POST DOC RESEARCH
THE DILEMMA OF EXISTENCE:
A SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY INTO THE PRACTICE OF VISUAL ARTISTS IN SINGAPORE
REPORT ON POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF ART, DESIGN, AND MEDIA
MARCH 2012 SINGAPORE
For the conclusion of this Postdoctoral research, Dr. Nina11 Dimitriadi Yassin summarises the outcomes of the results from the qualitative survey and self-reflective practice-based study of artists’ internal and external conditions and decision- making mechanisms of earlier career artists in Singapore.
The survey shows the case that ninety percent of artists in Singapore combine their art practice with other professional jobs to be able to survive and continue their practice as artists. All of the interviewed artists are ready to create and produce their art even if they will not receive any income from it and thus will continue to practice art as a vocation rather than as a straightforward profession. Furthermore, artists who do not receive wages for their work are viewed by society as having a low or questionable professional status (Dimitriadi, 2009).
The poor structure of the private gallery sector, the inadequate supply of quality art materials, the lack of quality frame shops and other production facilities, the high prices for rent and insufficient availability of proper studio space will continue to drive up the prices of novice artist's work for their establishing market, which as a result will lower their competitiveness or effect their international recognition. The ‘paternalism’ of governmental policies and censorship of particular themes in artwork production will continue to marginalize artists' performance on the international stage as a 'PG' rating of the works of art will keep the artists’ artworks ‘safe’ for the local public, but immature for the international art market.
The considerable social benefits derived from artists' creative experience or mental struggle in the US and UK has been previously shown (Dimitriadi, 2009; Fieve, 1989) and this benefit does not exist in Singapore or for Singaporean artists where the artist population remains small and the general public remains indifferent even though public funding in the visual arts is prolific and generous. The competitiveness and ranking system in public schools marginalizes the visual arts and other cultural subjects in favor of math and science and reduces the creativity of schoolchildren’s artistic self-expression by imposing competition and ranking into the structure of the curriculum.
Despite the generous and attentive care of public policymakers towards and state funding of the visual arts and artists' production considerable effort should be taken to re-evaluate the visual art sector from the perspective of the quality of participation and engagement in the experience rather than based primarily on statistics of attendance. It is worth mentioning that the study found that distribution of funding, evaluation and decision making in the visual art sector is often managed by professionals outside of the art sector, which can be a frustrating experience for both sides.
Finally, and most importantly, the public education system and its consideration of the visual arts, art history and other cultural studies as non-important or as unequal subjects to other subjects which are critical to the survival and prosperity of the society will continue to keep novice artists' artwork and exhibitions without public understanding, engagement or attendance and their work will continue to be considered a hobby.
ph.d research
THE EMERGENCE OF PRACTICE:
MOTIVATION AND DECISION MAKING AMONG
CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTISTS
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
MAY 2009
DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
SCHOOL OF ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON
From 2003-2006 Dr. Nina11 Dimitriadi Yassin conducted sociological research into the practices of a range of emerging visual artists who were working in the UK and the US. The prevailing influences on artists were researched and the outcome of the study found that the factors in the early stages of their careers, when combined with the conditions that such artists encounter in the context of the current art market, do not offer sufficient benefit to encourage them to pursue a full-time professional career as an artist.
Factors that were examined included the lack of a clear definition as to what the ‘discipline’ of art involves, together with no consensus about what an adequate training for the artist should actually be. Also, it appeared that there was no identifiable reward system for the work these artists produced, and that established mechanisms for both the evaluation of art production and the distribution of artwork by the art institutions were at best, questionable. A significant additional factor was the high risk involved, in the investment of the individual artist’s time and money, when there was no guarantee of any adequate return for both their efforts or their financial outlay and so on. All the aforementioned demonstrated that the career of an artist could not be described as straightforward, or simply as ‘employment’, but perhaps should rather be described as a lifestyle (Dimitriadi, 2009). The conditions described above, more often than not, affected both the quality of the artists’ work, the level of their output, their family relationships, their personal life, and served to diminish the status of the profession of ‘artist’, in the eyes of the public.
This study explored how these artists, nevertheless, continue to practice and to deliver their work in spite of all these adverse conditions. Ninety-per-cent of the artist population researched continued to pursue their practice as a vocation or a ‘calling’, in much the same way that many scientists (Erickson, 2002; Weber, 2004) choose to do as well as politicians (Weber, 2004), and members of the clergy of various denominations (Beckford, Gilliat, 1998; Weber, 1993).
‘…In the field of science, only he who is devoted solely to the work at hand has ‘personality’. And this holds not only for the field of science: we know of no great artist who has ever done anything but to serve his work and only his work.’
(Weber, 1948, p.137 cited in Erickson, 2002, p.15)