Croeso i fis Medi
Speaking at ffotogallery
An invitation to give a five-minute presentation at Hettie Judah’s book tour for ‘How to Enter the Art World After...’ has so far been September’s unexpected but welcome surprise. As a visual performance artist, I was delighted to contribute to this event at ffotogallery and talk about my work publicly for the first time. Joined by artists Tara Cochran, Emma-Faye Mae Tsui and Ada Marino, I was reminded of how many interesting and talented artists there are working in Wales and experienced Ffotogallery’s very warm hospitality.
During Hettie’s open circle Q&A, she spoke candidly about the London art world being London centric, classist, and ageist. She also subtly hinted how navigating an academic route enables individuals to more likely gain access to prestigious institutions and white cube spaces. Her research also found that a career as an artist is dependent on one’s ability to be self-supporting without having to work a 9–5, leaving artists to be ‘selected’ much like the days of the Paris Salon (my comparison, not hers).
Having begun my creative journey in earnest in my thirties, I was advised by a female tutor on my foundation course to not apply to the Slade because of my age. In the first year of my fine art degree, a male visiting artist of colour from London said that it would be extremely difficult for me to ‘get into the art world’ as a working-class, older brown woman. At the time I didn’t want to believe him.
Hearing Hettie’s take, backed by extensive research, was confirmation that getting ahead in this game isn’t necessarily about how talented, interesting or original an artist is. Instead, it relies on how strategically one plays it, and whether what one makes can be commodified or has ‘currency’.
As I reflect, there may be a greater awareness of systemic barriers and some concessions offered to those facing them (such as myself), but arguably this fails to shift the deeply entrenched mechanics and mentality of the institutions themselves—both as a business model and a creative one.
Yet, the need to create cannot be stemmed – believe me, I’ve tried.
I’m reminded of a story shared with me by Artes Mundi Curator Nigel Prince during my Weston Jerwood Fellowship in 2022. While in Canada, he came across a painter who had been painting for decades and had never exhibited. As luck, destiny or fate would have it, she had her first exhibition in her sixties or was it her seventies?
The gods may be fickle, but is the art world completely random in the way it functions? I rather think that’s the nature of life.
photography by Thasnim Hussein courtesy of ffotogallery
Thanks to Arts Council Wales for their continued support and for helping me realise this newsletter through Creative Steps funding, diolch yn fawr.
