This discussion will aim to clarify the position of the artist within the
wider artistic and design community.
Beginning with an outline of artist versus designer activity, the discussion
will seek to highlight those differences, bringing attention to the idea that
the artist operates as a kind of ‘sole trader’ in terms of their artistic
outputs impact on culture. Rather than being part of a drive towards total
consumption that currently dominates designs place in mass culture.
The work of art, it may be said, has a singular place in culture, which at base
level, conveys a system of messaging that seeks act as a mirror. A mirror of
the societal culture it is made, or exists within.
It has no overt function. It will not improve your sex life, it will not
improve the use of space in your home, it will not get rid of stains and it
will not tell you clearly what it wants from you, the consumer.
Design surrounds us on every level. The building we stand in, the carpet on the
floor and the lamps on the walls. All made with the aim to somehow enhance our
way of life, make it easier and more comfortable. On the consumer level, design
seeks to help us to define our place in society, with our expensive watch or
our 4x4 turbo charger cars. It can make us or break us.
Art on the other hand will probably assault your sense of order, the order that
exists in the other systems of messaging provided by the media.
If you can afford it, it may improve the appearance of your intellect, or your
social standing. It may stand as testament to a particular kind of taste, or a
movement in art. Very much in the same way the commodities described
previously. But is that where the similarity ends?
Ian Gonczarow (b. 1975) - MFA Art Practice from Goldsmiths University of
London 2009, BA (Hons) Fine Art from University of Northumbria at Newcastle
1999, Deputy course director Foundation course at BHSAD 2009 – present,
Currently planning BA (Hons) Fine Art for BHSAD start 2011.
