Artist's statement translated

Charlotte Young has produced an "artist's statement" video with handy subtitles intended to de-bullshytte-ify this often obscure literary form.

Artist's Statement (via JWZ)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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osmo

Yes… good english is are relevant
Jack

This is great! But the thing about artistâ€™s statements is that they are really not spurred into existence by artists, but rather the general market that demands a thing/object not hang in a gallery without an explanation. Most folksâ€”inside the art world and outsideâ€”need to have things justified to them or else â€œWhy bother?â€ or â€œWho cares?â€ Itâ€™s an odd codependency.
DWax

If you’re into ridiculous artist statements, check out my site http://www.declareitart.com
it’s a collaborative project where pretentious artist statements are written about non-art items on the street. The statements are then weatherproofed and glued into place and left for random folks to discover.
Here’s one of my favorites that might resonate with the BoingBoing crowd- http://declareitart.com/2010/09/20/surveillance-statement/

If you like it, consider writing and posting one of your own!
knoxblox

Still, I think too many artists put more attention and energy into their artist statements than they do into drawing classes.
LydiRae

I graduated art school (SJSU) in 2009 with a BFA, and none of my instructors ever took a serious look at my statement. It’s really a shame, because it’s hard to be taken seriously without the ability to write in this form, or espouse artsy nonsense at a moment’s notice. The english class I was required to take before graduation was an english competency course, and we never analyzed or wrote a statement.

Funny enough, while a good statement is required to get your work looked at by gallery owners and museum curators, the average person won’t give a crap about it. It’s a totally indecipherable language, one that just looks useless and egotistical from outside the art world.
nixiebunny

She’s not really an artist. I can tell because she didn’t use nearly enough five-syllable words.
mn_camera

I split an empty space with a friend/colleague for a month for a show of paintings (hers) and photos (mine).

She told me I needed a statement.

What I wrote:

“I make these photos because they are the photos I want to see.”

She put it up, though I think she was appalled.
- flosofl
  
  mn_camera, I really like that. And to tell you the truth I would probably truly appreciate your showing more than most I have been to. Your statement cuts through the crap, and I would be intrigued (and it made me laugh out loud). It would probably motivate to scrutinize your photos much more than I might otherwise. Because I’d be genuinely curious as to *why* these particular photos gave you enjoyment, and to see if I could get that same feeling of delight.
Angryjim

I visited a friend’s MFA program crtique and determined that the whole point of getting a master of fine arts degree is learning to speak this language. Because the work was rather unimpressive, but oh man they way they could talk about it!
Anonymous

Huh. Seems like a lot of people here are pretty certain about what art ought to be. Alright, admittedly the signal to noise ratio is not so great, but there’s good stuff out there, even amongst those works accompanied by sesquipedalian monstrosities.
- knoxblox
  
  You’re right. There is some good stuff out there, but I think not enough.
  
  As far as realism goes, more people need to stop copying, tracing, or blowing photographs up on the wall so they can match the subject matter to a T. They need to start paying more attention/practicing more in drawing class, because they’re reducing the process to a grandiose exercise in paint-by-numbers.
  
  With painting in particular, the medium is just as important as the message. If efficiency and expediency were the only things that really mattered, there would be no justification for hand-crafted anything.
GreenJello

I won’t hire her, too honest, the suckers ^H^H^H^Hcustomers would be put out.
CyberCraftRobots

I LOVE it! I’m forwarding this to every artist I know who has not already forwarded it to me. (I’m burning up bandwidth for no good reason other than creating an excuse to not go to my studio, while providing same for others in my profession)
Teller

Pretty smart, Charlotte.
Pretty funny.
dolo54

“I hold Testudines in the highest esteem.”

Translation:

“I like turtles.”
Anonymous

The google ads over the subtitles are the most entertaining and relevant part.
Anonymous

As a teacher with an MA in English Literature, I can attest that the same sort of highfalutin double speak is used by folks like us to discuss books and short stories and poems. My thesis proposal sounded quite a bit like Young’s artist’s statement. In her—and my—defense, our ability to speak and write this way is a survival technique to protect us against those who feel that dedicating one’s career to making and/or talking about any art form is not legitimate and doesn’t deserve a salary.
- knoxblox
  
  Alas, to quote my brother: “Why don’t you get a REAL job?”
harryhoody

I actually have a BS in Art. True story.
Palomino

My oh My! Is she facing a firing squad? Her words spill out like a confession. It’s sad watching someone squirm while they try convince themselves of their own untruths.

“Ready! Aim!…..
Anonymous

Hmmm. Most of these comments reflect the general view that art is not valid and that most artists are trying to get away with something. Having a specialist language (both written and visual) is considered pretentious for art but not for physics for instance. Using words to give background to the art or an explanation of the artist’s intention is useful and sometimes the words will be difficult because it can be difficult to talk about visual art with words since it is made up of pictures (writing about art is like dancing about architecture). This video is funny, but the artist statement isn’t a bad one, I understood it. Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean it is wrong, it might mean you need to learn more about it.
genre slur

Fuggin LitCrits everywhere know. Agreed with above IE if you need to issue a statement you’re doing it wrong.
jimmitude

Great! and my daughter, who just graduated with her BFA also loves this.

DWax, awesome site. I used to paste silly ads/statements from snack food (as always, cholesterol free!) or small appliance/tool (does not deplete the ozone layer) packaging onto my work phone because it was one of the few rules my company hadn’t thought of yet. Similar to your artist’s statements, but in a more sparse,zen like format. Oooops, almost slipped into artspeak.
jtegnell

This is exactly why I changed my undergrad midstream from BFA to BA.
Anonymous

HA! I don’t know her, but I’m pretty sure I already like Ms Young. If pretentiousness could be graphed, then artist statements would surely define one of the highest peaks on the graph.

Clue to aspiring artists: if your work actually requires you to issue a separate statement explaining yourself, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.
Anonymous

the bummer is that to get any notice in the ‘art world’ you need this kind of bullshit buffer between the audience and you work.

no one will look at you unless you can talk like this.
MacBookHeir

Very funny. This sort of sub-title technique could be applied to any video job resume or bragging small talk overheard at a schmooze party. It’s our job as human beings to embellish and exaggerate. Now, can this artist brag that she had her video linked on Boing Boing/ (“achieved worldwide fame on groundbreaking website”)
bfarn

I too got my BS in BS. Hats off to ya!
knoxblox

Hilarious!

As an artist, I thought I was only one of a few who hated the craptastic legalese of most artist statements.

One of my favorite GraphJams: http://graphjam.memebase.com/2010/05/22/funny-graphs-art-abstract/
duncan

This is a nice example of post-intentionalism.
hughelectronic

Artist statements are contain some of the poorest written words in the English language. Kudos to Charlotte for taking the piss out of this ridiculous tradition.

For additional kicks, I recommend the Arty Bollocks Generator: http://10k.aneventapart.com/Uploads/262/