Reflection on the conversation, and the second research on financial conditions of London-based artists by Artquest.
During discussions with fellow graduates in Meetup sessions, the issue of economic sustainability tends to dominate even though the concept of sustainability encompasses broader aspects. When the conversation shifts towards “how to survive in London,” it inevitably becomes centered around personal, narrow definitions such as wages and basic necessities. Some people are selling houses, some work as salespersons in bakeries, aiming to accumulate savings before returning to the art industry, some are working in galleries, some are starting businesses related to the commercialization of art, some are working as product managers.The boundaries between art and money, idealism and practicality become blurred in the face of “survival”, and I think this is actually a time of crisis: The principles we were led to believe in seem insufficient to help us sustain ourselves. Sometimes, there’s a cost to being ethical, and ethical decisions might conflict with the necessity to survive.
In our conversation we also discussed a similar practice of a Chinese artist organisation charging admission fees for its events, which turns the audience and the artist into a consumer-servant relationship, while the artist charges a fee to organise a personal project, which sometimes fails to satisfy the audience’s artistic experience, and accordingly, the enthusiasm and motivation of both parties are somewhat impacted. This serves as an example of the complex interaction between art, commerce, and ethics. However, it’s challenging to criticize it as it seems to confront the reality that organizing events requires resources, and artists need to support themselves.
Is ethics a middle class thing in Art?
In Abbas Kiarostami’s film “Close-Up,” the protagonist repeatedly expresses his pain while expressing gratitude and admiration for the director he impersonated, a love that goes against Maslow’s theory of needs, and which reflects the great contradiction between his material conditions and his spiritual needs. He merely seeks to enter affluent households by impersonating a respected director to experience respect and recognition, mitigating the pain caused by poverty and life’s pressures. In this scene, applying ethical standards to judge him becomes difficult. Just like what the wealthy individual who withdrew the lawsuit said, it’s as if society is sick.
For a young artist in their twenties, faced with limited time and income, ethical concerns can feel like gazing at the roof over your head, because what you are doing is actually surviving. Individualism is rampant, and capitalism, along with wider media, leads us to both pursue self-realization and attribute failures solely to ourselves. The time and money are enabling them to actually research or be aware of other ways thinking about how society might run itself. The capacity to stand back and examine the broader structure diminishes.
Artquest surveyed 300 artists about their experiences with funding and finance, revealing that many London artists struggle with financial situations:
– 45% strongly felt they lack the necessary funding for their practice’s development.
– Only 16% sell their work.
– 66% earn less than £15,000 per annum.
Additionally, 48% of artists rely on non-art-related work as their primary income. It is clear from this research that the economic sustainability and poverty of artists is a common and unavoidable problem. It is also one of the great challenges that Chinese artists face when they graduate abroad. I hope to uncover the viewpoints and commonalities among Chinese artists striving to survive in the UK, how economic conditions influence their livelihoods and artistic creations, and the predicaments they encounter. I hope to have the opportunity to uncover this point in the subsequent interviews.
Reference：
- “How do you balance work, life and practice without selling out?”— Article from Artquest：https://artquest.org.uk/research/money-talks/
- ARTQUEST artists money research：https://artquest.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ARTQUEST-artists-money-research.pdf