At the Blake Prize Judging panel

The Blake Prize judging panel consists of 3 judges includes an Art Historian/ critic/ curator, a practicing artist and a theological scholar.  Judges are supplied with a copy of all submissons of work, then they individually assess the submissions and submit a list of their pre-selection for finalist to the Blake, which is usually around 100 each. Judges then meet at a dark meeting room and look at slides after slides of the final selection of works consisting list from all three judges (usually with large overlap) and determine the finalist listing. The Blake then notifies contestants who were chosen as finalist of their status, Blake would then assist the finalists with their work to be delievered and arranged for viewing. The Judges meet to view works in-situ at a space to determine the winners of the Blake Prize, John Coburn emerging Artist Award and the collection that would be included at the touring exhibition.
We were with the Judging panel at a meeting room in COFA for the second round of selection, COFA was still under construction then, there were drilling right underneath our windows. You would think that would have made the atmosphere more tense, as it is the determination of an quiet prestigious art prize in which involves themes that can get people very passionate and worked up about. Surprisingly the atmosphere was rather peaceful if not a bit dull. Seeing so many works at a time, in pictures that would do little justice, either overplaying or underplaying what it really is, it mush be quiet numbing, for the eyes and for the brain. I was surprised not many confronting works were chosen, many works with more aggressive views on religion or spirituality were quietly voted out. Tame Islamic works were in favor, as of new age take on spirituality, and lambs for some reason, anything with lambs.
I guess you can’t expect much radicalism at such a long running Prize celebrating religion and spirituality whose director is a well respected Rev, but since the panel of Judges is external and do not have direct association with the Blake society, makes me wonder if the judges unconsciously adjusted their taste to accommodate what they think is appropriate for the Prize? As I see it, I think it is an excellent platform to talk about the big questions, to question spirituality and even God, in a peaceful and respecting way, not merely a dumbed down celebration.  

Twitter tweeter tweeted twaaauut...?

I am a facebook user, always have been. Have been a devoted follower of the Zuckerberg Shrine since when it was just about to hit second phase (if anyone has seen "the Social Network", its when facebook started acknowledging other top 50 schools, when Justin Timberlake woke up half naked in the Stanford girl's bed). At that time the idea of social networking in Taiwan (it still very much is) is this thing called BBS (Bulletin Board System) a black dos-era forum operated on telnet that looks  some black hacker spy website. Very low tech, there was no pictures or animation or likes and pokes, nobody was notified or connected to each other except for the most basic way, by human memory and recollection. Facebook is so mesmerizing, you get to see everything your friends are doing, you get the games the pictures, the links and sharing all in one. That's why I never understood the little blue bird of Twitter.
and everything that comes with it
Every internet platform comes
Twitter seems like the new thing, especially when it comes to low budget marketing (or no budget marketing). It is a tool that has been greatly utilized in the art world recently, mostly because, well, low budget. As a twitter user who is still not very good at it and always overwhelmed by the flood of tweet I have to comb over every time I open it-- I use it to subscribe to my art news feeds, from MCA to Kaldor to Frieze to Damien Hirst' Shark (yes there's a twitter account that talks from the perspective of a half decaying shark) to moma to well every art org you can think of, which is problematic because there's way too much information and I end up not being bothered to read any of them-- the only thing I can do is to provide my not so useful insight on the topic of Twitter as an marketing tool for the arts.
Main usage we see for Twitter in the art world is usually:
1. blatant advertisement, ie soandso gallery new show blahblahblah opening on Thursday night #wineandcheese
This is the most common form, of course it can also be "entries closes soon" or " show closes on Friday please come we're desperate." but is it effective? I would say yes and no.....Its like that pop up reminder you set on computer to remind you to take your pills or pay your bills, you see it the first few times then you start ignoring it. I would say Facebook fanpages and events would probably work better because your audience who actually cares about this info can put it on their calender directly and also see which of their friends might come (or at least care enough to express their interest in coming, then not showing up last minute) Plus twitter does show pictures, at least it doesn't show up directly so that cuts off the excitement a bit.
2.  Live blogging interviews or events
I didn't quiet catch up with this at first. The idea of somebody at the event rather then focusing on what the speaker on stage have to say but having their eye on their phones frenetically typing away on their phone is a bit bizarre and slightly disrespectful. But after following a sessions of them on twitter, it does provide quiet an interesting way for the audience to interact with the mediator and each other, triggering good discussions and opinion exchanges, which is what art is all about right?
I think ideally would be a Reddit Ask me Anything session online in which the people of the internet can interact and ask artist/curator/arts worker/critic anything during a session, rather than everybody tweeting during a live event.  But live tweeting does alternatively leave a record and a rather lively trail for people who could not attend the event to follow and read back on.
3. Competition and callouts.
calling out to the public for entries on certain hashtags that one creates, usually relevant to the theme topic of exhibition/public program. I personally think this works better on Instagram because...well visual art is usually visual and posting pictures on twitter is really hard to navigate... but on the other hand instragram is hard to use on a computer, thumbs down for that. And Facebook is usually a bit too private to enter comps, I guess you sometimes don't want your real friends, coworkers, exbosses, great aunties seeing you spamming their timeline.

4A, chinatown's little gem

Interning at 4a and Blake is a very different experience.
I remember my first day at 4a, it was already full on. Little did I know this tiny gallery hidden in the mist of Chinatown's constant hustling and bustling is as hustle and bustle inside its operation. The operation manger took me and another intern who also just came on board for a general overview of the gallery's operation. Just looking at the gallery icalender it's like a mexican blanket interwoven with colors that overlap and crisscross each other, 
Getting into 4A was not easy, after weeks and weeks of constantly pestering the general manger Summar (Whom I thought was an skinny posh indian dude for some reason) gave me a chance for an interview. meeting with Direct Aaron was nerve wracking and quiet relieving at the same time.
At 4A is a small but very busy and very well oiled machine, I think a mac mini would serve as a very good metaphor for this place. It does a lot more than an institute this size usually do, and it does it well with great efficiency. It constantly puts on thought provoking, progressive yet well rounded exhibitions, and bringing artists with internationally acclaimed big names or artists with big potential.
It does things rarely other people can do, working so closely with their artists, giving them support, bringing them into their own support network. Providing them with the nutrients a creative needs to produce great work, not just money as resources, finding studios for them, space, people to collaborate with, introducing patrons that would appreciate their vision.

ode to the admins - Blake Prize

the blake prize logo

Entries for the Blake Prize has officially closed on 27th of July, we have received around 1500 entries (not sure if it's an outrageous number but we're quiet proud of it)
we started processing the entries and preparing them for the judges to view before August 27th

Before the entry deadline days at the office was quiet mellow and routine, we processed the entries that we received, Stefanie (our amazing manager who runs the whole thing from her home) processes the payments and we the interns would re-size the images of the artwork in which the artist submitted. Sounds easy enough, but these task really makes one appreciate administrative work and draw to the fact that how much it is overlooked.
It's like admiring your beloved iphone for how great a job those geniuses of an scientist/ engineer at apple have achieved but overlooking the workers who welds those tiny parts together on the production line. It's an easy job, anybody with delicate hands can do it, but without them there is no way the product would come into being.

People often take administrative work for granted, since it's often seen as repetitive, data entry jobs that needs not much creativity, which is 80% true.
But we often forget to put people in the equation, people who come from all walks of life from different background, different culture, different temperate, different names different accent different understanding of the same instructions, and it complicates things a hell lot.


People amaze you
often in many different ways

Since our entries are posted (very oldschool, I know) though most entries we received are very standard and fitting to our instructions, there's sometimes gems buried in the piles. There's entries that have beautifully written artist statement, one even had a special thank you note with hand drawn flowers and little people on it.
The problem with these beautiful handwritten statements is....it's really hard for us to make out what they are trying to say most of the time...
Once an artists called to insist that he wants to take a picture of his photography and post it to us because he's scared somebody would steal his work and reproduce it, we spend quiet a bit of time trying to explain to him if he posted the picture to us we still have to scan the picture, we will still get a copy of his work and the resolution won't be as good and puts him in a compromising position during judging. Not sure if he fully understood us, since we still received an entry of a picture of a photography, I wonder if it was the same person......?

I know it seems like very trivial issues and petty complaints, all I wanted to say is working at the Blake and at the National Palace Museum as well since my main task there was very admin based, helping with the three day seminar that we were putting on, processing applications and payments.
 

Next time be nicer to our local officers and school admins
(I need to work on that too)

Update overdue

Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962), taken at LACMA

 

(no the image has nothing to do with this post, just thought I'd put something artsy just for the blogs sake.)

I started this blog months and months ago
back then I just finished my internship in Taiwan at the National Palace Museum (home of one of the biggest and best collection of ancient Chinese and Asian art/artifacts), was about to start my internship at the Blake Prize, a long running Australian art prize for religious and spiritual art (this is its 61th year!).
That was March
Now it's August
you guys can see how slack I have been
and I am deeply sorry about that!

Just a few updates on my art career pursuing life

Entries for the Blake Prize has officially closed on 27th of July, we have received around 1500 entries (not sure if it's an outrageous number but we're quiet proud of it)
we started processing the entries and preparing them for the judges to view before August 27th
There's two phases of the judging process, the first would be online remotely, then out of the thousands of entries the judges would pick out the finalist and have a face to face judging session in the SH Ervin Gallery.
Which mean the dry season for this internship is officially over, and get ready for the busy days! 

On top of that, I started another internship/ volunteer at the 4A centre for contemporary asian art
no we're not 4a gallery or A4 or asian art centre (it's confusing, I know, it's confusing for us to considering the fact we changed our name at least four times since 1996)
The first time I heard about 4a was at a talk during our management and organization course with Anna Waldmann, she invited a panel of four speakers from different art institutes, one of which is the director of 4A Aaron Seeto. It was then I learned about this tiny but wonderful institution, it's focus on promoting contemporary art and reconnecting with the community. It's special location and history intrigued me the most, with it's asian roots and location in Chinatown, I felt that if I would have started my own art institute this is what it would look like. After the talk, I approached Aaron with my heart set on getting an opportunity to work with them.
After months of persistent emails pestering them finally got an entry ticket as a volunteer at 4A!

I have to say it has been amazing! but more on that later

the ticket

Internship exists in all industries, taken from the long tradition of the mentoring system. The hard part is for the skilled to tutor the young beings the ways of the jungle, at the end of the term, being able to take away with them the fishing rod as well as some fish. Not just the exploitation of young flesh and free labor (as we like to say it, young fresh liver, yes because liver is the organ you exploit when you out do yourself), nor is it a after school nursery for inapt youngsters.
Two internships that I am undertaking (undertook) is very different, mainly due to the nature of the institutes. It was very interesting comparison looking from inside out.  The first, a national museum directly managed by the government under federal funding, housing a permanent collection of over 677,687 pieces of artifacts and art works, with hundreds of staff, not counting the extremely professional volunteers that roam the museum halls. Being an intern there is like a bee at Paddy's Market, you fly around, watch, try not to be squashed while hopefully be able to steal something from the whole experience.
Internship 2 is a quiet established art prize, yet the whole operation from collecting entries, putting together judging sessions, hosting panels, news conference, online exhibition, touring exhibition, all being run by one person (plus one or two interns) out of her office in her home, which is wildly astonishing. 
I guess what one can really take from these two extreme examples are that the art world is extremely flexible, it can be hugely complicated and sophisticated, or it can be very simple and efficient. They both aren't the norm of what we consider as art institutes, which is what I find these experience both immensely interesting yet very frustrating at the same time.

ok I really don't know how to write a blog and talk to my make believe readers
I noticed that I might sound like a twat
will try to be more light hearted next post