as an undergraduate i watched many videos of artist’s work and their practices. one i watched was by tracy emin. what she said about all undergraduate work being about identity as that’s all they knew struck a sideways chord with me and i never really resolved that as i wasn’t able to talk with emin about it. i did have a tutorial about it within the course, however where it had taken me still wasn’t understood.
now sometime later, i can see in myself that at the time of watching the video there were unresolved and not understood elements of my identity.
on the course i’d rejected the techniques that i’d been working with prior to the course. i did this as a conscious effort to get me to do different things. i did different things.
recently i’ve returned to the thought of what if what i make is about identity, at least for a period of time. i haven’t been 100% sure about this.
however …
i saw an opportunity yesterday that has today got me thinking again re identity and the making work of it.
the opportunity was an international one. an artist working in one of the software’s i research using is about to perform a work in berlin and requires an operator of the software to work with her to make the performance happen. in that moment of responding, all the work i have on line becomes my identity for the other artist. immediately my identity is unsuitable for her project as my on line presence doesn’t say what she needs to hear. suddenly i see that whatever i make, about whatever subject, at the outset of a new relationship is about my identity for the incoming person.
so why do i fret ?
