Burnt Out Culture
Sophia Cai discusses the hidden costs of doing what you love.
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Sophia Cai discusses the hidden costs of doing what you love.
Neha Kale unpacks the art world’s complicated relationship with money and power.
Is it possible to separate the art from the artist?
If you’ve been around the art world for awhile, it’s easy to forget that a lot of people can still find the whole thing intimidating.
Let me begin with an anecdote to open this review, which is only marginally relevant to what is to follow. You’ll like this because when I finally come back to the subject you’ll go, ‘…oooh, clever!’
Writing about the act of writing – or more specifically, to write about the field of what we commonly call ‘arts writing’ and to ponder what this might mean – is perhaps setting a thorny task for myself here.
Frankly, living artists are a bore. I prefer dead artists.
God this is tedious, my wife observed, and I had to agree – what is with Australia’s obsession with art? Everywhere you look in the media it’s art, art, art.
“Celebrities are our sun gods and we don’t really need to see them brought down to our level by ill-advised forays into art. I, for one, accept my celebrity overlords but I’d prefer them to stay where they are.”
“It was blunt but to the point: is the art world full of posers? I had to think about that for a second…”
“What do you say when you’re not a painter? Say you’re a video artist – how do you explain that to your accountant? Your mechanic?”
“In the modern fibre-optic world of today, every artist is busy professionalising their practice, building a personal brand across multiple media platforms while synergising their opportunities.”
