I should imagine that being a young artist is not unlike starting out as a young entrepreneur. Both trying to focus on their craft, their business, but the constant distraction of everyday life, like paying for food, rent and electricity, always lurking.
The pressure of developing your craft, your practice, your business in line with your beliefs and vision versus the need to be mindful of budgets, return on your investment of time and materials and yes, the need to be sensible, responsible, and realistic.
The demands and whispers of those before us, those older and wiser, rolling their eyes at your dreams, impeding on that youthful urge to jump into things propelled forward by that internal yearning to do more, be more and find more.
I was therefore drawn to the current exhibition by 15 young Australian creatives, Low Stakes, on until 17th November at Goolugatup Heathcote Gallery.
Curated by Australian Artist, Dan McCabe, the subject is; something to sit on. An everyday item, the brief is simple and free from expectation, the works are unnamed and free from the demands and pressures of the ego. Each of the works reveals the artists interpretation of a chair, the creations are light and playful, there is an air of artistic and personal liberation as you wonder through.
The critique an artist would expect from a discerning audience is replaced by an “anything goes” attitude and our human nature to judge pushed limits is replaced by the sheer entertaining nature of the ideas and thoughts of what constitutes a chair.
McCabe’s curation calls into question the role of commerciality, judgement, and critique in shaping the practice of art so casually one would question if it was just a happy accident. An excellent exhibition by an outstanding group of creatives.
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