The Role of the Artist

Designed for senior secondary students and teachers, this learning resource positions the National Gallery of Australia’s work of art Body Sculpture by Jordan Wolfson in the broader context of contemporary art. Students will be encouraged to examine the role of the artist in contemporary society and the relationship between the artist and their audience through case studies focusing on four contemporary artists:

Jordan Wolfson
r e a, Gamilaraay/Wailwan/Biripi peoples
Fiona Hall
Robert Andrew, Yarwuru people

These artists have been selected to highlight a diversity of contemporary artistic practice, broadening and deepening student’s thinking around the role of artists and audiences. Through interactive, time-based, experiential, performative, and politically charged works, these artists variously bear witness to the human condition, draw attention to our impact on the environment, acknowledge First Nations cultures, reveal hidden histories, invite contemplation, and drive social change.

One work of art from each artist will be paired with:

• Contextual information
• Quotes from each artist, centering the artist’s voice in relation to how they see their role as an artist and their relationship to their audience
• Provocations to encourage discussion, debate, research, and reflection
• Prompts for students to examine how they conceive of the audience in the context of their own creative practice. Using their own artmaking as the focus, students will be encouraged to consider how audiences might interact with their work and what they would like audiences to take away from the experience
• Notes for Teachers elaborate on the themes of The Artist, The Work of Art and The Collaborators and their relevance to senior Visual Arts curricula.

INTRODUCTION

It is important to remember that the works of art in this learning resource are representative of the artists' voice and their lived experience. Students should feel safe and comfortable sharing as much or as little as they want in response to the provocations. Everyone should listen and share with respect to the artists, their work, their teachers, and the voices of their peers.

The following provocations and prompts are intended to invite thinking about the overarching ideas presented in the learning resource. There are also valuable questions to circle back to as you work through the resource and deep dive into the artist case studies.

Provocations

• What is the role of artists in our society?
  Evaluate what this question means to you and your own artmaking.

Prompts

• Write your responses to the provocation as individuals. Then, if everyone feels comfortable doing so, bring your chairs into a circle and discuss as a group. Aim to make connections between your individual responses in your collective discussion. What are the common themes and connections? Create a collective text that outlines your ideas about the role of artists and how they contribute to the world around them.
• Re-evaluate your responses to the provocation as you work through the artist case studies. Reflect on your experience of each work of art and how your perception of the practice and role of each artist aligns with that artist’s intentions and quotes.

Provocations

• How do you perceive your role as ‘audience’ when engaging with works of art?
  For example, do you complete the work, activate it, or feed back into it? How might the experience or interaction shift with different artist’s considerations of audience?
• Do you think artists have a responsibility to consider their audience, and in what ways? What ethical considerations might be important for artists to consider?

Prompts

• Read Chapter 1: Principles, Ethics and Rights, from the National Association for the Visual Arts Code of Practice and consider how the following quote from the chapter introduction might inform your response to the provocation.

Through a focus on the voices and practices of contemporary artists, students will be supported to develop visual literacy, while learning how meaning and concepts are constructed and communicated in a variety of works of art and practices. Students will analyse forms, conventions and symbols used by artists to construct meaning and express their ideas. This learning resource has a strong focus on the following areas with links to senior Visual Arts curricula nationally:

The Artist
Students will examine the role of the artist in contemporary society and consider the relationship between the artist and their audience. This resource explores how artists over time and place represent their concepts and ideas, expressing their understanding of self, place, and contemporary issues. Students will gain an understanding of how to apply their technical knowledge, empathy, ethics, and principles of intercultural understanding to creating their own bodies of work.

The Work of Art
This resource will support students to critically and creatively analyse their world while developing curiosity, knowledge and understanding of the evolving and dynamic nature of art. Students will be encouraged to take a deep look at representational art works and how these shape narratives. Through analysis of narratives in works of art, students will gain insights into how perspectives on the world are presented and how that affects reception of, and responses to, works of art and artists. Connecting to audience curiosity around the making of the work and its technical innovation, students will investigate techniques for communicating their ideas to an audience, while developing skills as audience and artist. In their own creative practice, students will be encouraged to apply techniques to communicate their understanding of a range of issues through works of art.

The Collaborators
Students will examine the process of collaboration, considering the value of collaboration to the artist and to the development of the work, the ideas, and the production process. Students will develop capacity as problem solvers, risk takers, and critical and creative thinkers, learning that art exists in process, as finished works of art and understanding the collaborative nature of interconnected art ecosystems.

Students will learn that the nature of practice involves:

• intentional and informed human activity
• the instilling or impressing of beliefs, actions, motives, and ideas over time
• recognition that the field of visual arts and design has a history and is continuously transformed by innovations and new knowledge, technologies, and agents
• recognition that conceptions of practice are fluid and transform with changes in the field of visual arts and design
• notions of practice are not only informed by the new and the emergent but also by the re-emergence of existing or traditional conventions of practice.