0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Charlotte Young’s Artist Statement, Interpreted

by Paddy Johnson on June 23, 2011 · 22 comments

Charlotte Young provides a little art speak translation for those who don’t understand the language. It’s funny, though also a little embittered. Worth a watch.

Tagged as: artist's statement, bullshit, charlotte young, performance artist

Revisiting “10 Myths of Internet Art” NSFW: This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Wish In One Hand Intro to The Art World: A Beginners Reading List

Powered by Facebook Comments

  • Liz

    Ugh, for some reason this really stresses me out, which I guess makes it successful. I hate art speak as much as the next guy, but I feel like it’s becoming really commonplace to see artists make fun of how they talk about their work. We, the viewing public, are the ones asking them to define it so who are we to pick apart the words they use, thus causing them to have to address it with pieces like this? This comment is clearly about 4 conceptual steps behind where Charlotte is, but I hate to see artists making caricatures of themselves, even if it is in the name of art. 

    • Anonymous

      Yeah, there’s a knowing self loathing about it I’m not fond of either. I wish the artist opted for empowering, but I guess that’s not meme material.

      • Will Brand

        I don’t think this is necessarily negative. It’s not a matter of “oh we’re all irretrievably full of shit”, it’s a matter of tools and clear expression. So long as art prefers “narrative” over “story”, or “liminal” over “in-between”, it will require more training, take more time to produce and process, and exclude more of the public. By rejecting that needlessly uncommon vocabulary, we can make art more universal, which doesn’t necessarily mean diluting the field. It’s like baseball: after Jackie Robinson, the talent pool from which teams could choose the very best baseball players expanded significantly, to include Black players; as a result, teams were able to become more selective, and the overall skill level of professional baseball players increased. If we can expand the pool of people who can potentially talk about or understand art, we can be better about finding the very best of them, and have better art. I find that empowering. This is a line of bitching that I wholly support.

        • Liz

          Yeah, agreed Will, I think any art which opens up a discourse about a larger issue is successful, but I feel like Charlotte is putting words in the mouth of the public. She’s basically saying ‘your eyes are all totally vulgar and you don’t get me, so I’m going to dumb it down for you, but in a really humble and self-depriciating way so you feel like a jerk for ever saying I was using language that you couldn’t understand’. I still can’t figure out who’s making fun of who, which to me makes it seem passive aggressive. Or maybe I’m just defensive…

          BUT as you said, I don’t see it as entirely negative because at the end of the day it’s discussion like this that make art fun and important, so the fact that this piece finally gave me the balls to comment on this blog that I’ve been reading foreviz makes it great.

        • Anonymous

          I support the line of bitching as it pertains to art speak, but I think it supports negative artists stereotypes I don’t think are useful. From the very beginning, the idea that artists are just lazy privileged workers who often use the academized language of the art world to hide that reality is proffered. When Charlotte describes herself as a performance artists who makes videos and is a published writer, the caption underneath reads “I am an attention seeker…My Dad bought me a Macbook Pro…I’ve written over 100 blog posts”. Now, I get that this doesn’t have to be an interpretation of the language, but rather her fake persona, and that even as a flat translation there’s some humor here. Still, those parts make me a little uncomfortable because I think there’s some hostility behind those words. 

          Likewise, near the end of the piece, she comes back to this same idea, saying, ”My work is currently in flux” with the caption reading “I haven’t made work in 8 months”. In truth though, most artists I know suffer great anxiety when they are in a rut and can’t work. I think it would be more empowering to produce a piece that shows what artists actually do to get out of ruts, rather than making fun of them for having to suffer through them. 

          • Will Brand

            Sure, anything that perpetuates the idea that artists aren’t doing “real work” is harmful, and the video gets worse when it goes into that.

          • Anonymous

            Well, yeah, and of course that’s the stuff in the video I like the most. “I attempt to create fictional narratives” with a caption underneath saying, “I make up stories and call it art” gets a little closer to the problem. Still, describing your achievements as bigger than they actually are is fairly established way of getting ahead so I don’t think the Walker vs Rhodes problem is going to disappear. Marketing (annoyingly), works on schlock just as it does strong work. 

          • http://www.digitalmediatree.com/sallymckay/ sally

            “Fictional” is not a big word, and neither is “narratives” and they are both a bit different in connotation from “stories.” “I attempt to make fictional narratives” isn’t very informative, is a bit redundant, and needs to be much more specific to convey anything about what the art is like, but it is a perfectly comprehensible sentence. If you want to communicate effectively about art without disrespecting your audience, you get off to a bad start when you assume the so-called general public can’t grasp basic vocabulary.

          • http://www.digitalmediatree.com/sallymckay/ sally

            sorry – that was a bit harsh. I just think it’s useful, as an art writer, to remember that other people might be curious and interested in the same kinds of questions that I’m interested in.
            Vocabulary isn’t really the issue (that’s why they invented
            dictionaries). It’s whether or not you are hiding a lack of anything to
            say behind vague sentence structure.

          • Anonymous

            Point taken. I still find that funnier though than some of the other captions because it’s at less of punch in the face to artists. 

          • dannyolda

            Speaking of “real work”: in the words of the blue collar folks around these parts what’s wrong with “talking turkey”.  When doctor’s break out the medical jargon, I’m not overwhelmed with thoughts of “no good, hegemonic, pedantic, son of a…”.  Or when my mechanic launches into car babble we both know I’m not understanding, I don’t worry too much about the patriarchal, exploitaive so on and so forth.  Why can’t the art world have jargon and be ok with it? I understand artists uneasiness with a hegemonic anything.  But I think there may be bigger problems regarding heiarchy and exploitation in the art world than the way artists speak. 

          • http://jessepatrickmartin.blogspot.com/ Jesse P. Martin

            Having suffered through “Professional Practices”
            courses that endorsed “elevator pitches” to art students, I’m glad to
            see the artist-statement get kicked in the teeth — because it’s generally a
            hideous form of writing, like the pantoum or cover letter. And sometimes a
            “bitter” parody aimed at an often cringe-worthy (yet astoundingly
            prevalent & institutionally encouraged) aspect of the art-world can prove
            more inspiring than an “empowering” address.  

  • Tag

    You know she’s a comedian also, right?

    • Anonymous

      I didn’t. But that makes sense. 

  • http://denyingnothingness.blogspot.com/ korper

    Hate artist statements.  Love this video.  Thanks for posting.

  • http://twitter.com/mfortki Marina Galperina

    I just knew you would love this. Wonder if it’s an homage to these classic hip hop videos…
    The Roots http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2oxg_the-roots-what-they-do_news
    De La Soul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDyHftGcDKg
    …or if the fake-out subtitle technique is older than this.

    • POLYMETAMORPH

      Woody Allen, Annie Hall balcony scene:

  • http://www.dennisdalesandro.com/dennis_dalesandro/Dennis_DAlesandro.html Ddalesandro

    Funny video, fake it til you make it…

  • http://twitter.com/wetcloud Kathleen Kiser

    All Artists are Crap Artists.  I bow at the waist.  Thank you very much.  Good Night All.  Ta.  Tootels.  Bye-bye.  oOhOoo, I’ve said too much.  Well, good bye then.  Just one thing.  I didn’t like the punctuation.  The font was shabby, don’t you think?  I rather think sally had it right with her answer to art fart or fag or what ever, rude dog.  Her little quote marks really dress up a sentence let alone a paragraph, what?   

  • Pingback: Weekend Links: The Summer of our Disconnect | Stephanie Vegh

  • http://www.artbylt.com Lynne

    Love it!

  • Pingback: Charlotte Young: “Artist Statement” | rebel:art

Previous post:

Next post: