her First Novel https://artreview.com/i-can-begin-to-learn-again-turner-prize-winning-artist-helen-marten-on-writing-her-first-novel/ (accessed 30 October 2023)
- Whitley, Z (2018): Lubaina Himid: ‘Telling stories of the black experience that are both everyday and extraordinary is what I’m here to do’ – The Turner Prize winner talks to Tate Modern’s Zoe Whitley about black visibility, historical trauma, and the power of the ordinary in her paintings https://www.artbasel.com/news/lubaina-himid—telling-stories-of-the-black-experience-that-are-both-everyday-and-extraordinary-is-what-i-m-here-to-do-(accessed 30 October 2023)
- Youssra Manlaykhaf, Y and McVeigh, R (2020): Jennifer Packer’s Political Still Lifes & Intimate Portraits Centre Black lives https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/art-and-ideas/get-to-know-jennifer-packer/ (accessed 30 October 2023)
Debbie New 