Audience experience at ‘Paradise’
Rapture presents ‘Paradise’ at Velarde Gallery. Here, I introduce some of the events that we hosted over the opening weekend and describe our intentions behind them.
Myself and Jesse Leroy Smith hosting the Paradise post-banquet conversation at Verlarde Gallery
At Rapture, we’re trying to do a few things but the root of all of them is experience. In creative ways, we’re addressing the relationship between the viewer and the artwork, within the gallery context. Beginning from the perspective of our personal experience as artists with a studio practice, we are then experimenting with whether any of the creative methods we use can be transferable to the audience. There are many bridges to cross, because the artistic consciousness doesn’t have much presence in popular society. For example, creating art requires inhabiting a state of ‘not-knowing’, something I have termed ‘lucid unknowing’. This model demands occupying both sides of the brain with responsive dexterity. To create something original, means to be free from control, and crucially, to be open to prompts that aren’t self-generated. In a delicate dance, the left side of the brain is brought in to almost midwife the painting into being. As the reflective party, this ‘part’ must play a role in evaluating the painting as it evolves, without interfering in the content.
I have written much about my own relationship with painting and the nature of being in dialogue with creativity itself. For me, it is important to inhabit a learner’s mentality. To become wide open to follow the lead of the paint, rather than bring my preconceived ideas and direct the painting towards something I have imagined. The idea is, that if I can picture the painting fully before I make it, there is no room for creativity to enter and therefore the painting is lifeless. I feel strongly that the audience needs to bring the same kind of ‘willingness to be shown’ to the gallery experience, and that too many words inhibit the relationship with the art work.
Galleries are rightly often trying to reach new audiences and to tailor the journey of the visitor to make art more accessible to larger numbers of people. But I question whether having lengthy wall texts, audio guides and pamphlets explaining each key piece actually helps. I would argue instead that it interferes with the experience that the artwork can organically offer, by employing left-brain thinking in the implication that there is something to understand before the artwork can land.
My belief is that work needs to be done to prepare the audience for openness to receive the artwork, more than any kind of lesson to be applied to it. In this way, I see it more as being about nurturing the confidence of visitors to listen to their intuition and claim whatever the painting is making them feel, as a valid and appropriate response. Being on hand to clear obstacles out of the way can ease this transition from ‘needing to know’ to ‘occupying curiosity’ and letting the artwork perform.
Image credit Alban Roinard
To this end, Rapture is developing new models to engage audiences within the gallery context, in the presence of the art, as well as in real-time dialogue with the artists. Our idea is not to explain anything or to make anybody wrong in their interpretations, but merely to set up the conditions and then advocate for the art to behave as intended. Which brings me to Paradise…
On the opening weekend of Paradise at Verlarde, we hosted a banquet for 30+ guests, plus gallery staff and many of our exhibiting artists. The idea was to share food together, to ‘warm’ the gallery environment and to relax into a collaborative space where we can share ideas and experience the art in a live context. As guests arrived, there was about half an hour for them to walk around the gallery, spending time looking at the paintings. We introduced ourselves and the ethos of Rapture to the group and set our intentions for the evening before settling down to the banquet. After dinner, we initiated a discussion with the audience about how they were experiencing the evening in the context of being surrounded by the exhibition. Some very interesting currents of thought emerged such as the objecthood of art as relating to commodification, the position and placement of meaning within the artwork or viewer, audience experience and the role of the gallery, and the current UK appetite for art as compared to literature. The discussion felt live, creative and investigatory. By nature, each contribution felt of equal validity and there was a real sense that we were figuring this out in real time. It left me with hope that Rapture is getting closer to realising a format that can accommodate our ambitions, and the feedback from our guests was very affirming. Subscribe to our newsletter at www.rapture-live.co.uk to book onto our next event.
