Because of the way the art world has developed, anything
that could possibly be hung on a domestic wall has come to be considered, at
best, middlebrow. Ambitious young artists can be observed doing everything to
avoid this description. Their work is very large, conceptual, in video or in
other forms that preclude the pin and hook or picture rail display. Their work
can be very expensive, suggesting that they hope to be bought by a public
gallery or a rich collector. In this they are likely to be disappointed. Both
the galleries and the seriously affluent are autograph collectors. Somehow the
artist has to achieve sufficient publicity first to justify the signature.
I had these thoughts when viewing a work in Edinburgh
Printmakers winter exhibition, No Fixed Abode. The show is the result of
collaboration between the artists and the Big Issue editor and sellers. The
work in question is Mark Doyle’s piece consisting of four hot water bottles
cast in concrete. To my mind this is by far the best exhibit. It is entitled
Home is where the Hot Water is, and certainly makes you think of the miseries
of homelessness when you are having your routine hot shower each morning, and
even if you are skimping on the central heating, you can look forward to a warm
bed. The exhibition on the whole is rather thin and it must have pleased the
organisers to have one exhibit which so neatly and ingeniously encapsulates the
theme.
The work is modestly priced at £250, but with its wit and
form it keeps on the right side of the dreaded middlebrow, bourgeois division.
While not technically a print, it is a multiple and if Doyle sold out his
edition of ten, after he had paid commission and VAT, he might be able to live
for a month on the proceeds without involving the filthy- rich, bonus-bloated
bankers and the like, who young artists tending to be on the left are apt to
dislike. But he is probably unlikely to do so because of the domestic hanging
problem, not insoluble for this work but which would require some work on the
average plaster or plasterboard wall.
Faced with this situation what can young artists do?
Traditional printmaking techniques could be one solution. Depending on content,
prints might more easily escape the middlebrow grading than paintings. Doyle,
for instance could create a screen-printed version of his work uniting the
images with the title, which gives the concept its full impact and run off a
large edition. There would be no loss of integrity in doing so. A very good
precedent was set by that iconic modernist Marcel Duchamp who made small, more
manageable versions of his major works, The Fountain, Large Glass et al, to fit
into a box. He made a small number to start with but stated that he was willing
to produce more if there was a demand.
Alternatively, young artists could shun any compromise with
the domestic wall and go on producing works of wit and inventiveness while
drastically increasing prices and size. They might be able to create the sort
of publicity that will lead eventually to public galleries buying their work
and things might snowball. They will not, most likely, be able to store all the
lead up work but need not worry. No doubt some enterprising dealer will spot an
opportunity to recreate multiples of destroyed pieces, just as happed with
Duchamp’s urinal, which the artist tossed out. Or does history ever quite
repeat itself?
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