Sarah McMenimen
January 16 2009
The Orchard Projects:We’ve had a few days now to discuss your work and your experience as a student and one thing that keeps coming up in our conversations is nepotism in the art world and how potentially detrimental this is for young artists. Could you elaborate a little bit on this?
Sarah McMenimen: I don’t think it hinders the artists’ development but it is more of a problem for the creative institutions and how they’re going to prepare kids with the tools they need to secure exhibitions. It’s pretty unrealistic how it actually happens. I was at an advantage while I was in school by knowing Brian and working at Queens Nails Annex. Also, having a lot of friends who already graduated from CCA, and knowing people who were already showing gave me more perspective on how to pursue exhibitions rather than rely on what a teacher told me or printed on a piece of paper. I would say that nepotism isn’t necessarily bad for the development of young artists, but rather is potentially detrimental to the schools that lack the criteria on how to engage with the art world.
TOP:Do you mind telling us why you think the instruction you received from CCA was a little outdated?
SM: A good majority of teachers that I had didn't make recent work, or were showing in older galleries that I doubt my peers would be approaching [with a proposal] and this made their ideas feel outdated. For example: “Write a C.V., get a package of images together, and send it to a gallery.” Or, “these are the drop-off dates when the MoMA will consider your work and they’ll buy anything for their permanent collection.” I feel like I heard that a lot. The problem is that there aren’t any conversations happening regarding everyday dialogues, and approaching a gallery felt kind of egotistical. I made all this work a few months ago and now I’m putting it in this little packet to promote myself as an artist for one to consider. Instead of saying, “these are some artifacts that I made in order to promote this discussion or in order for you to think differently about really simple things in your life.” Maybe I’m being terribly romantic now.
TOP: Are you glad you went to school?
SM: Yes, Definitely! Although I may have some negative things to say about it, I think one of art school’s objectives is to teach students how to criticize things. It makes sense that by the time I finished art school, I would be critical of it. I also just recently finished school, so I guess I am more aware of what the experience was like. But in general it’s made everyday life far more enjoyable, simply because I am more observant, or I feel I’m taking in the world differently now than when I first started school. It taught me how to think circularly. I don’t think that I was much of a linear thinker before school, but it taught me how to articulate myself which is so critical to just being a person. I learned how to articulate myself as an artist because I had to answer so many questions about what I was making and spending time doing. So just talking to someone about how I was feeling became a lot easier for me to be honest with myself. Like how we’re talking now.
TOP:Have you come across anything you deem interesting or innovative in the art world lately?
SM: I feel like there’s may be some interesting things happening in Los Angeles, but not so much in San Francisco right now. There seem to be more dynamic spaces that are interested in showing new artists. Also, there are good graduate schools in this area, so it makes sense that there is some interesting art work down here. What I like about San Francisco is that I have a lot of solid friends there, because of this, I think there are great conversations happening. The access to more open space in Northern California seems connected to people being able to think more slowly and retrospectively about what they make and how they act. But that isn't seen or documented the way an art piece might be. I guess experience could be considered art but it’s not being shown, if that makes sense. Something else I think is really interesting about location, is a lot people I know who either live in San Francisco or who are based there are talking about moving somewhere else. Anywhere but where they are now. It seems to be a trend and a popular topic of conversation. People complain a lot about the cost of living in SF and compare it to the low rents in Europe. It is a dramatic point when you hear so and so only pays $300 a month for rent in Berlin.
TOP: So cheap rents make better art?
SM: No, It doesn’t make the art better but I just think it is interesting how obsessed people are with wanting to go somewhere else. That conversation never seems to get old.
TOP: What, moving to Europe?
SM: Well, Europe never gets old and people love to talk about Europe or just somewhere else with cultural draw. For intstance, if I told you I was moving to Denver and would be paying $300 a month for rent, it might not be as interesting, or even be a conversation. It seems like the discussion of moving puts a lot of their hopes into a city. The talk of moving to Europe is not necessarily validating as much as the conversation has a context of being "in the know." So just being aware of it carries over into being a young artist. I’ll catch myself doing that; just being aware of what’s going on makes you more valid as an artist. I also want to say that I am not necessarily opposed to living in Europe, that sounds great, I am just being critical of the acutal conversation or "speak" about moving.
TOP: Is there an educational benefit to the awareness of what makes an artist valid?
SM: Absolutely! There’s an advantage to seeking things out and that's always going to be beneficial. I think that sometimes we are lead to interesting ideas, new books, places, or artists through vanity. Learning can be motivated by anything, I suppose.
TOP: So people sitting around name dropping about so and so and this place and that place, how does this relate to creating culture? Is this really what our cultural contribution has become, being obsessed with popularity?
SM: Has it ever not been that?
Sarah McMenimen's doughnuts at the Orchard, January 16, 2009