Engaging with art, a year on from art school

It's been an entire year since I finished art school and I'll be honest and say it feels like a lot longer. I've already written a post about what graduate life is like which you can read here. And this post isn't a reiteration, what I want to talk about is how my engagement with art has changed since leaving the art school bubble.

Torsten Lauschmann at Glasgow International 2018

During my four years of study I developed a way of looking and engaging with art that allowed me to critique it, to try and unravel it and really figure out what it was all about.

How has that changed since leaving art school? Well, if I'm being honest it's almost reverted back to how I engaged with art pre-art school. If I go to an exhibition I look at work on a very surface-level basis: do I like the way it looks? Can I figure out what it's about without really having to think about it or try and figure it out?

The truth is, I've gotten lazy with art. If I like the look of something, then I like the look of something. If I feel separate from the work, if I can't figure out what it's about or I don't like it aesthetically I simply won't engage with it.

Torsten Lauschmann at Glasgow International 2018

I noticed these changes when I went round the GSA degree show this year, going into a space and either liking it, thinking it was interesting or just walking back out again uninterested. And that's not to say the work isn't good if I walk out, I simply cannot be bothered to make the effort to dig into it. The same goes for video works.

When I was at art school I would make myself sit through video works to the end to make sure I saw every part of it. Now, if it doesn't hook me in in the first minute I don't want to sit through it.

I wonder if it's simply because I'm not in the bubble of art school anymore or if it's because I realised how little art matters to everyone not engaged with it.

Don't get me wrong, I can still discuss art, discuss the various politics a piece of art might have and engage in the theory behind works, I simply don't have the energy to do it if I don't have to.

Torsten Lauschmann at Glasgow International 2018

I guess one of the nice things about leaving art school and exiting the art bubble is you can engage with art on whatever level you like and nobody's going to turn round and tell you you're not trying hard enough. If anything, it's liberating going back to simply liking or not liking something. It reminds you of why you enjoy art in the first place.

After I left university, I actually went to more exhibitions than I did while I was studying. There was a new-found freedom in that I actually had the time to see shows, and because I wasn't making work I didn't feel like I had to gain some kind of inspiration from the art I was taking in. I could finally just enjoy it, or not as was often the case. 

I will say that my taste in art hasn't changed much at all, not that I really expected it to. I still absolutely love expressive, messy paintings, bright colours and illustration-style drawings despite the fact that these were never a factor in my own work really. 

Torsten Lauschmann at Glasgow International 2018

Now a year after graduation, I'm actually starting to miss art school. Probably more so because I had a solid five days a week that I could spend in the studio making work and being sociable and creative as opposed to the very limited and lonely few days I can spare here and there now.

I guess what I'm trying to say in this long-ass winded ramble of a blog post is that I still love art, I still love going to exhibitions, I just enjoy it so much more now that I don't feel like I'm being judged on how much I'm engaging with it or what I think of it in a critical context. 

At the end of the day, art is for everyone that wants to be involved with it. You really don't need to go to art school to know whether or not you like it.

Love,

Melissa   x

(Photographs by Nathaniel Haas)