Can introspective work be a part of a sociable practice?
The first time I entered a photography competition, I misread the requirement for a 2000 character biography as 2000 words. What I wrote in response was a sincere, navel-gazing attempt at a quarter-life autobiography. When I realised my mistake, I left it to stew in the back end of a folder. Not sure what use the world could have for such a bizarrely intense focus on my life.
I remain unsure, but in sharing this now, I aim at two things. Firstly, I want to embrace uncertainty in my practice. I want to loosen the requirements around what I share so that I might actually grow through the process.
And secondly, I want to engage in a conversation around personal work, personal writing, and its place in art today. It was Tito Gonzalez Garcia, in conversation at the Bristol Photo Festival symposium, who first triggered the thought. It is a tendency of western artists, he said, to be so inward looking. I cannot, on my own, unpick the positive from the negative. Separate the vital from the indulgent. Or understand fully what the consequences are of sharing, and of holding back.
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If you have a thought, I would love to hear it. This blog is shaped around conversation, with this final section inviting an open-ended one. Maybe you reject the idea of policing whose lives are worthy of a platform at the outset. Fair enough. I am interested in every approach to the idea. I simply want to get involved in a conversation that I am sure is already unfolding.
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