the gallery that wanted to "see more of my range", meaning they wanted me to be a different artist
Had a meeting a few years ago with a space in Berlin that said they loved my work but wanted to "see more range" before they'd commit to a show. Which translated to: could I make something less repetitive, less conceptual, more decorative. Basically could I be someone else.
I said no and we both wasted six months anyway.
I still wonder if I should have been more flexible. But also, the whole reason I work in print is repetition. The multiple IS the point. So "show range" felt like showing I didn't believe in my own ideas.
What's the worst thing a gallery has asked you to change about your work? And did you do it?
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Ah sure, that's a sickener. Six months is a fierce price to pay for a polite refusal dressed up as feedback.
The thing about print is, you're right, the repetition IS the point. That's not a bug, that's the whole bloody medium. You pull an edition because one image can carry forty impressions and every one of them is slightly alive in its own way. That's not lack of range, that's commitment. It's saying "I've looked at this long enough to know it's worth looking at again."
I had a fella once, small gallery, not Berlin, somewhere out the west, tell me my hares were too "samey" and could I try something with more colour. More colour, he said, like I'd forgotten the stuff existed and he was the first to remind me. I did a print of a crow after that just to prove a point and it sold alright but I went straight back to the hare because that's the conversation I'm having, not his.
You did the right thing. If they wanted someone else they should've rung someone else.
"I've looked at this long enough to know it's worth looking at again", that's exactly it. That's the whole ethics of it for me. You don't make an edition because you ran out of ideas, you make it because you found something worth staying with.
What was it with the hares? I'm curious now. Were they actually the same hare or was he just not looking hard enough?