Sophmore Album
I think the question that I ask myself in my art life is 'what's next?'. With art making, we often fixate on the wrong end point, and this can cause some consternation. Before this year, I would think a lot about how I am going to make work - what kinds of photos to make, what kinds of exhibitions or publications I want to put effort into. I think, without realising it, I was treating those objects as end points - but it's more realistic to treat them as mid-way points.
When you finish something, it's really just the start of something else. Finish the last page of your draft novel, well now there's editing, selling the book to a publisher, etc. Receive the book bound from the printer? Well now there's publicity, selling the novel (again), working on follow ups, getting it reviewed, etc, etc. Most of us might assume that the publisher drives a lot of that and, fair enough, if you're a big enough deal they probably do. But if you are just a standard writer, artist, creative - you are the one sending those emails, sorting it out. That was certainly something I hadn't thought much about until now.
So in a way, the end product is sort of a springboard for what ever ends up being next. Which is both exciting and exhausting.
If you're not someone with your own art career, I think music makes a really good metaphor for what things look like. No one's START is playing a stadium show, or composing the soundtrack for a Hollywood movie.
Most musicians whose way of paying the bills is making music do something like:
Release an EP that's mainly for local fans and friends, but allows a few live shows and a chance to work out the kinks.
They then can use this EP as a way to develop an album - some artists get label support for this, some don't.
The album allows the artists to tour a little bit more, perhaps play some smaller festivals or as a part of a larger festival. Maybe get some attention via different promotion channels. But rarely is the first album so good that the artist can sit back knowing they've made it. Rarely does the first album put $100,000 in the bank and give musicians an easy career.
The sophmore album is next. Musicians or bands have a larger following, but the sophmore album is a real hurdle: do more of the same or break new territory? Both have risks and both can fail quite obviously. If it goes well perhaps the artists are at a point where they have more of an established sound, a larger following and are doing larger shows or better slots at bigger festivals.
At the moment I'm somewhere between the 3rd and 4th dot point: after finishing a big solo exhibition and publishing a book it's fair to say that a lot of things are exactly the same for me . I don't have a lot more money, my career isn't dramatically more stable, I have a few more emails, but not that many.
But what I do have is a better-than-ever springboard to share with others, engage different people and advocate for the work I want to do more of. In that spirit, what I'd like to do more of is:
Continue to exhibit The Killing Sink in Australia and at relevant places. I'm not doing it all, as there is a saturation point, but a few appropriate opportunities are what I'm pursuing. I have a lot of prints I made so this also means the costs to exhibit are lower than ever.
Add a 2nd chapter to The Killing Sink about eagle killings in the UK while exhibiting the work in the UK at a few galleries/festivals. Develop exhibiting practices that are more public facing and audience engaging. Luckily Australia has decent government money for emerging artists to go overseas and do art stuff: fingers crossed.
Use The Killing Sink as a springboard to gain funding for my next project 10cm a Decade - with travel costs (and travel time) taking a lot of money, being able to demonstrate that I can deliver and that people the world over are engaging with my work, it feels like a better than ever opportunity to receive some grant funding. Last year I received $5000 in grant funding. Over the next year I'd like to try and win substantially more.
As Tall Poppy Press continues to grow, I'd like to partner with more festivals and arts events and engage more, I'd love to teach a workshop or two in the next year.
But, currently it's crunch time: if I can get 1-2 galleries to agree to support me in the next few weeks then I should be able to do Step 2. If not, just step 1 and step 3, which would still be good, but a bit of a shame. And in September there are 5 grant/exhibiting opportunities closing - so I should know by year's end: have I done it?
Matt