An artist’s statement is sometimes referred to as a ‘statement of intent’. It can be seen as a marketing device, or simply as a means of describing practitioners’ interests. They:
- vary in terms of their length and the details they cover.
- may relate to a specific body of work or it may talk about practice more generally. probably contains information about any training (art college or other qualifications or experience relevant to their practice) and prizes, grants or awards that the artist has won, which are relevant to their practice. But is not the same thing as an artist’s CV, which lists any training, qualifications, awards, exhibitions and publications in much the same way as a conventional résumé.
- huge variety in the style and format of artists’ statements; some will sound convoluted and esoteric and others will be more down to earth.
A good artist statement will support your professional practice, for example:
- Giving brief information to support an exhibition or catalogue
- Submitting a proposal
- Applying for a grant
It should be:
- Concise
- Effective in communicating the details you wish to emphasize
- Written in the first person
- Written primarily in the present tense
It should be adaptable in order to take into account:
- Your audience
- Your purpose or motivation for writing it
It might contain information on:
What your motivation is for the work you do:
- What issues are you exploring and why?
- What concepts, themes or convictions underpin your work?
- How do your life experiences influence your work
- How does your personality influence your work?
- How have your ideas developed?
The techniques and materials you use:
- How and why did you choose them?
- What scale do you work in?
- Do you have a particular process of working?
- Do you intend to explore other techniques or materials?
Your background:
- Are you a student or a practicing artist?
- Details of your educational history if you feel it appropriate
- Have you contributed to any prestigious shows or events?
How you contextualise your work:
- Where do you feel you fit into the Contemporary Art World?
- Does your work challenge the work of others?
- Have you appropriated or referred to the work of others?
- Your goals and aspirations and to what extent you have realised them
- Personal reflections on your work
Artists statements from other photographers
Many photographers do not have artists’ statements on websites. They have a fairly straight biography, then either let the images speak for themselves, or put short text for each series of images and/or include interviews and articles where they talk about their aims and methods in some depth.
Michael Tsegaye: – has a very short and succinct artist’s statement. Then informative overviews of his different portfolios. See post: Michael Tsegaye rough notes
Nii Obodai – a biography and ‘meaning’ statement. All in the third person – I think this makes things less direct and more flowery. See post: Nii Obodai rough notes
Mathua Mateka – quite a long artists’ statement with a lot of personal information that may or may not be relevant to understanding his photography. See post: Mathua Mateka rough notes.
Emeka Okerere – another long one in third person. See post: Emeka Okerere rough notes.
Paul Shambroom : very short, in 3rd person and mostly about his achievements rather than what he is trying to do. More of a biography.
Alec Soth – example of understatement (in the knowledge that he is already famous!) Nothing about his approach or underlying aims.
Jorma Puranen’s introduction to Imaginary Homecoming cited in the coursebook is no longer at the link given. The definition of landscape:
“A landscape is speechless. Day by day, its only idiom is the sensory
experience afforded by the biological reality, the weather conditions, and the actions that take place in the environment. However, we can also assume that a landscape has another dimension: the potential but invisible field of possibilities nourished by everyday perceptions, lived experiences, different histories, narratives and fantasies. In fact, any understanding of landscape entails a succession of distinct moments and different points of view. The layeredness of landscape, in other words, forms part of our own projection. Every landscape is also a mental landscape.” (Jorma Puranen,1999, Foreword to Imaginary Homecoming, Oulu: Pohjoinen)
5.6 My Own Artist’s Statement
