A reader commented on my last post regarding the dismayed and hostile reaction a viewer had in response to my work currently showing in Charlottesville. The comment read as follows:
Congratulations, I think it is great that your work challenged people and evoked such a strong reaction form [sic] someone that they actually went to talk about it with the gallery owner. That is success even if she didn’t like or understand the work. Most art doesn’t even hold the attention of someone for more than a couple of seconds, for some one to spend that much time looking and talking about it is amazing.
I had posted a similar version of the same story to my Facebook page and received similar responses. While I appreciate the sentiment behind the comment, I can’t help but totally disagree with it. After some thought, it seemed like a good subject to write about.
Personally I took absolutely no satisfaction from this woman’s reaction to my work. She was bull-headed, unreasonable and arrogant. Further, she showed absolutely no class or tact in being so vocal about her feelings on the work. By approaching the gallery owner for explanation, I don’t feel that she truly wanted to understand the work. Instead, I can imagine her inner dialog as such, “See… even the gallery owner can’t explain the work and give it significance. I knew it!”
I admit that I could be completely wrong about her though. Maybe she did truly want to understand the piece. If so, while she could have approached the situation better, I give her credit for inquisitiveness.
The main reason I wanted to write about this is to deal with the idea that because the viewer was upset and had a strong negative reaction, and therefore spent some time with the work, that this somehow equates “success.” This would certainly be the case if my goal or intent as an artist is to provoke such a reaction. But it’s not my goal. My intent is to create a beautiful object that makes a viewer see in a new way, appreciate the subtleties in the work and prompts an engagement with the viewer that rewards them for looking. None of these were accomplished in the experience with the upset woman. As such, that particular interaction was a complete failure. Her reaction was not an indication of the quality or success of the piece. Instead, I think it reflects the viewer’s inability to get out of their comfort zone and consider things that aren’t easy for them.
I think it’s far too easy to prompt such a reaction by viewers. Some shock artists do it very well. If it was my goal as an artist to just get a response, I think it would be very easy to do so, and I certainly wouldn’t go to so much trouble creating the work I do.
So what type of response is ideal? Well, of course there’s the response of true interest, discovery and appreciation. But a few steps below that is a response I witnessed a few times at this opening. The viewer enters the gallery and is immediately drawn to the colorful landscape paintings. They walk across the room approaching my plywood pieces. They don’t really see them, too distracted by the pretty paintings. They get just past my work, stop, and look back. Perhaps the glimmer from clear coat caught their eye. Perhaps they saw a flash of a reflection in the surface. They double back and approach the piece. They lean down to look up the surface. They walk from side to side and approach the very edge of the piece. They call out to their friend and point out one of the clear hills painted on the surface that they hadn’t seen at first. They talk for a minute and then move on.
See, I have no idea what they actually thought about the piece. For all I know, they could have hated it. But that specific experience was a success. The piece caught the viewer’s eye and the viewer was willing to give it time. The viewer interacted with it and something was shared between the work and the viewer. In that interaction, I’ve done all that I can as an artist and the viewer did all that they could do. I will never know if they liked the piece or not, but at least they were able to reach the point where that informed judgment could be made.
Ultimately, I couldn’t care less that the upset woman was somehow impacted by work. The only value that she added in the gallery that night was my amusement watching and listening to her.
I’m reminded of a saying… how does it go?
Better to be thought a fool than to remove all doubt.
Yeah, I think that’s it.
Still just don’t see how someone would be so upset by your work. It isn’t offensive. It isn’t controversial. And, I would *expect* that someone at an art gallery would be willing to open their mind and appreciate each piece of art though perhaps not loving each piece enough to want it in their own home… I think the “performance art” can be a little upsetting — thinking back to the one show you all told me about. But your pieces are beautiful and interesting and not “upsetting” at all. Ahs she’s clearly a wacko.
When I read that comment, J.T., my reaction was identical to yours: Pissing someone off is not success. Even if that were the goal, it’s still not success. It’s a dumb art world that measures quality by the volume of the reaction, not the reaction itself.
Your response to the comment is perfect. I love it that you had a counterexample, too.
Perhaps “congratulations” and “success” are the wrong words but I completely disagree with your complete disagreement with the perspective I have proposed. I think it is a good thing that some one was challenged enough by a work of art to become emotional and talk about it for a considerable time. She’ll probably continue to think about it for days after the opening. You have created a work of art that has forced someone to think, or at least become emotional and argue. Everyone is in a different place, some people have the background to easily adjust and understand your work, others have a much longer way to go. I believe art can do good in the world and challenging people to think in new and different ways is one of them. If everybody understood your work immediately your work would be less relevant, less useful. The fact that there are people so stuck in there thinking that it upsets them shows that your art has value far beyond your intent. I don’t think your intent is relevant. In fact, if you created art to upset people and shake them up, it would be less honest.
Maybe the woman will never understand your work but maybe, sometime in the future, she’ll see something else that challenges her thinking and she’ll think more about it. Or maybe, she’ll hear something on the radio that she disagrees with and, instead of immediately dismissing it, she’ll consider the possibility that she was wrong. Success isn’t the right word but it is a start.
As cheesey as it sounds, I think it’s as simple as be true to yourself and do what you do, regardless what it is, and let the chips fall where they do. You would get a harsher response by faking it to fit into other people’s expectations or what’s popular.
Rob – Perhaps we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I’m just not interested in this woman’s perception of my work. I don’t care if she thinks more about it or if it helps her down the road. When she started acting a fool in the gallery, she lost my interest.
Travis – You’re exactly right. Make the best work you can and let it go! Congrats, btw, on your show at ALG.