Love love love your post. I tend to align a lot with the notion of "escaping" to reconnect at a smaller scale (therefore probably at a more authentic scale) to make more meaningful work. As if there was a massive contradiction between the pressure to scale in large companies vs the pleasure to deliver good work.
This essay might be small, but it is powerful. Your story reminds me how I entered and eventually left the Big Art. I was invited to build and then run a private art museum. It all happened during covid so it was even more tense than ‘needed’. Nevertheless, I soon found out that in the ‘art circles’, it’s the big names, the gate keeping and the investments in high priced artists is what counts. The artist and their practice (I love how you defined it in your essay) is the last thing that anybody in that vanity fair is interested in. Fair enough, I was off to make my own little practice that I call Useful Art Club. Worldbuilding is a thing and it works ⚔️💙
Just wanted to add that “worlding” wasn’t exactly coined by Ian—it has a whole life beyond his practice that is very fun to research, I recommend!
"Work that changed my world and claimed nothing more." + "Projects intentionally tight in scope, powerful but local, and that follow their heart."
<3
Love love love your post. I tend to align a lot with the notion of "escaping" to reconnect at a smaller scale (therefore probably at a more authentic scale) to make more meaningful work. As if there was a massive contradiction between the pressure to scale in large companies vs the pleasure to deliver good work.
This essay might be small, but it is powerful. Your story reminds me how I entered and eventually left the Big Art. I was invited to build and then run a private art museum. It all happened during covid so it was even more tense than ‘needed’. Nevertheless, I soon found out that in the ‘art circles’, it’s the big names, the gate keeping and the investments in high priced artists is what counts. The artist and their practice (I love how you defined it in your essay) is the last thing that anybody in that vanity fair is interested in. Fair enough, I was off to make my own little practice that I call Useful Art Club. Worldbuilding is a thing and it works ⚔️💙