Secret Art
What is it about things that are done or made in secret, for no reason at all other than the joy of it, that is so appealing?
I love this project by two students at Columbus college of Art and design. They sneak into a classroom and do an amazing drawing with a quote from a famous person in chalk. I like the quotes as well, they all seem to be saying the same thing… get out there do it, don’t let anything hold you back… if you want to create something or be someone just get on with it.
What is obvious straight away is that they have created a platform for themselves and an audience as well. Very clever and very entrepreneurial. I like this attitude to ‘doing’ things, to finding an audience. If you can’t find an outlet take it to the people, people!
If Banksy hadn’t done that would anyone have heard of him? If these students hadn’t started this project they too probably would only have a college portfolio to show at the end of their degrees, and would certainly not have had so much public attention, especially from social media.
I feel sure that they have opened up other avenues for themselves now, do they have a book deal yet? Probably. It’s clever, simple and very entertaining. They have skills and they are using them, I love this attitude it’s really interesting… come on surprise us again!
Here is another secret artist, a nanny from the 1950’s called Vivian Maier. This artist is different because she didn’t show her work to anyone, and probably didn’t consider herself to be an artist, her work wasn’t found by anyone until after her death and even then the way it was discovered was quite random.
In this short film all the people who are talking about her give the impression that they feel somehow betrayed because they didn’t know or understand why she took all those photos. Interesting… do you think it’s because nowadays we understand self promotion really well but doing something for the sheer love of it, or the drive of the thing, the wish to create art simply for your own pleasure is harder to comprehend? Interestingly people who do this are considered selfish. Why?
