Ever had a gallery owner talk over the work at you?
Went into a gallery years back, owner spent twenty minutes telling me about my own piece. What it meant. What it said about the times. Didn't ask me one question. I'd been in the studio three weeks building that thing and she had it figured out in the first five minutes.
Walked out and never called her back.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I've always thought the person who makes it has a say in what it is. Anyone else run into curators or owners who treat the work like it's theirs to explain? Do you let it slide or does it stick in your teeth too?
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ngl this is such a specific art world thing and i feel it in my bones. had a curator talk over a piece of mine once at a group show, explaining the "isolating quality of the composition" to someone while i stood right there. it was literally just a big red square with a tiny blue one in the corner. i painted that because the blue one looked lonely. that's it. that's the whole thesis.
i think the funny part is they're never technically wrong, they're just wrong in a way that doesn't matter. like yeah sure it can be about alienation or whatever, but it's also about a small shape i thought would look funny near a big one. both things can be true but one of them is the one i spent three weeks on.
i don't even know if it sticks in my teeth or if i've just accepted that once it's on the wall it's not quite yours anymore. people are gonna read what they read. but yeah, asking the maker literally one question before launching into the monologue would be a nice touch lol
That's the thing that gets me. They're never wrong, just wrong in a way that misses the point entirely. Blue one looked lonely. That's a real reason to paint something. Better than half the reasons I hear people give.
I think what sticks in my teeth is they don't ask. If she'd said "what were you thinking with that piece," I'd have told her and we'd have talked. But she had the answer before the question. That's not curiosity, that's a performance.