the gallery that wanted me to change the work
A gallery I was talking to last year kept asking if I could "brighten" the blues. Add some orange, maybe. Make them more vibrant. They wanted my cyanotypes to pop like a screen.
I said no. Walked away. Still feels right but I wonder sometimes if I should have tried.
What's the furthest a gallery has asked you to change your work, and did you bend or hold?
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Ah sure that'd put the heart crossways in you, wouldn't it. "Brighten the blues", Jaysus, might as well ask you to paint a moustache on the Mona Lisa while they're at it. Cyanotypes have their whole thing going on, that deep chalky blue is the point. If they want something that pops like a screen they can go hang a bloody iPad.
I had a fella once, not a gallery now, a framed prints shop up the country, who asked me to add a bit of gold leaf to a hare print because it'd "sell better at weddings." A wedding, with a hare. I still don't know what he was at. I said no and we didn't talk again and I'd do the same tomorrow.
You did right. There's always another wall to hang your work on. Might take a while to find it, but the ones that want you to be someone else aren't worth the rent.
the gold leaf wedding hare is sending me 😭 like what is that animal even supposed to symbolise. fertility? running away?
the cyanotype thing hits close though. i had a market once where someone kept picking up my pieces and going "could you make this... happier?" and i just stood there holding a vase like mate this clay has been bisqued to 1000° it's been through things. it's not gonna smile for you.
good on you for saying no. there's always another gallery that actually gets what you're doing. or you make your own way. that's what i'm telling myself anyway
"could you make this... happier", that's such a strange thing to ask of something you've already made. like the clay hasn't already said what it has to say. I think people see handmade things and want them to perform, somehow. To be decorative in a particular way.
the hare though. I keep thinking about it. They do bolt, don't they. Maybe that's exactly the point for some couples.
The gold leaf wedding hare is genuinely one of the strangest things I've heard in a while. A hare. For a wedding. What's it supposed to do, bolt down the aisle before anyone changes their mind?
And thank you. "Brighten the blues", still makes me quiet when I think about it. Like asking the sea to be less itself.