One of the local artists working here at the Salzamt (for a one-year period), Katharina Gruzei, is leaving to go to Salzburg for a months teaching today, so I asked her if I could email the questions I wanted to ask in my interview, so she could respond by email, or be prepared for a quick interview next time she is around. We ended up talking about making a living anyway and talking about the precarity and sheer edges in an artist’s existence.
I asked whether she makes a living from her work and she replied that currently she does, but in the autumn, her stipend runs out and the worry begins again. It seems to me she is very talented and proactive and will have no trouble finding future support, but I thought that I am in exactly the same position. This year and until July 2010, I am supported: I have enough income from bursaries and residency fees to live without too much worry. I know, however that there is nothing after July, and so I will be busy doing applications in the autumn and spring to try and fill this void, or at least provide a small stepping stone to the next respite.
We also talked about the fact that we never found ourselves in the most desirable position: having made some work and then being given money/time to make new work. The bursaries we both have are to make new work within a time-frame, or more honestly, to try and make new work alongside other activities such as teaching and writing reports that are attached to this funding. This makes the supported time feel like there is little room for mistakes: the funding brings pressure and a spotlight that did not exist before. This seems ironic when I consider that the funding is intended for a period of making new work, time to play and experiment, fail, figure it out and start again. Perhaps this real experimentation is never possible when you are being given public or charitable funds? This money comes with responsibility to produce things and show money well spent. Perhaps also, it is just the nature of making art that we (artists) are too hard on ourselves, feeling pressure acutely and being unable to escape the looming uncertainty that comes after any opportunity?
http://katharinagruzei.blogspot.com/
