A two hour workshop on art writing, with Victoria Perin.

WHEN: Thursday 21 May, 1-3PM
WHERE: Arts Lab, Level 1, Arts and Cultural Building, Monash Road, Building 159, next to the George Paton Gallery.
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I once spoke to an art critic friend who said: “What I like about artists is they struggle with writing and I don’t”. What that friend was forgetting is that being an art writer is about being a good little parasite, and not getting too big for your boots. Art writing is about feeding from the host: the artist. And it’s not becoming to think otherwise. After all, can legendary art criticism be written about forgettable art? How do we gorge in a famine? 

This workshop will begin with a brief history of local critic vs artist relations. Together we will read excerpts by artists, art historians and critics on power dynamics in text about art. We will look at strategies that artists have come up with in the past to deal with a hostile critical environment. And we will workshop how arrogance and respect can be used as polemical modes. No laptops required, please bring a pen and a willingness to examine how you might be different from an artist (even if you are one (we are all more than one thing)).

Victoria Perin is an art historian and critic who lives in Naarm / Melbourne.