you’re 23 years old
you’re a Virgo
you support Tottenham Hotspur
your favourite colour is pink
you’re vegetarian
you attend central saint martins
you have a complex relationship with your father
you’re 5ft 10
your feet are a size 7
short skirts make you uncomfortable
you miss having long hair
you don’t pluck your eyebrows
you rarely use deodorant
you cheated on your a-level exams
you’ve been diagnosed with BPD, ASD, and Endometriosis
you grew up catholic
you grew up in South West London
you are the only one in your family to live in private housing
you’re in your final year of university
you’re worried if you’ll ever really get a job
you’re in love with someone who is 4,426 miles away
you have frequent nosebleeds
you sleep around 4 hours a night, unless you’re next to someone
you’re white passing
you attended an elite all girls high school
you are receiving benefits for your disability
your eye sight could be better
you would describe yourself as average
you have a baby sister
you are bi-sexual
you hate night clubs
you are the first generation to go to university in your family
you are an ex-alcoholic
you hate eggs
you’ve never eaten bacon
you’ve been raped
you had an emo phase
you have had 2 termination of pregnancies
you are afraid of the dark
A fully realized emotional engagement with a piece can be indispensable for a performer, fostering a sense of fulfilment in their creations. By experimenting with texts and the manifold ways that audiences digest them, as well as through employing various methods of storytelling to unlock a visceral response in an audience, I have found that my work truly thrives on emotional and social engagement. Ultimately, I have found that performance can be used as a spectacular form of catharsis.
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The sheer depth of emotion and intoxicating openneness present in feminist art pieces, particularly by the likes of Andrea Fraser and Sophie Calle, have profoundly influenced my practical work. A large portion of my portfolio explores the theme of human vulnerability, often interwoven with my own life experiences, and connected to the dual notions of originality and authenticity that have fascinated me since the beginning of my studies. By using ideologies of originality and documentation of performance art from critics such as Philip Auslander and Peggy Phelan, I aim to design work that induces a powerful synergy between artist and performer. I also continuously explore my own vulnerability as an artist. Having grown more enamored with the value of authenticity, I gathered inspiration from my surroundings and fellow artists at my institution and began to infuse my work with fragments of my own life.
Art and Identity Politics-
Some thoughts on authenticity and originality in the post-millennium
Introduction
As technology and social media advances, as does our generations self-obsession. People choose to present themselves in ‘unique’ and ‘new’ ways from their hair and clothing choice to their formulated internet personas- with what seems like the hope of being viewed as authentic. With the ability to control the way we are presented, the information that we share and the circles that we allow ourselves to be viewed by, it is no surprise that some may identify their self-worth as a sum of their identities in the digital world as well as the physical. The prevalence of identity politics being discussed through newer formats such as Instagram as well as the live arts has become clear- but for what effect? With these varying and ever-expanding platforms, performative writing has become much more than pen to paper – with grammatical immaculacy and traditional literary guidelines pushed aside. There is a vast quantity of work experimenting and engaging with text within performance, leading to an influx of various types of confessional works using text. If we were to take performative text as: language produced which can influence the way our world works in an attempt to bring social change- it is undeniable that outside of institutional rhetoric we are able to create a commentary that doesn’t deny a personal and emotive voice. Thus, releasing work of its hegemonic generalized ties, giving the work a relatable value. This in itself can lead to a greater empathetic understanding. By exposing ourselves to the masses- on the internet and physically, we seek to find people whom we can relate to, and who can relate to us to form a cathartic experience for both creator and audience. With the amount of public freedom, we are given to express our moods, circumstances, privilege or lack of- the relevance of literary criticism in itself is declining. For myself, the above described has validated my lust for creating work which opposes traditional guidelines. The importance of an empathic connection between author-reader, I believe, is key to the comprehension, digestion, and understanding of a piece. We can link these real emotions felt, as viewers and performers to the authenticity alongside ownership of a piece.
This link between authenticity and originality may seem nonexistent and irrelevant, due to the changing of times, things that are reworked and remodeled become more relevant to today- and even perhaps making them more important than the original. We must keep this in mind throughout the analysis. I’m not saying tying the two together is impossible, but I do not think that originality can directly affect the authenticity. I will go into further detail of this below.
Below is a conversation I offer to you, the reader. Amongst extracts from interviews I have conducted with artists and friends, is a discussion of the potential relationship between authenticity and ownership of the creation of text-based work and exploring what confessional work has to offer.
AUTHENTICITY AND ORIGINALITY
Taking all things as inherently recycled, it is no wonder many strive to be authentic. With authenticity and originality generally assumed as positive qualities, many individuals are led to creating an identity, one that is authentic and maybe even potentially original. Undoubtedly, this can validate a person need to be individual, to own an identity and hold a character-a single identity that we can claim as our own. But my question is- is work being made about identity and our experiences something that we own, something we can deem unique and special- or has everything already been done?
When it comes to experimenting with text and creating work, I do not aim to produce any kind of written work that will be considered original or new. I want to create work that does not boast of grammatical immaculacy or follow any traditional literary guidelines. I believe experimenting and engaging with various techniques and practices allows me to explore what text means to me as an individual, and the relationship that me and my work form when it is created. By discovering that conformity is not necessary in order to produce a piece of text that for me holds meaning, it allows me to feel as though I really am the owner of this text. A train of thought that holds expression, and depth. Although I may feel as though this text belongs to me personally and specifically; be it written down on a piece of paper or as a stored memory, as mentioned before: all words are inherently recyclable. We reuse phrases, situations, settings over and over with different meanings and jurisdictions. So as artists, should we be striving or originality, authenticity or both?
I believe we should recycle texts to generate something else, not specifically new, but a different interpretation. Take the seen and refresh it with a new sense of relevance, understanding, and authenticity. If we take David Shields statement “Value has shifted away from a copy toward the many ways to recall, annotate, personalize, edit, authenticate, display, mark, transfer and engage a work. Art is a conversation not a patent office” and dissect and employ this, we can believe that personalization is key. Making work relevant to you, your experiences, your point of view is what can hold authenticity and start a conversation. Reality Hunger contains excerpts using a collaging technique in order to create a new book questioning the reader’s knowledge of art itself. Looking at the technique behind this, and the overall structure of the book helped me visualize what kind work I wanted to create, and some of the arguments I wanted to put forward through my work such as is this theft, and what is originality. In the form of performative writing, this idea allows us to reuse works to create a discussion that is relevant to today's society. In the production of work, I question: am I able to create a piece of work that can engage with an audience, creating an authentic experience regardless of “ownership” of the text itself? We have an attachment to our work produced which allows us to claim it as our own- categorize and volley our own experiences to create something truly authentic for ourselves. It is then we can start using text as a means of control- the language that we chose to use can mediate a specific idea and experience- for example when watching a horror film, one would expect to be frightened.
If we trace the moment a piece of art becomes your own, we begin to see the ownership is not down to the originality, but the authenticity and form of the piece. So, the link between originality and authentic becomes weak. We use our day to day experiences, to which many can relate “to penetrate the values of everyday life” . By using ourselves as subjects, we are touching on “the principle of unlimited self-realization, the demand for authentic experience and the subjectivism of a hyper simulated sensitivity have come to be dominant” . The point I am trying to make, which I will lead onto, is that it is not the ideas and products used that make something authentic and real, it is the way we link them together to form new commentaries and show spaces unseen. We can treat authenticity as a theme. We can recite other artists visions and ideas, an attempt to create a dialogue which hasn’t previously been seen- in an attempt to show our personal brand, our identity. From this, can derive that truth, links to authenticity. “Surely the word must be ‘spoken’ to be taken ‘seriously’” “the outward utterance is a description, true or false, of the occurrence of the inward performance.”
CONNOR HARRIS
Can you tell me what you think the defining features of the Connor Harris persona are?
Oh, God. I think, wit, sarcasm, irony, beauty, and intelligence. But everyone plays a character, that's just life for you. There are too many try-hards everywhere you go, I mean you look down the road and there are all these people thinking they’re hot shit when they just look like every other person. People aren’t 100% truthful about their lives. Not everyone lies, but like no one is 100% authentic all the time, you’d be a robot, you’d be a shell of a human being. Sometimes I used to go out and pretend I was the manager of a Claire's accessories store. I’d always give fake names.
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GEORGINA TYSON
I think if I was making work about something like color or politics or something, I’d be really worried about it being originally and finding a new way to communicate those ideas. But, because I’m making work about my own experience, nobody else has had that experience. I’m more interested in the message I’m giving than creating something entirely new because I know that that's not my skill. I don’t have skills in like, you know, materials or technology, so I just try and make something that's like, visually nice that somebody would like to put there or show.
But not something new?
No, something that will give people a new experience, they’re learning something about me that they didn’t know.
But not ground-breakingly original?
No
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HANNAH A’ENENE
Do you think that people are striving to form their own singular identity?
It’s a really big question, we all want to have purpose and meaning, but it can be hard to find our own identities and I think by doing this we copy each other. Authenticity- I’m thinking of something personal that's my own, but originality…I could make up a wonderful story about the end of the world and a water apocalypse, but I don’t know how authentic that can be. I think originality is being genuine and sincere. The first thoughts you have, how you see things before they’re tainted by anyone else opinion is originality. If I had to tell a story about my life that I felt like was the most authentic story I could tell, I would tell about my hometown and growing up in Redding, what that was like. Though that’s a story that many could relate to, it’s the one I feel like is most my own, it has made it who I am. No matter how much we want to be original I don’t think we can be. But I think if you’re authentic enough, originality will find you.
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Here is where we are drawn to the suspicion of the lack of evidence of relevance between authenticity and originality. There is a false trail between the two- in that a replication may be more relevant to modern times. This spreads from the reproduction of mid-century furniture by the likes of IKEA, to (insert art example). From this, we can derive the importance of form, which I will now go on to discuss- and the impact the form has on making a piece authentic and/or original.
FORM
How do we make sense of tiny notes, small things which may seem unimportant or just passing moments? It is those fleeting moments, emotions felt which can really add to the authenticity, depth, and personalization of work.
Using text as a literal and tangible component within my work is an important part of my personal exploration- not only of my artwork but of my own self. Let’s take Gertrude Stein's portrait of Picasso – portraiture relies heavily upon resemblance, yet it is almost impossible to decipher any resemblance within this text. Hard to interpret, hard to make relatable to one’s self, hard to make sense of. The compositional effect, the form of the piece, the way the material is arranged is what for me creates the everlasting effect, which I can assume is desired when people are creating their work. I easily find myself becoming entranced with the pattern and layout of text on a page. The exploration of the aesthetic of text on a page, and how this could be performative led me to become very entranced by the work of artists such as Tim Etchell’s, and his pieces including “Never Sleeps”. His works highlight the importance of aesthetic, and the effect this has on the performativity of the text itself. The fragmental behavior of the text engages the audience to create their own individual storyline with each piece, as Tim describes his work; “fragments between which the reader must slip and connect.”
I have always been obliged to use post-it notes or pieces of scrap paper, so to begin to collate my thoughts onto one page is a daunting reality. Upon taking part in a workshop hosted by Tamarin Norwood, I began to allow myself to start seeing writing as a means of expression, not necessarily pen to paper. By allowing myself to use words and text in different forms, I began to question what makes up a performance. I started to find that descriptions of performances can be performative in themselves, and that the validity of your work is not deemed by the readability nor the set structure.
Using various techniques, I began to devise a script made entirely of recycled lines, using top box office hit action movies to create the ‘perfect’ action movie. I took other people’s critically acclaimed works and tried to create something that could be objectively deemed my own. One of the main techniques I experimented with, used by artists such as Thom Yorke and David Bowie, was the ‘cut up’ technique. Described as a “Modern Tarot” , this method allowed me to collage texts which could be considered somewhat disconnected in an attempt to create a sense of cohesion from the seemingly nonsensical. I was exploring the use of language as a means of control, as spoken of by David Byrne; “One theory regarding language is that it is primarily a useful tool born out of a need for control. We’ve come to love the chains that bind us, that control us, for we believe they are us.” I wanted to test this and produce a piece of work that could control the audience and participants’ expectations of a performance, and the consequential reaction. For one piece in particular, I wanted to produce an inherently clichéd text and allow the audience to fill in the gaps, following Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s statement “an idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think”. The system of expectations we have when it comes to genre determines our interpretations. We try to apply memories of referencing we have learnt in the past taxonomize a type of writing and make it relatable to an audience.
In relation to creating a lasting, effective piece of work, I began to question whether documentation is enough for a performance piece to last, and what does that mean for the ephemerality of performance art? The relationship between performance and documentation questions the ephemerality of performance art and inauthenticity of documentation. Chris Burdens “Shoot” in which he had a friend shoot him in his arm in 1971, was mainly viewed by an audience post-performance via a short video documentation and some photographs, challenging traditional ideas of a performance occurring in that specific moment, expanding the audience and creating a more accessible piece of art. The nature of this performance allowed the documentation to become an integral part of the performance, supporting the idea that performance can be somewhat tangible. Although performance can hold its own sense of ephemerality as no two performances are exactly the same, and the feeling each person receives is individual and subject to conditions, this does not mean the desired effect cannot be obtained via documentation. Without documentation there is a deprivation of further exploration or themes and topics involved and expansion to new audiences. Iconic artistic history such as this relies on documentation to educate others and inspire analysis of performance, “without efforts to preserve the history and heritage of the art form it will forever languish as trivial and not worthy of serious research” . Technology has developed swiftly over the past 30 or so years, and thus we should be using this to our advantage in documenting performance in archives, as, “nowhere in the arts can the desire to simply stop things disappearing, and the feeling that one is able to access the past, be stronger than in the live performance archive.” This extract from Matthew Reason’s “Archive or Memory? The Detritus of Live Performance” book argues the disappearance of live performance, also discussing the ephemerality of live performance. Reason discusses an artist’s own fear of disappearance, and the importance of archiving live art. It gives both sides of the argument and referenced other notable sources which I could then look into in more detail. The exploration of the intention of the artist in documenting performance using archives was particularly useful for me. This gives the general public the opportunity to explore integral pieces of art that they may not have been able to see live due to their circumstance, meaning they can still get a feeling of emotion of provoked despite not witnessing the live performance. Documentation such as Shoot allows viewers to act within the realm of his artwork and apply his ideas into the context of humanity in general. Viewers are enabled and encouraged to act and respond due to the convenience of the form of documentation, which is what I aim to do with my work now and in the future.
Phelan’s argument that performance is a “staged encounter that cannot be reproduced” is not a point that I am dismissing, this statement for the most part is accurate, but the documentation is not a replacement for the performance as stated previously. Phelan Argues that performance is ephemeral and cannot be reproduced, and that the memory and interaction between the art and spectator is performative in itself. She argues that replication of a performance is impossible, and disappears, that archiving, and documentation cannot capture an experience. This argument is challenged by many works whereby the after effect of the artwork e.g. the documentation, was larger than the initial performance as it became immediately accessible to a wider audience. I have used this extract to help validate some of my arguments surrounding the tangibility of performance art. The argued “inevitable disappearance of live performance” is a fair statement, in that the initial feeling provoked when witnessing the live event first hand may be different from viewing a video or photograph, and yet it does not mean the interaction between spectator and documentation is not authentic or genuine. Although “most theatre artists are more interested in their next show than documenting the one that has just closed” “the same is not true for journalists, scholars, or historians, who must speak about the performance. They all want to retain something of it. Something material, some tangible trace.” Villeneuve discusses the relationship between visual representation of a performance e.g. a photograph and the performance itself and the validity of photography as legitimate documentation. This helped me focus on the artist’s attachment to their performance, and why documentation may occur outside the relationship of spectator and artwork, focusing on an artist’s own relationship with their performance and memory. This suggests that perhaps in order to make an impression or impact via your artwork, documentation is needed as evidence and supporting matter of a performance. In order for the work to be examined, evaluated, have an effect, it needs to reach a wide audience and be interpreted in as many ways as possible.
Sontag’s essays argue that the way critics are approaching art has become too based of intellect and meaning, and lesser so on the what she deems more important parts of art such as the overall aesthetic. I used her ideologies within work, for example considering using the actual collaging I produced to give a sense of rawness. When producing the script, I found that stage directions were a very disciplined and structured way for me to tie all of the pieces together and make real sense out of the collaging. I referred to films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey whereby stage directions are used as a narrative, something recognizable for the reader. I used this format to create a clear and definitive story line. I had met the prerequisites of a Hollywood blockbuster in combining each clichéd line to produce something that had been seen innumerable times before, but just not quite as we know it.
If we take a text such as Crave by Sarah Kane, which after her death in 1999 “became prime targets for biographical speculation” we can see text that does not have to conform to other playwrights’ literary structures, as its disregarded characters’ individuality through description and names by assigning parts A, B, C and D and eliminating almost all stage directions. For me, this allowed me to make sense of the many tiny notes I had written on those scraps of paper. This solidifies my thoughts on how work did not have to be a completely fluid piece in order to be a successful one. But what did make it so successful? Kane builds up a relationship with the audience and the reader. She makes herself vulnerable, and in doing this is demonstrating her authenticity, which can lead us, as viewers, to acknowledge a believability. It is this believability that gives us the personal experience. Kane has designed this piece with an audience reaction in mind, and although she cannot completely control our thought and opinions- I think most will agree when I say it is a deeply real, heart-wrenching piece.
Even a simple trail of thought, through its form, can be deemed particularly effective. One such artist who uses a style of writing akin to a trail of thought as a successful means of expression is China Mieville, whose work including Londons Overthrow allows readers to have an insight into the mind of the artist. Using psycho-geography to tell a story, Mieville weaves a tapestry of thought through relatable anecdotes freshly picked from his mind. Mieville highlights the necessity that is context and description through this piece, as without the eloquent description from his perspective this image would not resonate within me. He demonstrates trying to apply memories of referencing we have learned in the past to taxonomize a type of writing and make it relatable to an audience. This style seems represents a form of documentation of the self, leaving me as the reader feeling exposed to all the sights described and connected to the writer himself through thought alone.
In the search for my own identity, brand, style and authenticity, I have created a film which explores what authenticity and originality mean to those closest to me. Edited in the format of a clickbait confessional YouTube video, this piece of work uses pop culture references alongside personal anecdotes to confirm how we define ourselves and our self-worth. I hose those close to me for pure transparency, as I am familiar with these people so I myself value their opinion and can somewhat deem what is the truth and what is fiction. I will be drawing out this theme of familiarity through the presentation of the piece- by creating a space which I feel represents my own brand- so expect to see a lot of pink, a lot of soft cozy spaces, and hopefully a lot of intimacy between author-reader. Millennial pink- I want the audience to be surrounded by things that are comfortable to me- pinks, soft furnishings that replicate those from my home. My aesthetic decisions reflect my own views of myself and my brand and identity- the layout and design of the set will be a documentation of my life, and a visual guide to me. Along to accompany these visual guides, I will be playing music from my recently played playlist on iTunes, which in my house is what im known for listening to all day every day. I will use the recently played playlist which will be formed for that exact day depending on what I’ve been listening to this week- as my moods change frequently and therefor affect what I listen to, it will be a clear insight into my feelings at the time.
• What do I want the audience to feel / experience?
• Reasons for the set up/link to research
HANNAH A’ENENE
I think some people want to know that their feelings, fears, love is valid therefore we look to find it in pieces of art- we can connect with it and feel it. I think we can relate to replications, for example, classic fairytales, people are able to connect to things being told in a different way. The form, doing it in a particular way, which is able to make people connect with it now. It all comes down to form.
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GEORGINA TYSON
I’ve never been strong at articulating myself and wording my experiences, writing for me has come about in the past few years and I find it really easy to have a long stream of consciousness, telling people about my experiences which I do every day, it feels natural. When I started making videos, I was really worried about my work being essay and how do I present that in a gallery space, so I was trying to figure out a way to make it fun for people to experience, viewing art has to be enjoyable.
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Form holds power when it comes to interpretation. It can show confessional works as egotistical, self-deprecating etc.- but it is the form of the product shown which gives you a chance to be let into the creators' mind, and gain your own experience which you can understand, and perhaps even relate to. Ultimately, “everything is the same except composition as the composition is different and always going to be different.” We can draw influence from things we are interested in, and things that speak to us- to create something personal and authentic to ourselves, and perhaps others.
BEING INFLUENCED
When it comes to influencing and the creation of the “self”, the circles in which you are involved in, tend to be the ones which are most influential for you. For example, take myself – I am in a group which consists of 22-27-year-old artists, which does in some way limit and affect the spread of the work I make and the way I present myself. We tend to adapt to fit the “norm” of that circle that we are part of.
So, let’s take confessional works as the new norm. The commentary which is occurring within the female artist's realm is different than it ever has been before. We are at a point in time in which people, in particular females, aren’t being hushed and silenced. This has allowed a larger hole for open discussion of things such as life experiences. It is easy for these confessional works to fill into a bracket of ‘feminist literature’ alongside the likes of Rupi Kaur or Sylvia Plath, which in effect tightens the circle in which your work is being shown too. With the most impressionable people being those of a younger generation, who have access to platforms like never before, it is fair to say the importance of literary critique is declining- the performativity of things shown stands with the strongest importance, acting as the new form of critique. Because of the sheer amount of ways people are able to present themselves, it is no wonder so many people are influenced by so many trends/ pop culture things such as confessional writings.
“nowhere in the arts can the desire to simply stop things disappearing, and the feeling that one is able to access the past, be stronger than in the live performance archive.”
It would be fair to argue that the documentation of work has become less formalized- we are beginning to use online spaces deeper than ever before, through platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, as well as Live Arts documentation agencies. We are documenting and curating our lives to be shown as works of art. With easier access to personal documentation, we are able to affirm our own identity and aesthetic and develop our brand. This leads me to my next area of research: presentation of the mundane. We use our notes and personal life experiences, exciting or not, to create work which performs on the behalf of us and represents our everyday living. We narrate our lives, through showing all the boring stuff we do. One artist as such that employs this is Georgina Tyson, who shares every single detail of an experience of a sexual encounter she had with a man- even the google searches which are completely irrelevant and mundane. Sophie Calle sees into the life of others with “The Hotel, Room 7” displaying their personal items in a photo series as she works as a maid. We are interested because these boring small things can help build up an idea that we have of the person.
“They all want to retain something of it. Something material, some tangible trace.” Villeneuve discusses the relationship between visual representation of a performance e.g. a photograph and the performance itself and the validity of photography as legitimate documentation. This helped me focus on the artist’s attachment to their performance, and why documentation may occur outside the relationship of spectator and artwork, focusing on an artist’s own relationship with their performance and memory.
“So natural is the impulse to narrate”
Over years I have collected notes on my phone and notebooks and noted down many things from love letters to shopping lists. I wanted to show not the exciting stuff, but the everyday life boring stuff. So, I created a poster series, one of which showed a shopping list. This shopping list, although mundane, is still very personal. It’s a shopping list that we can draw information from – it is a list for a cake. This, more specifically, was a birthday cake that I had made for one of my closest friends. This list’s worth is more than just an irrelevant list of items, but a personal relationship that I have beyond this note- an interpersonal relationship. This takes the seemingly boring and transforms it into an actual documentation of personal experience. This is me looking within my smaller circles to form something I would deem more authentic.
GEORGINA TYSON
Are you happy with replicating and reproducing things that have been done in the past?
I really like things where you draw from popular culture, so everything in my work is gonna be recognizable to somebody, I think by having something recognizable in my work draws them in.
So, you’re drawing influences from people, how concerned are you about your brand and is it special?
I think when I make work I try and stick to the same kind of aesthetic. So that like if you were to see a piece of my work, you’d know it was me, but that's about as far as I go to make it look a certain way.
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CONNOR HARRIS
You look at social media and the power of it, young people are more likely to go on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and its importance in everyone's lives. Everyone is so brainwashed and so many people are creating these dual identities. I don't think everyone wants to be original, I think there are people that are happy to be followers and use influences in their everyday steps to life.
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HANNAH A’ENENE
If we look within our smaller circles and see how the people that we know personally are reacting, we can tell how authentic the thing this person is showing really is. By focusing less on our public image and more our personal interactions, we can tell who people really are. You can post anything online, it's another thing to talk about that in person…
I think that people want recognition. Supreme! I mean, I’ve seen Yamakas with supreme on them, and people buy it because it’s a brand. And then, when you have it, and you’re wearing your supreme undies that are like, showing up you know, people know what you’re doing and then they can kind of build an idea around you. Then if you’re able to build that bigger, bigger and bigger, you can create a movement around you.
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Conclusion
We can use work to provoke emotion- this is certain. We can make pieces which could be deemed relatable to build a rapport and experience between author-audience. But can authenticity really be confirmed? We cannot test or measure someone authenticity with a defined scale- but rather our own personal standards. One person’s definition of authentic differs from the others- so is reality as artists there is no way we can completely control how authentic or original we really are. The public’s perception of us has such a stronghold over what defines out- but the amount of what we share, along with the content, can somewhat control what the audience is leading to believe and associate with us.
With this said- I feel as though I can continue to make work regarding authenticity, in an attempt to show my true self and innermost thoughts, but I do not need to be worrying about how original this is. Originality is redundant, with most ideas being recycled over and over- stop focusing on myself, my thoughts and feelings to demonstrate authenticity is for me, what has become key about my practice