What I am doing now.

Yesterday in my Current Art Practice class, we had to do 10-minute presentations on an artist that has influenced us and also present our work.

This semester has been crazy emotional, especially in regards to what I want to do with my work. Doing this presentation really helped me realize how much I have done and solidified this semester and I was so very excited to present my findings about my own work.

I presented on Amy Francheschini, the founder of artist collective FutureFarmers. They make art that creates dialogue about community and agriculture. She doesn't do a lot of work on her own, she mostly collaborates through Futurefarmers with others. She employs a lot of what is called social aesthetics, which are described by the University of Copenhagen as moving away from notions of individual creation or the single artist, to concentrate on participatory and shared creativity. Social aesthetics first of all addresses the social forms in which we work: project work and collaborative work, work in teams and with groups, co-research, co-activity, collaboration and participation.  

This excites me so much, this democratic view of art of involving non-art people in art. For example, one piece Futurefarmers did was Shoelace Exchange (the picture above). One hundred and fifty shoe laces were hand-dyed, using dye made from local "weeds". Then, the shoelaces were encased in interviews conducted with local shoe repair merchants or makers as well as a description of the plant used to dye the lace. It is not about her as an artist or the worth of the end result, it is about collective learning and experience. 


I don't want to make more stuff, I want to do things that somehow contribute to my community. So why am I making 500 paintings then? Isn't that more stuff? Amy Franceschini once discussed the role of aesthetic in her work, "Aesthetics are really important. That’s what people respond to, it lures people in, it lures in people who maybe wouldn’t have looked at it in the first place, and if they only get to that surface level, fine. At least they got there." Today in class, we were talking about collaboration, how in order to collaborate, you need to have something to offer the project. In my 500 paintings, I am working to develop a formal aesthetic that is part of my artistic voice. I want things to be beautiful and I want to have something to say.