Task 3: Reference List
Grayson Perry’s BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures series titled ‘Playing to the Gallery’ (2013)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sj965
This series of lectures really helped me build up a context that would inform and inspire the foundation of a lot of my work. Before listening to these I knew little about all the complexities behind fine art and wasn’t introduced to a lot of the arguments that are for and against various points in art and how they intersect with social issues.
I also related a lot to Perry’s approach to work for a lot of reasons but including the fact he doesn’t hesitate to brand himself a ‘transvestite’ or ‘cross dresser’ and often presents his work through his alter ego ‘Claire’, as someone who also does this (With my approach having its roots in the drag scene more than anything else) I was interested and inspired by this combination of an alter ego and the work made. It helped me think further about the internal issues I was having trouble with which was an inability to combine what I liked to do as a hobby with the work I would produce academically/’professionally’ even though it was suggested to me to combine the two.
These lectures got me thinking a lot, and unfortunately that’s most of what I did. I would think of work, think of concepts and reasons and meaning behind this work, I would consider all of those and then think of them further and then consider why I was thinking about any of them and if they needed to be thought about at all. He was definitely right when he made the point that ‘the artist’ is incredibly self conscious which in my case resulted in a disengaging standstill. Though I felt better informed for it, and when I would produce work it would have a lot of thought and research behind it and I think I have this series of lectures to thank for putting me in the right frame of mind to be able to do that.
Terri Trespicio’s ‘Stop searching for your passion’ Tedx Talk (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MBaFL7sCb8
This talk is what I feel helped me start thinking about the idea of ‘passion’ and start to think critically about my lack of engagement with my course and work, but also realize that it was normal and not to worry about it but rather do something about it. There was what I was doing ‘professionally’/academically, which was producing work that came from a place of commentary on social injustices and in a fine art style, hoping to go into the field of contemporary art or illustration. Though personally as a hobby and for my own leisure I found I was less interested in fine art and more interested in illustrative drawing, fashion and makeup; which I practice through drag. I always kept the two separate and basically this lack of engagement in my course started to hinder me. This talk made me reevaluate exactly what it was I was ‘passionate’ about and reconsider my priorities. In deciding on a course I want to do and realize how essential it is to pass this year I feel this gave me new motivation to do well as well as a better sense of honestly with what I’d make which will translate into more natural work rather than me struggling to engage and therefore come up with an idea.