Art Matters by Lynda Waterhouse

 

For the first time in my life I splurged and bought something in the Black Friday sale. It was a print by Bob and Roberta Smith (aka Patrick Brill).

Many years ago, when visiting the Deptford X Festival, in a damp railway arch I discovered the artist known as Bob and Roberta Smith. He was inviting people to ‘decommission’ their art and in return receive a certificate and a badge telling you ‘I am no longer an artist’.

I loved it! There was something deceptively simple and warm about the exhibition and my brain had been fried by a lot of super intense and impenetrable video installations which were in vogue at the time.

 The ‘I promise never to make art again’ exhibition made me smile and then it made me ask questions including the age old chestnut – what is art? Who gets to make art and who decides what is good and bad art? If you are failing as an artist (or writer) to sell any work, is it worth carrying on or should you just give up? 

Bob and Roberta Smith says, ‘Asking questions is what art is about.’

When I’m working with school groups in art galleries I often begin by asking what do they think they need to be a writer.  After we have considered pencil, paper and ideas, I share that for me the most important thing is to be ‘nosey’, curious about life and to ask questions. My two favourite questions being ‘I wonder’ and ‘What if.’ If you ask those questions then you can usually find your way to a story.

I also encourage ‘slow looking’ at art; an almost meditative process of paying attention and noticing. We are bombarded by so many images that we are in danger of not really taking the time to look around us. The pressure of the number of images, particularly on Smartphones or social media platforms can become stressful.

The government is starting to consider that art matters and is currently reviewing the curriculum, and the importance of visual literacy is being recognised with such initiatives as The Superpower of Looking (ArtUK-superpower-of-looking). There are studies about the impact of looking at an art work in a gallery on brain function (Guardian-real-art-in-museums-stimulates-brain-much-more-than-reprints). The importance of visual literacy is being discussed (Visual-literacy-research-initiative).

ART MATTERS!