Reading on Art as industry and the commodification of art

Collector Artist Network © Borusan Contemporary

     By reading three articles regards to the creative industry and postmodernism society, also the concerns from academia of our current states of economy development may direct us to a doom future. I found there is a annoying nostalgia state of mind that partake in their arguments.  

    The articles of creative money by Goldsmith lecturer Angela McRobbie that express her concern of the creative industry might direct students who are involved or was involved in the creative economy might ends up being put into a situation that requires constantly marketing themselves due to their state as independent designer/ freelance workers and self-employed soho’s will eventually being dependent on contract from big cooperation, which lead to a direction that the income and working hours become unsteady, also in order to get more cases to get involved within the network that pushes these self employers feel the need to go out as much as possible and keep marketing themselves and hope for one day that will be work for big companies.  The cons were that they eventually being took advantages by the big cooperations assign trivial jobs, their works, design, time management, income resources become fragmented.  

    My tutor argued that it is impossible to keep the society working without pre-established institution, company, infrastructure.

    Later I came across the idea of Relational aesthetic by Nicolas Bourriaud, his relational theory was questioned that the existence of hospitality might actually prevent us from making precise judgements for what we are about to acclaimed for.  The notion of constantly networking blurred the boundary between work and play.  Attending openings, social gathering and gallery exhibitions in order to build up a potentially relationship, you are spending the time that you wouldn’t have to before on socializing with people. This immaterial labour being considered as recreation, and it is not being paid in tangible way. 

    Here I would like to discuss about the possibility of working with people that you are friends. In one essay ‘Who’s Driving’ by Beck Shaw, she discussed about that it is nearly impossible to have a total equal relationship between curator and artist. Talking about if the relationship between these two helps with the quality works to be produced, maybe difficult relationship is more artistically fruitful, so stay professional might actually easier for both to work together. 

     The shared feature that I saw within these articles and theories are the build up of relationship in order to distribute, connect with other people. But the building process and outcome is unreliable, there are no a set of rules can guarantee you to a certain path that you chose to walk on.  The reason that I found these arguments nostalgic is because the distrust element within these arguments of the emotion of human being and trying to make us divide the work relationship and private life apart seems very familiar to the early times. 

      I agree that it is essential to be professional about what you do for living but when most of the artists don't necessarily seeing art as a job that they only do it for living, they do it for pleasure and for fun.  It is a road that based on passion rather than compromise.  We still being given choices when we need to go to openings and talking to people that we are interested in.  It is also preferable for me to discuss opinions with friends or people who we had pre-established relationship.  Work relationship could end up become friendship and work environment is also a social space where people who are engaging a specific theme and thus creates a shared memory, so here I argued that under the circumstance that you enjoy the work you do, it is not necessarily to separate work and private life if you are passionate about it.  

     
    Even if there are pros and cons, but I think there is a very important elements that in the time that we lived in, our perception of time has altered in a speed that we don’t even realize it when we are practicing it.  

     Further more, I think relational art doesn’t necessarily only operates in certain social class or engaging with certain class, or among gallery patron, instead it could be generating another way of communicate inside of the white cube - so called neutral space - by erasing the boundary between the space and country, or geographical elements.  Based on the contacts and human connection. It might sounds bonkers in the 60s but now, it is just what we do.