All that trash - artist's statements

Just been reading Rant 66: Words Fail by Rosemary Hogarth on Axisweb which is bemoaning the rubbish that artists write about their work.  I kept a guilty silence, because actually I love writing about my work, and I often feel that I think it through, and even shape it, by writing down what I think it's about. Also, when I see other people's artwork, I quite like to know what the artist thinks about it - and their statment is one way to find out. I'm not one of those who feels that art is about what the viewer thinks its about, though that is important. I like my views about an artist's work to mingle with theirs. But I have to admit there is an awful lot of utter rubbish written in the name of the artist's statement.  I've been feeling for a long time that the bit in mine about Alice in Wonderland is tired. It seemed like a good idea six years ago, but now you come across old Alice and her wonderland every other artists' statement it seems.  I'm not brave enough to say thing where I should say it - on the Rant itself - but I did feel that I had to put something down here!



Anyway, see this great video by Charlotte Young about the artist's statement


















Jump to Victoria Scholes' website to see fine examples of how not to do it.