Art Party Conference then…
A bit of a jolly? Yes. Definitely.
A meeting of like minded folk? Of course.
A day of great conversations mainly.
The highlight for me, was the witnessing of the conversation between Stephen Deuchar, Cornelia Parker, Jeremy Deller and Pavel Büchler.
In my time I have listened to an awful lot of pretentious, idiotic dross talked about art. But not here. These four were extraordinary in their ordinariness. They said things that made me nod my head in agreement, laugh, sympathise. I came away with deeper admiration, a little starstruck, but also heartened…. These four successful people, unbelievably, are a little bit like me! They have had parents, tutors, teachers telling them they shouldn’t/can’t do things. They did it anyway.
I wrote little notes in my book…
“Theory is not the job of the artist, it is the job of the work. The artist can ignore theory. The work changes/affects perceptions and it is that that speaks to theory”
Halle-bloody-luyah!
I think I might be a little in love with Pavel.
I’ll leave all that to someone else then, and just keep making what I want to make.
Any theory I did when I was writing essays for my MA was dragged out of me kicking and screaming. Partly because I am lazy, but mostly because I didn’t see how I could possibly understand most of it without doing a degree in philosophy beforehand… if I had wanted to do that I would have done that! I felt all the time that I was cheating, jumping through a hoop that I couldn’t really see the reason for… that I was pretending to “get” but didn’t. In quiet corners, with selected fellow students I would confess.
Now, I am out and proud.
This event will stay with me for quite some time. I suspect it will have ripples that go on spreading. It was great to be there. Thank you to everyone involved in making it happen.
