An Anonymous Artist

Ireland

If anonymity on the broader social level is often linked with the illegal, the suspicious or the threatening, then what is the case with anonymity in the art world? Is it possible that a claim to anonymity might challenge the art world system, since such a claim would probably hinder the entire mechanism of art management and consumption? From the contemporary perspective, anonymity seems to contradict the very existence of artists themselves as it entails a deliberate, self-destructive act on their part: a cancelling out of the artistic persona, a nullification or marginalisation of the artist’s work and of the system of trade or exchange of which it would be a part. Could it be, though, that a passive acceptance of this kind of impasse, which is clearly antagonistic to this system, is fuelled only by anxiety – an anxiety which is, in turn, reproduced by means of a dominant ideology (a product of the value system by which western societies measure success, promoting values such as fame and fortune), in which artists find themselves trapped, ultimately drifting further away from their work’s true essence?

My claim to anonymity is, I think, a form of resistance to these particular mechanisms of recognition, acceptance, dissemination and exchange which form an integral part of the dominant art world status quo. It is a call for transcending the self and the artistic ego, for undermining the idea of ‘image’ and a certain role, not in the sense of renouncing the responsibilities these entail, but in that of breaking free from the restrictions they impose. This may very well be an unrealistic attempt, but the idea behind it is both a symbolic act and an effort – albeit brief – to make the artistic act and its contribution the sole centre of our attention

(Text: give(a)way catalogue, 2006)