Behind the Image Demystifying the Artist Statement

“Uh, what does that mean, exactly??”
“Where do you think they got the idea for that??!!”

You’ll often hear people whispering in museums, galleries or other exhibition spaces as they glance back and forth between a piece of artwork and the written statements that accompany that work. You can often tell – just by the speed and tone of the barely-contained whispers – whether or not an artist or curator has succeeded in providing a reasonable, clearly explained description of what is on display in the room. Too often, these statements sound like they were cranked out using some sort of human or digital “app” in which the artist might provide one or two nouns to honestly label her or his work, and then this is mixed together with a standard set of art clichés to spit out a statement that might include words or phrases like: “examining and re-purposing the mundane to make what is old, new;” “deconstructing the landscape of the subconscious;” or “focusing on the temporal relationship between time and space” and the ever-popular “hidden in plain sight.”

Full disclosure: even I, a person who tends to get worked up and indignant over the pretentious and impersonal tone of many artist statements, allowed a past intern to include the phrase “hidden in plain sight” in a statement we co-wrote, and I submitted, for exhibition along with a series of photos I shot around Brooklyn a few years ago. I hadn’t yet wrapped my head around the fact that it’s better to be honest and speak in my own words when describing why I choose to focus on certain things in my photography than it is to try to “sound like an artist” and write statements that come across like I’m trying to impress the board of MOMA. The thing is, it can be incredibly hard to find the right words to describe my own artwork – both because I often go out and shoot with no particular idea or purpose in mind, but also because I am afraid of revealing what the resulting work might say about who I am, or what I am drawn to. Putting your work out there to be consumed and “Liked” by the public may be as easy and thoughtless as breathing for members of the Instagram generation, but for a Generation Xer like me, the fear of being judged and not liked can often prevent me from being transparent about where my ideas or inclinations come from.

So in an effort to turn away from providing vague and over-intellectualized descriptions of what you might see in a photo of mine, I will choose one image a month and give a little background on how it came about, what drew me to photograph that particular moment, and what other things I see in the image. And then the beauty in that is – of course – art is so subjective, that you all, as viewers, might see and feel something completely different than what I did when I made it. That’s what keeps life – and human connection – interesting!

Please click on the next entry titled "Behind the Image - January 2013" to get the full scoop on this month's featured image, Bowl More.