As an artist whose aesthetic is driven by ethics, politics and social comment what really maddens me is the number of art Institutions that have money but nevertheless depend on slave labour from Interns. It is important to differentiate between volunteers and Interns even though there can be fogginess in this.
Recently a key Southern art Institution ran a competition for artists to work for a period of several months producing a response to an important artist’s Retrospective. The (Intern) work was to form a new exhibition. It is not appropriate to point fingers as this one Institution does not carry the guilt alone but is symptomatic of systematic abuse in art. Anyway, being the rebel that I am and at the risk of alienating my work and myself I challenged said Institution as respectfully as possible as follows. “What payments will the artists receive and how will expenses be reimbursed particularly as the Institution will be benefiting from the work”. As anticipated the answer came back “no payment, no expenses”. My objections were just ignored and subsequent requests for answers also were just sucked into a black hole.
I am sure plenty of artists on this group will know “who” I am talking about and the Institution itself will know. That organisation has tons of money, their problem is working out how not to waste it, understandably. Getting slave labour from artists is not valid and is abusive. It also reinforces the position of art as a middle class activity of the privileged few who can afford it; another despicable aspect of art in this world.
This blog first published by Des Kilfeather on linkedin.com UK Fine Art Network Group
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