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Thread: The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    By contract, I have to submit an "Artist Statement" to a gallery for a show I have coming up.

    I have been good at avoiding this in the past (let the work speak for itself, I say) but I am now cornered. After some attempts, I keep stalling and cannot come up with much of anything worth sharing. It's getting embarassing, and the gallery needs this by next week!

    To kick start this process, would you share yours or point me to ones you've been impressed by? Don't worry. I am not planing to copy anyone's statement. I just need a "boost" to get going.

    Suggestions?

  2. #2
    Geert's Avatar
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    Aug 2005
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    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    Maybe that's the reason why you're a photographer and not a poet.

    G

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jan 2000
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    91

    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    We have a local gallery that lists the photographers and statements. Just go to artists and click on the highlighted names. You might get some ideas.

    http://www.smokymtnphotographers.com/

  4. #4

    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    I would assume that your show has a theme. If your show has a theme, write about the theme of the show. A statement should prepare your viewers to look at your photographs. You might wish to talk about what the photographs mean rather than what they are about.
    I have a statement about each portfolio I do. Some are better than others. You could check out the portfolios (projects) on my web site for my approach to a statement.

    www.joelipkaphoto.com

    Next time (just for grins), do your statement and then begin photographing...

  5. #5

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    May 2005
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    Ontario Canada
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    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    Daniel, check out Freeman Patterson's statement on his website, www.freemanpatterson.com. It might get the juices flowing. Good luck

  6. #6

    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    If you really get desperate, try the Postmodern Generator (http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo). Every time you visit the page, a meaningless random statement is generated. Cut and paste until you develop something pretentious enough to intimidate anyone remotely interested in photography, and ascribe authorship to someone else. Tell us about the gallery's reaction... they'll love it.

  7. #7

    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    In addition to all above mentioned pieces of good advice, I venture to add some more.

    We are two artists collaborating on a range of projects. When we have to write motivations for individual funding requests, we do like this:

    Make something nice to drink and sit down where you feel comfortable -table, couch, restaurant. One questions the other about the work - the interrogator must be critical, makes notes, and keeps on asking until things become clear for both. Don't make any fake or pretentious stories that you can't stand behind. I personally would not like to reread my own pretentious bullshit in a newspaper review - as lazy journalists are prone to just copying what you give them. There is always something genuine to be said about your work and most of the time you'll be able to speak freely about it when not having writer's block. Don't make life/things/work more complicated than necessary.

    Have the interrogator write the statement about the others work, let this other check the statement to see if it is not too far besides the truth. Hand in the result.

    Always has worked for us, gotten several grants this way without a problem, somehow it we've always made it sound convincing enough. And no, I'm not putting any of those texts on line, they're all in a foreign language anyway and have nothing to do with photography.

    Actually, in retrospect such conversations and tasks are always far more rewarding than you think, forcing you to reposition yourself, rethink what you're doing (and what you're NOT doing) and why the hell you're doing it. Good luck with your show.

  8. #8
    tim atherton's Avatar
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    Jul 1998
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    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    medform-norm - that's one of the best pieces of advice I've read on here...
    You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees... - Fred Astaire to Audrey Hepburn

    www.photo-muse.blogspot.com blog

  9. #9

    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    Why, Timothy, you flatter me! You should see me blush.

    This method has developed out of the frustration so many people have when having to write about themselves, while it is so much easier to be positive/constructive/perceptive/confident about someone else.

    What I did not say that these discussions between ourselves can sometimes flare up quite sharply - so we do not do this too often in a public place, people would start wondering if we're having a fight

  10. #10

    The (dreaded) Artist Statement ... Help wanted.

    You might try checking artbizcoach.com. Alyson is a former museum curator and consults professionally about creating artist statements and the like. She has an example on her site that talks about the refining process from start to finish. It helped me tremendously when making my own statement.

    HTH,
    -D

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