Byam Shaw MA '09: October 2009

If you missed our panel discussion from September 16, or would like to hear it again, click on the following link:
'WHO IS ART FOR?' PANEL AUDIO

The title of this panel discussion was 'Who is Art For?' and was organized by two of our MA artists, Brian Putnam and Nathan Eastwood, to run alongside our final MA Fine Arts Show at Byam Shaw. On the panel were Ingrid Swenson, director at Peer Gallery, Andrew McGettigan, research office at Central Saint Martins, Nick Lambrianou, lecturer, artist and writer, Mick Finch, artist, writer and lecturer at CSM, and Adam Knight, artist and recent RCA MA graduate. Although a little shy at the beginning the discussion warmed up towards the middle and had a very fine ending (at which point it should have continued).

To recap:
The question ‘Who is Art for?’ is a question of how artist, artwork and audience communicate with one another and for what purposes. In exploring their relationships the discussion could focus on what connects them – a variety of languages that depend on the setting: University, Studio, Gallery, Museum, etc. The way language and context interact would seem to determine the intimate relationship of the artist to his or her raw materials and on an institutional level the relevance and value of an artist, an artwork or an audience as a cultural or economic force. The product of both of these interactions shapes contemporary art, informing and being informed by the conditions of Modernity. These conditions are continuously shifting and being qualified as post, super, alter, etc.

Our MA show is a threshold for us as young artists moving from our university practice to our professional practice. As such, it is a moment of reflection on every level of what it means to be an artist. The question ‘Who is Art for?’ is deeply implicated in how an artist approaches his or her work.