I’m not sure how to condense my experiences over the last few days into words for you but I am going to try. I have just spent three days in beautiful York for the opening of the Aesthetica Art Prize and Future Now Symposium. I have spoken to so many people, listened to such amazing talks, and seen such splendid art that it is spinning inside my mind. I am exhausted, floating, exhilarated. I have sucked the marrow from this experience, and though I didn’t win the prize I have come away feeling as though I achieved something truly special.
With so much to share I thought I would split my story into chapters. This is a longer letter than usual so, get yourself something to drink or to nibble on, and let’s go…
Future Now Symposium
I have been to many symposiums over the years but never to one run more elegantly or more professionally, with such incredible artists and experienced panellists speaking so openly. There is so much I could say but I thought I would stick to a few of my personal highlights:
During The Future of Curation panel all four curators admitted that while this probably wasn’t what the artists in the room wanted to hear, they were tired. I know I wasn’t the only artist in the room who found that announcement strangely comforting, who felt a kinship in knowing our exhaustion at the complexities and broken structures in the art world is shared by the curators.
At the end of the panel A Guide to Funding Your Practice someone asked a question I often ponder. With the overwhelming trend of funding being offered exclusively to early career artists how are those of us who have gone beyond this arbitrary cut off point supposed to keep working? Though the panellists had no answers they acknowledged it’s a major problem that needs fixing. I hope that the vehement agreement from every artist in the room will send the panellists back to their organisations to start finding a solution.
My final and greatest highlight was the photographer Ori Gersht. I discovered Gersht during my undergraduate degree and held onto his work like a shield against the prescriptive and limited view of my photography lecturers. I even wrote about him my undergraduate dissertation. Until Friday I had never heard him speak. What a mind, what an artist. I will be thinking about and absorbing his words for months to come.
The Exhibition Opening
The Seagrass Walk didn’t exist within a gallery until Thursday night. Nor had it existed alongside other artworks. Walking into the gallery and seeing my name among the list of finalists on a gallery wall bestowed a different kind prestige and empowerment upon my work, one I have been longing for. Seeing my work among this outstanding collection of contemporary art was a deeply emotional experience. The two winners of the prize are fantastic artists, but any artist in the room could have easily won, each piece was of such high quality.
To stand among our work and speak with my contemporaries was a joy. To watch people watching my film, headphones on, discussing and gesturing to each other as people only do in galleries was surreal and brilliant. To share the moment with my Kim and Nick (my sister and brother-in-law) was deeply special. To represent seagrass and the climate crisis in a traditional gallery space is an honour I genuinely don’t have words for.
I haven’t begun to process all I saw and felt and experienced on Thursday night. I don’t yet know what will come from this prize or this night, but I know want more nights like this one and I will keep doing whatever it takes to achieve them.
If you are near York from now until the 4th of June, the Aestheica show is free at the York Art Gallery. I urge you to go and give yourself the gift of some amazing art. There is so much to discover. If you see it, let me know what you think!
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