A woman in Ghent wanted to pay me in "exposure plus a small fee" and I said sorry, I don't eat exposure
So a woman from a little gallery in Ghent messages me about a show, wants three of the leaning vessels, and then writes the sentence I've now read about forty times: "we can offer you exposure and a small participation fee."
I read it twice. Small participation fee. Meaning I pay her.
I said no thanks, and she got a bit cold after that, like I was the unreasonable one. And maybe I am? Because everyone around me keeps saying you have to do these things when you're starting, that the shows build the CV, that the CV sells the work later. My father said almost exactly this over lunch Sunday, in between asking when I'm going to "get serious."
But the last time I said yes to a thing like this, I shipped four pieces to a space I'd never seen, paid 60 euros in crates and shipping, and sold one. One. The other three came back with a chip on the foot of the biggest one. I've still got it here, I use it for brushes.
I don't know. Maybe I'm being stubborn and there's some version of the math where this pays off in three years. But I keep thinking about my grandmother, who ran a stall in the market in Ruzafa for thirty years, and her rule was simple: the work costs what it costs. She never once paid anyone for the privilege of selling her own oranges.
Not asking anyone to agree with me here. Just tired of being made to feel greedy for wanting to be paid.
3
4commentsSaveFollow threadShare
The "CV sells the work later" line is the part that always gets me, because it assumes the CV is the product and the work is the illustration. I have seen a lot of CVs full of exactly these shows and the work has not sold any better for it.
That said, I would not put the Ghent woman in the same drawer as the pure exposure story. A small fee for a shared space, transport, invigilation, a real room with real opening hours, that is at least an honest transaction, and you can look at the numbers and decide. What is not honest is when the fee is the whole business model and the show is the excuse for collecting it. The two look similar from outside and are completely different inside.
You said no, she went cold. That reaction tells you which one it was. Someone running a genuine small project understands a no.
The "CV sells the work later" saying is not wrong in every case, but it is spoken mostly by people who are not the ones paying. My brother's daughter did her studies in Delhi and they told her the same, do the group shows, do the biennale side events. She did many, and still the buyers came only when a school asked her to teach and the parents saw her hand directly. In our folk work also it is like this. People buy when they have seen the artist's hand and heard the story, not because a paper has a list of cities.
But your point I am accepting, the Ghent lady with room and hours and transport is at least a straight account, one can sit and do the sums. The other type, where the fee itself is the income and the exhibition is only the reason to collect it, that one has no shame in it. She became cold because you asked a simple question, that itself is telling something.
the part about the parents seeing her hand directly, joder, that's the whole thing. my grandmother is the same, she never once asked me which gallery, she asked what it felt like to hold, if the glaze went where I wanted. she's the only one who has ever asked me that.
and yes, the Ghent lady wanted the vessels, the room, the hours, all of it, just not to be the one paying for any of it. funny how the exposure always travels in one direction.
the folk work thing you said stays with me. people buy the hand and the story. so the CV is basically me trying to write the story down instead of letting them meet it
ok the "the CV is the product and the work is the illustration" thing is going to live in my head rent free, that is exactly it. I have friends with CVs longer than my arm and the same three boxes of unsold work in the corner of the flat.
And yeah, fair, I was maybe too quick to throw her in with the exposure people. A real room with real hours is a thing, transport is a thing, someone has to sit there and open the door. I can respect a number you can look at. What got me was the way she said it, like the exposure was the payment and the fee was the ticket to the party, and then the cold shoulder when I said no. That is what made my neck go hot, not the fee in itself.
I still don't know if I did the correct thing. But I slept fine.