File spoon-archives/avant-garde.archive/avant-garde_1999/avant-garde.9903, message 158


From: "Ann Klefstad" <klefkal-AT-cp.duluth.mn.us>
Subject: Re: an entire universe of delicate, complicated things
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 14:36:43 -0800




Miekal asked in response to my preachy screed: 
 
> >are you suggesting that remaining independent is a powerless position 
> or
> >a foregoing of responsibility?  lost me here. 
> >
> >miekal
> 
 and then mal avita wrote:
 
> It can also mean accepting responsibility....
> 
And then I say:

Remaining independent is a wonderful thing to do if it is the only
alternative to what you see as corrupting or evil. However, it is likely to
put you in a position of relative powerlessness because you don't have
available to you some of the tools that can give you extension--materials,
time, networks of other artists and venues, money, institutions that
provide opportunities to communicate, etc. 

I've worked independently for years and years, and at least in my case
found that the tradeoff for total freedom was nearly total inconsequence.
That is, I could do whatever I wanted, but it didn't matter much to the
world.

That may be because I am an excessively odd individual whose predilections
are shared by very few. I suspect, though, that my situation is not so very
unusual.

At some point I thought, well, I need to find a way to act in the world as
well. So I began piling up documentation of my work, applying for
commissions and grants, volunteering for my local arts commission, nagging
my newspaper to cover visual art, volunteering for selection panels in part
to learn about that process, starting an artists' group to produce shows
and commission public projects (working as a regranting agency), ad nauseum
and etc. Believe me, I'm not "independent" in a very recognizable
sense--but my conscience is free!

And I've ended up doing the art reviews in my paper, starting up a program
that commissions installations in downtown storefronts through my local
arts commission (I'm a commissioner, with an engraved certificate from the
mayor. How utterly weird. If he only knew . . .), each artist in the
artists' group Common Language has dreamed up and produced an exhibition or
public project in this city, most involving many artists besides us--our
projects have involved at least 500 other artists who have been able to do
work through us, and even get paid.

For most of this I'm not paid, or not paid much. I do it because it makes a
huge difference in the perception of the value of art-type activity in my
immediate vicinity. Coverage of artists and exhibition opportunities have
both increased 10-fold in my city; the arts commission now has as a
priority not merely the "decoration" of public places, but the enlisting of
artists in the purposes and goals of municipal administration. People begin
to think differently about artists and the possibilities for their action.
There are other artists' groups now also, in this city, and more artists on
the arts commission, and regular coverage of artists in the newspaper when
there had been none.

It's not just me who's been making this difference, but I do think if I
hadn't got my ass in gear and started taking my responsibility toward both
my fellow citizens and fellow artists seriously, a lot of it wouldn't have
happened.   

It's important that you not spend your life doing things you loathe, but
it's also important not to baby yourself, and spend all your time
cultivating psychic health. 
Human beings are redundantly healthy--you can waste a lot and still be
fine. Start drawing on your reserves, for the sake of those who need you to
act.

Ann Klefstad


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