In his Frieze article 'Life Work', writer Jan Verwoert discusses the distinction (or lack of) between life and work in creative fields such as art. Verwoert recalls that Theodor Adorno wrote that 'the freedom of the artist and intellectual, lies in the possibility of not having to separate work from pleasure as all those caught up in the system of division of labour do'*. This is somewhat in contrast with Elizabeth Currid's description of the art world in 'The Economics of a Good Party', most simply because her economic analysis of the art world by nature seems to make it about all of the labour involved in creative practice. That is, the social nature of it makes even socialising work, if we are to 'access the gatekeepers' (390-391). However, this also shows the similarities to Adorno's suggestion that the lack of distinction between life and work brings artists freedom, for pretty much the same reason - the close relationship between the social dynamics and economics for artists blurs the lines between life/work.Another issue this raises is that if there isn't much of a distinction between life and work, then is there also not really a difference between friends and colleagues. Currid touches on this only briefly (specifically anyway) - that artists at openings 'talk (casually, of course) about their own work and establish personal relationships that may further their career in the future' (391). Verwoert suggests there should have to be some kind of way to recognise the difference because of the potential awkwardness or difficulty 'when everyone around you is professionally friendly'. Currid observes that there is another potential lack of distinction worth looking at - the 'cross-fertilization' amoung art/culture industries - for example, fashion designers' promotion of bands when they choose to play for their fashion shows (391). While this cross-fertilization broadens the context we're looking at, combined with the friend/colleague blur it potentially makes the group of 'gatekeepers' and 'cultural intermediaries' even smaller!
* Off topic here, but Verowert goes on to talk about how Conceptual art originallly was really in spirit of this idea - simple gestures didn't take up too much time, so left you time to hang out with friends or make a living - it was 'part of an experiment with finding ways in art to live a good life'.
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Works cited:
Currid, Elizabeth. "The Economics of a Good Party: Social Mechanisms and the Legitimization of Art/Culture". Journal of Economics and Finance. Vol. 3, no. 2, Fall 2007. pp. 386-394.
Verwoert, Jan. "Life Work". Frieze Magazine. Issue 121, March 2009. pp.120-125.
Hi, I think you've raised a really interesting question; whether as an practicing artist, our lives are definable either as all work, or all 'play'... It also follows that, through the routine of all the 'social' gatherings and public events we 'need' to attend for networking etc purposes, whether we become a hyperreal persona of our work, or whether we are truly ourselves!
ReplyDeleteAs a practicing artist, anything can feed/fuel creative process and progress. Well I guess that might be not be the case for all artists. Do we switch off though? Wouldn't that require disengaging from practice? I'm unconvinced that wouldn't cripple productivity. I would have to side with the idea that there is very little distinction between life and creative work. I wonder if there would be more of a distinction under a (hypothetical) system where the artists didn't rely so heavily on networking and socializing to achieve career progression.
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