How do you think art is perceived given how accessible art and artists are online?
I think that while it may be true that we have access digitally to a lot of the work of artists over the centuries, I think people value unique experiences, and they value the experience of seeing art in real life.
Many people thought that when the Kindle came along that this would put the printed book out of business. That hasn’t happened. If anything people are buying the physical printed books because they are well produced, beautifully designed, there is something in the experience of reading the book directly is more important than before.
The ubiquitousness of the digital image, reducing everything to the same size on your tiny little phone screen, I think this increases the value of the physical engagement with a piece in a gallery. Even the art world, the business side of the art world is invested in the collectible physical object.
I just don’t see NFT’s taking over the world any time soon. The Biennales and the major blockbuster exhibitions still have people queuing up to see them. While virtual exhibitions are useful in their own way the physical experience is essential.
I made a work called Barrier, it’s a large folding screen of the Sarah Everard protests; you can see it in the videos of that particular exhibition. I think you really needed to be in the room to get a sense of the physicality of that work and what I was trying to achieve with it.
Where to now?
I am not exactly sure. I have a few public projects that are a little up in the air so I can’t really talk about them now. I have a three person show in Ormston House in Limerick coming up. That will be a combination of old and new work.
2024 is a year of changes with the US elections, the UK elections, the Indian elections and the Palestine-Israeli conflict ongoing. I am planning and working on making a new protest drawing each week. I hope to complete 52 drawings over the year. I am thinking about how I might structure that work at the moment. So, I am working away on this and we will see how the year progresses.
To see more of Joy Gerrard’s work click on the links below
