Artists Emerge from the Pandemic

Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] Isotta: I started this Art Is… a podcast fr artists almost one year after the cancellation of my degree show the final exhibition of the art school experience. The most important moment of any art degree. This was of course, one of thousands of exhibitions across the world, which was canceled due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

[00:00:20] Isotta: But now one year later, I actually am getting to exhibit my work in a physical show alongside my peers. This isn't at the Edinburgh college of art where we expected, but instead at a gallery in London, which took it upon themselves to showcase the work of graduates from the classes of 20, 20 and 2021 from four universities across the UK.

[00:00:41] Isotta: To celebrate this opportunity. I spoke with four exhibiting artists about their work, how they coped with a degree show cancellation and their thoughts on the future of the art world. Oh, and if you and any of your friends are in London between the third and the 7th of June book a slot online and visit the exhibition entitled final, not over again at the unit one gallery workshop on Bard road, near Notting hill in London.

[00:01:07] Isotta: The first person you'll hear from is louis lyle a painter based in manchester

we didn't know what was going on in the world. Nevermind our education, you know, it was a global pandemic and. like, you know, this is quite an extreme time that we'll live in it. Like would probably not see anything like this again, in our lifetimes.

[00:01:35] Isotta: And here's Michelle Wolodarsky. I'm a mixed media artist based in London.

[00:01:40] Michelle:

[00:01:40] Michelle: everything's worth it the final bit of fifth year when you actually get to just make art and you realize why you did this long degree and everything.

[00:01:50] Michelle: So I was feeling super excited about that. And then when the whole pandemic kid at first, like I honestly, I just couldn't believe. I just thought it was going to be genuinely two weeks. I was like in such denial, I didn't think. And even. After I'd had been two weeks, I still didn't think our degree show was going to be canceled.

[00:02:07] Isotta: Welcome to the first episode of art is season two. This is a podcast for artists visualizing the future of the art world. In this season. We'll revisit the themes, stories, innovations, and ideas introduced in season one. Today we go back to the beginning to the catalyst that led me on this path, graduating from art school, into the pandemic.

[00:02:33] Isotta: If you aren't sure what I'm talking about. I recommend going back to season one, episode, one titled from here to there to get a little bit of context, but before we go into exploring innovation and tech alternative business models and ways of thinking that could change the landscape of contemporary art as we will do in the rest of the season, it was important to me to bring in the voices of other emerging artists.

[00:02:56] Isotta: So today you'll hear a patchwork of stories and perspectives from the past year, high points and low points, silver linings and tough realizations. Here's Molly Kent, a textile artist based in Edinburgh.

[00:03:11] Molly: I mean, it was obviously I let down, so pretty much everybody, the fact that we had spent five years getting to this point and it's meant to be the. It's meant to be the last party, essentially five years of work or coming together. And you think, right. I get to exhibit with everybody that I've spent all these years and things like that, and it's massive celebration.

[00:03:29] Molly: And that was just kind of whisked away. I think for a couple of weeks I had this kind of mental state of, well, what's the point, like if we're not actually getting in this physical show, which. They ramp up all for outlet degree, as well as this fact of like everyone says the degree shows the most important part.

[00:03:44] Molly: That's what you're going to make. The connections, you get a network, you'll get sales, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, right, that's gone. What are we meant to do now? Like you, you make it sound as if that's what career's over with. Cause we weren't able to have this physical show.

[00:03:58] Isotta: Here's Sofia Hallström a painter and interdisciplinary artist based in London

[00:04:05] Sofia: It was quite a traumatic cue in, in terms of, just figuring out, just trying to find your feet again and then to finish off our degrees at home.

[00:04:14] Sofia: think it's going to take a long time for me to actually realize what kind of feelings, like, I'm unsure about how, how I feel about everything.

[00:04:22] Isotta: A common thread was the feeling of loneliness. Here's Michelle, over counting her last experience in the studios.

[00:04:29] Michelle: I remember going on to pick up my stuff or like some stuff for the last,the last day that ECA was open. And I just remember, like, I'm not overdramatizing, but literally like kneeling on my studio floor and like actually breaking down and crying, complete desperation of what is happening.

[00:04:50] Michelle: Um, it was, I was just distraught. Like I can assume everyone else goes as well. It was just, just honestly the worst. I like the worst thing, like trauma, I feel.

[00:05:03] Michelle: you said before, how you felt so isolated after graduating, and I guess that's one thing about art school. That is the only thing that I think is good is that you actually get to spend lots of time with other people in your exact same artistic situation and yeah, graduating, nobody actually prepares you for how tough it is, pandemic or not.

[00:05:25] Isotta: And Molly explaining how she got back to work.

[00:05:29] Molly: It really kind of knocked out you for a while, but. After about a week of, you know, a couple of breakdowns, some tears along the way. Oh, sorry. Right. I have to finish this degree again. It's been five years. I might as well at least try and get it fast or something like that. So thankfully I had this room to work in, so at least I had a space that was very thankful for.

[00:05:50] Molly: So just kind of trying to pull myself back into gear and finished off the degree.

[00:05:55] Isotta: something I really enjoy talking to these artists about was the unexpected experiences they had during lockdown projects. They found themselves working on realizations. They've had about art school.

[00:06:07] Isotta: And how they see themselves fitting into the wider art world system

[00:06:11] Sofia: I think looking back now, I think that, uh, uh, education was very, it was kind of quite pure in the sense that we, we never really, we were never taught that we were going to make money from our artwork. You know, it was, it was more kind of, we were learning how to talk about our art or, and write about our artwork and, it wasn't anything kind of.

[00:06:35] Sofia: Real world stuff. So I think what really first not frustrates me, but I think what I've really realized in the art world is that there isn't so much kind of space for being, experiment really with your ideas or maybe that's that's, that's how I feel.

[00:06:51] Louis_Lisle: I think the artists that I really admire and, are really successful, There's a stylistic continuity with, uh, with their works, which I think is awesome, but it's just not the way that I, I work , my practice isn't so consistent. So I think that's, that's what kind of like is frustrating, but something that I realized that there isn't much. Space or in the art world. think. I think the funny thing is like, if you asked me at the start of my final academic year, would you be involved in making a grassroot selective? I probably would have just said no, like I'd never think I would, would have thought I would have had the opportunity to do that, or like been able to do that.

[00:07:37] Isotta: here, Louie is talking about all T the alternative online degree show that was made by a group of Edinburgh college of art students in the summer of 2020

[00:07:46] Isotta: Michelle and Molly were also on the team that organized alt-D and Sofia and I exhibited our artwork on the platform as well.

[00:07:54] Louis_Lisle: it was, it was a real roller coaster ride. It was, it was mad. Uh, it all transpired because, we felt. Collectively is like ECA didn't really represent us properly or to the best of what they could have done on the online platform. Um, the website, which they created wasn't user friendly at all, it was, um, people's information was missing and, you know, we were, we were really upset, you know, and they had enough time to unresolved Israeli to kind of create something really special, but it didn't feel that way. So it kind of a group of us got together. across the school of arts or design and school of architecture kind of got together to create our own platform within six weeks. I think we built a website which had about a hundred people on there, But Yeah, we got like a big Instagram account go in. We had like a really nice opening event and like, we got so much support from like our peers boss or from people outside of like our university. For example, like the angle of the gallery were very supportive. Creative Edinburgh were amazing with us and the sea as well. And street work photography in Glasgow. They were supportive as well. So these kind of bigger institutions, which are established that they always wants to have and like they, they were willing to help us well.

And then we, we got in contact with, Damballa gallery, which is employee, which is on the borders and stuff then having, they really want you to do like a collaboration between us and that gallery space that we created a poster exhibition, And then we created an accompany Xen to that. And then at the start of September, uh, Jack's art, which own billboards in multiple cities across the country. So all the big cities, um, they got in contact with us And we had these enormous billboards in Edinburgh, which was all our work on a net. It was just, it was just brilliant to say, and we would support it so well by everybody else in the art world as well. It was just really amazing that I was there. And then when we did it, we didn't, we didn't really kind of. On the sunlight, how well we were doing at the time. But now looking back, we did so much, and like we achieved so much and like thought to tight space of time with quite a limited budget as well.

[00:10:18] Louis_Lisle: So it kind of gave us a bit of hope because we didn't think we'd get half as much support as what we would have got. Um, But I suppose when you're, you know, going for like the bigger, more national institutions that are, you know, heavily reliant on government and private funding might get a little bit more complicated there, but that just comes with the scale of projects, I think.

[00:10:44]Louis_Lisle: Like there is like a hierarchy of how, uh, it's kind of presented to the world. And, you know, I think we, we were all kind of collectively agreeing that like there isn't enough opportunity for emerging artists sometimes to kind of show case together. You know, it's, it's usually when the artist is. Become more successful.

[00:11:04] Louis_Lisle: So, you know, maybe like five, six, seven years after graduation, the work's exposed. I mean, but that's kind of a different conversation in itself, but I think it's still really important to create these opportunities to the public, rather than it just be necessarily enclosed in a university format. And I think collaboration between maybe. More established artistic groups and these smaller emerging grassroots projects are the future of creating sustainable work and opportunities for young creatives. you know, We don't kind of see ourselves as like young professionals sometimes, but like when you wait, what all the taught me was like, you can pursue a very strong profession in the creative industry, you know, without it being what you think is.

[00:11:56] Isotta: Something that came up and season one was the role of Instagram. Emerging artists everywhere Are using it to showcase their art, expand their network and make new connections,

[00:12:06] Isotta: Molly and Michelle share their experience and opinions as both a positive force, creating opportunity during the lockdowns and as a negative force, fostering a competitive and sometimes destructive mindset.

[00:12:18] Molly: Well, my work is handmade.

[00:12:20] Molly: It's very material focused, process of work. So it can't really that be easily represented in the online space. You lose a lot of the texture you're meant to be able to physically interact with the work. So there is a kind of loss of, um, reading and attention behind the book with it being totally online.

[00:12:36] Molly: So in that aspect, I'm quite excited for things to be physical again, but it's also, it sounds maybe kind of bad. It's nice to be able to hide behind a phone. Especially when you make, in my case, making book about mental health, it's quite a scary conversation to kind of out yourself to, in my case, like thousands of people on Instagram and be like, oh, I have this mental health condition that could be sometimes miss understood and people think can see it's quite a scary thing, quite a scary diagnosis.

[00:13:04] Molly: So most of the time it's been nice. Just being able to turn the phone off and be distanced from it. Whereas in a physical opening, actually having to discuss your own mental health and the problems that you've experienced that have influenced your work. Having to do that at like an art opening. I don't know how that's going to go.

[00:13:22] Molly: That's quite intimidating to me. Like my, well, it's all about being vulnerable, but I've been able to be vulnerable in a pretty bound, like a knife boundary kind of way. I've been able to kind of box off that vulnerability and it just be on this online space. I can easily step away from when it gets too much, but.

[00:13:39] Molly: And an online opening or, or like in-person meetings with people. It's a very different kind of conversation to have. So a bit of both glad that it's online, I'm looking forward to my work. Being able to be physically experienced by people again. But yeah, there's different nuances that come into it. So it's a bit of a, it's a bit of a weird one.

I mean, it's so great, um, that there is a replacement in a way too, when there wasn't anything, but for me, like the main thing is social media and how horrible that is. I had to, for the majority of the pandemic go Offline, um, in that sense because, it's, I mean, it's so bizarre how people think that they can.

[00:14:18] Michelle: make change.

[00:14:18] Michelle: So, so social media, in my opinion, because, especially in an artistic way, because it's ultimately like a Capitol Telus platform needs to sell you things. And this kind of like mentality of individualism, which I think is so detrimental to actually making. Art practice, which is meaningful for the artists.

I feel like Instagram has specifically is so bad for artists because it makes you like be a brand you're selling yourself almost like every single moment you see people like making work for the sake of posting it on Instagram and that's so.

[00:14:58] Michelle: Not meaningful. And, and by the nature of Instagram, it's, it makes it content to throw away to be consumed and then thrown away, which is the whole capitalist idea of culture exists to be consumed, not to be like preserved or, um, like embodied or I don't, I don't know how to describe it.

[00:15:18] Michelle: Um, and so it seems so kind of counter-intuitive to. Use social media as a tool. Obviously we had, we had nothing else, but, I think it's so bizarre and on a personal level as well. Like people feel like they need to post about achievements all the time. And I just, that for me, that's the, was the nail in the coffin in a year where I felt like it wasn't achieving anything.

[00:15:44] Michelle: Constantly. And I was comparing myself against other people all the time who were like, I'm doing this and doing that. And I'm, well, I'm doing nothing and I can't do anything. So I just, I'm not going to look because it's making me so depressed.

[00:15:59] Michelle: And so we are social, we exist in social networks, like real life, um, networks. And so if you don't have people validating your existence, Of like what you do and who you are, then you don't feel like you exist in a way. So it makes so much sense to when you're lost, not make anything, but nobody tells you that it's a natural thing.

[00:16:21] Michelle: And then you beat yourself up about it. And I also, haven't been making like anything, this, having the show, you know, was really great for that reason because it's like, oh, like people are going to see my work so I can make some thing. And so, yeah. And, and like from taking that big break, I think I've made something way better than I could have if I was just continually churning out a content, if you want to call it like that,

I think painting for me is quite a meditative process. I think it's at that Right? And you, you know, you can change things that, well, you can stick to a plan I work in oil paints, but I'm an only, so the drying process, because it's so long, it gives me so much time to add and remove layers if I choose to,

[00:17:10] Louis_Lisle: Um, But I think it is. I just find it really kind of satisfying for me personally. And then something that we picked up in the residents was like, I love like the start and the middle of the painting. I I'm always very, like, I'm just at the end of the painting because I do?

[00:17:27] Louis_Lisle: have that typical kind of painterly mind of being like, oh, is it finished?

[00:17:30] Louis_Lisle: So that's why I love painting. Cause I can just change my mind all the time. There's nothing sad.

[00:17:37] Molly: I think the lovely thing about everything it being moved online. So it became far more accessible for a lot of people. It's a lot easier for people to find your work and things like that, and be able to engage with it. so like the main one that I'm referencing too, is that I'm now involved with a gallery called new cube, which was founded by. On a potential to get the same name wrong, but ed savvier she randomly came across my work for the artist support, pleasure and Instagram. So I finished university. I made some small kind of quite palatable pieces that I put up for sale. She bought the first one and then a few months later she invited me to be one of the artists on her roster . So there's this kind of, this. Snowball effect of one little opportunity on Instagram, be it a little interview or just networking with someone can actually turn into like a big career moment and things like that.

[00:18:25] Molly: So those, those are the kind of opportunities that I'm referring to. And without the likes of Instagram and things like that, I wouldn't have been exhibiting anywhere near as much as I have done. And I probably wouldn't be at the kind of position I am to be mostly a full-time freelance artist.

[00:18:40] Isotta: Authenticity is something that came up a lot in these conversations. The rationale for your actions, both in the studio and out online and offline , but the performativity of Instagram and social media

[00:18:51] Isotta: makes it really hard to separate reality from illusion.

it was a learning progress. I think a lot of people kind of had this quiet. I have a lot of jealousy towards one another, even if they didn't want to, because we couldn't see all another, we couldn't communicate in a same kind of way so we can understand how they be getting certain opportunities and whatnot.

[00:19:07] Molly: So I think it was very easy to feel jealousy towards people and think, oh my career, isn't progressing the same kind of rate. Am I doing something wrong? What should I be doing differently and whatnot. And in terms of the authenticity, I definitely, as soon as I finished uni, I made walks, which I knew would sell.

[00:19:23] Molly: I want authentic to my practice. So I made a series called viral forms, which were just kind of small-scale abstract work symbols. They looked somewhat knife. Um, I still enjoy making them, they're not ready to do my practice. I just knew that it was mostly a guaranteed income and I've kind of reevaluate in the past six months or so and realized that actually, if I continue doing that style of work, I'm going to sell myself short.

[00:19:48] Molly: And I'm probably going to hinder my actual career growth as an artist, rather than like a kind of almost interior decorator kind of thing. So I stopped making those smaller works and I've been focusing more so on actual, quite deeply personal works and things like that. And at that point, Being asked, posted on Instagram at four outs, the walls and seeing people's reception be positive and negative is quite a nice way of dealing with it.

[00:20:13] Molly: I think if I'd immediately gone into physical exhibitions with dream reading series, I wouldn't have been confident enough to actually go for exhibitions.

but just being able to throw out and Instagram. Leave it for a few hours come back and look at the comments has been quite nice. like I was going to too much effort to try and stay stuff. Instagram. And I kind of stopped trying to do that and just posting what I feel like it, trying to forget about the engagement side of Instagram, and just kind of make it work for me rather than working for it. And over the past year, I've actually learned how to be more authentic to my practice and stop worrying about how we present a line and things like that.

[00:20:49] Isotta: I think that I'm, I'm seeing change in the art world for the better. I think social media has really driven that changed and, and being really helpful. And I think there, there are some artists really driving that change, who I really admire. Sophia, I actually found the unit one gallery workshop exhibition opportunity as an Instagram open call.

[00:21:12] Sofia: I think that a lot of like institutions, for instance, this exhibition that where we're going to be featuring in, it's kind of the only gallery in London.

[00:21:21] Sofia: That's had an open call for, um, students who lost degree shows to have a physical show. Um, and it's so surprising to me that, you know, there's so many spaces, so many large galleries out there who can I have the means to help young emerging artists? and it's like disappointing in the way that they, that maybe that's not at the forefront of their priorities.

It's a bit of a bummer that there's like, there's so much support. It doesn't feel like there's so much support in that way. and I think Goldsmiths, um, as well, we're able to put on physical degree shows. I mean, it shows that, you know, if institutions want to, they can. Help and like facilitate things, but, uh, yeah, that just, that feels difficult.

[00:22:11] Molly: The fact that being an artist isn't actually that glamorous, it's not as glamorous as you probably think it is. It isn't just freedom to paint or weave or other every day, every hour of the day that we went to, it's actually a lot of sitting down and trying to get our ducks in a row and figuring out like, right, how can I actually try and advance that career?

[00:22:30] Molly: Like doing your taxes and things like that. The things that like ECA never told us about, they never told us about the practicality thing at artists. They just had this kind of quite romanticized idea of, oh, you're just going to sit in a studio all day. You're gonna make work. It's going to be great.

[00:22:46] Molly: That's all you want to do. And it's like, you can't realistically do that. You can't do that until you've had a career for 20 years and you got a gallery sat behind you. Who's actually doing all your admin and things like that for you. So I think more institutions need to be honest with students about the fact that you're not going to leave university and instantly be able to just create for every hour of the day, because it's just not the reality.

[00:23:09] Isotta: Thank you for listening to the first episode of art is seasoned to a special episode featuring.

[00:23:17] Louis_Lisle: I'm Louie Lisle. I graduated ETA last year as part of the class of 2020.

[00:23:24] Michelle: so my name is Michelle and I am a. I guess you could say artists, it's like, we still struggling to say that I'm an artist. Um, yeah, I'm an artist and I work with video and yeah, filmmaking and. Way back in the day. I actually all at school, I used to make installations,

[00:23:46] Sofia: my name's Sophia is your house June. I graduated last year from the ma finite course, from any of the college. I, um, Predominantly a painter, but also work with, um, sculpture and film that kind of feed into my practice.

[00:24:02] Molly: um, so I'm Molly and I am a textile artist based in Edinburgh. Um, the main mediums in which I work are rug tufting and weaving.

[00:24:10] Isotta: thank you to all the participating artists and thank you to the unit one gallery workshop for this incredible opportunity. And for bringing us together again, Checkout the final, not over again. Exhibition happening at the unit one gallery and workshop in London and register online for your slot.

[00:24:29] Isotta: If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Also, remember to subscribe to art is a podcast for artists now so that you get our next episode in your feed out on June 9th.

before you go, I wanted to mention the artist bookshop created through bookshop.org, an online platform built to financially support local independent bookstores.

[00:24:50] Isotta: It's important to me that this podcast is a resource for you. So I've carefully curated a selection of books for your continued professional and personal development. You can find links to both us and UK bookshops in the episode description and on the artist's Instagram and Twitter at art as podcast by purchasing books through these links, you'll be supporting independent bookstores and this podcast.

[00:25:12] Isotta: Thanks and see you soon.