Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

As new forms of art proliferate and new types of creators and curators appear, what meanings adhere to labels like “artist”? Drawing on in-home interviews with a range of people about the art they display in their living spaces, I analyze the display practices of amateur and “professional” artists asking how they understand their work – e.g., as “art,” as “craft,” or “just a thing I do” – and what meanings its display has for them. These data are a subset of a larger set of interviews about the art that people choose to display in their homes. Generally, my respondents stressed the art they displayed as demonstrating a connection to others. People display art that reminds them of or links them to friends and family (broadly defined), or sometimes to places, organizations, and even pets. Very few people mentioned aesthetic reasons. Those who have made what they display, however, talked primarily about aesthetics and identity, although they also talk about connection to others in interesting ways, e.g., connection to artistic communities. I argue that the interactive nature of the artist/audience role is facilitated by both new technologies, such as advances in printing, and new cultural logics rooted in the digital world that encourage a broader range of people to participate in creation and consumption simultaneously, e.g., through photographs posted on social media.