So today is deadline day for getting your application in to the annual Welsh Artist of the Year competition.
Though to be honest if you’re not in Cardiff it’s probably too late already as there is still no online application process. Yes the Welsh art scene is still apparently entrenched in the dark ages of pre-digital media. It’s ridiculous really because the application form asks for little more than a name, address and title of the artwork. With the amount of time a digital submission process could save the organisers could probably half the submission fee which would be very welcome in these austere times.
Of course they could still make a hard copy available for the old dears who have a fear of technology. After all it should be as inclusive as possible.
Not that – finally – updating the application process would encourage me to apply.
The competition is a bit a joke really. How can they judge the Welsh Artist of the Year based on the submission of one piece of work?
Not only are the artists judged by one single piece of their output but there is no opportunity to contextualise their work either in the context of their own practice or within a wider view of the contemporary arts. After all context is everything.
It’s an issue I’ve had with an number of Welsh open exhibitions recently such as the Cardiff Open last autumn. By judging an artists career off the back of one single image without context perpetuates the notion that visual art is about nothing more than the creation of an images and that the intellectual values of the work are redundant.
The judges might as well pull names out of a hat or employ the age old ‘ip-dip dog shit’ technique.
Not that any of this will stop hundreds of artists from around the country handing over £10.00 on the of chance that it might be their year. After all without any context ‘Welsh Artist of the Year’ as a stand alone CV entry reads rather well doesn’t it?
Vulgar Culture 