ARTISTS TALKING

# 2 [8 October 2007]

Okay so today is a big day. It is a big day since it is the first working day since I launched which means my posts to various online sites can be published (such as a-n, axisweb, arts jobs, critical network - tbc). So this is my first chance to see a true response, I have already had a little from setting up a myspace (www.myspace.com/pseudonymgallery ) very good for getting ideas international very quickly a lot of theses posing sites rarely seem to get viewed by many other than its country of origin.

From our space we had 4 responses GREAT! A lot of very good artists and to prove my international comment two from the states, one from England and one from Scotland.

From all my posts I got 3 responses one of which was a question, which is good we like questions, but it just said why would an artist use a pseudonym? This scares me for two reasons

1.         because when trying to reply the only answer I have seem to able to come up with so far is because they want to (not a good standing point for any critical debate). All I feel I can say is I have my reasons for doing it and others have theirs each infinitely different and original. Perhaps it is easier to ask the same question and to think of two of the most famous and successful pseudonym users - Andy Kauffman and Banksy. However, in history there are many more scandalous and great stories about why to use a pseudonym. If you have any that I wont know please email them (or could do a swap.)

2.         because the feeling that all the artists I met before that said they used a pseudonym were the only ones and that by adopting a pseudonym was setting us up for a big artistic downfall. Upon meeting these people networking, I had concluded that there were a lot of people working under pseudonyms and struggling to apply to things because of this. Maybe they were the only ones - should I have grabbed them, got their number and moved closer to the area they lived because they were it? (well this is of course an irrational fear because I now know that there are two in the states one in Japan and one in Scotland.)

I have realised a trend in the arts already from this project in that many illustrators use pseudonyms as well as graffiti artists and there is a lot of good work around from these genres - so hard to pick out one from the other. Also finding it hard to find writers and live artists although in my head these were the most readily apparent. So if you are working under a pseudonym on theses subjects or want to - please contact me.

Problem of the day: When does a band name become a pseudonym? (much thought on this one I think).

Hope of the day: A well know artist wants to get away from the fame of his/her name and become a pseudonym artist (it could happen but I might not ever know, if they did it well).

# 1 [7 October 2007]

So we have finally launched the idea of pseudonym after it had been buzzing around in my head for a while but didn't quite know how to go about it. So eventually I thought the best way to do it was to have an online gallery and propose shows/events from the artist we have online. Let's see how it works.

The reason I wanted to do the project came from doing the dreaded networking at any event I went to and I always met someone that worked in some way under a pseudonym either in a group or on their own. This started me thinking that a big part of these peoples' work was acknowledged or thought about because the audience and galleries that presented it didn't even seem to think of the fact that they were working under a pseudonym. However, I also felt the current art climate wasn't allowing many artists the ability to play with the idea or a pseudonym or often even apply their work in the manner they intended to because of box or form ticking. When thinking along these lines I began to realise a reverse function that by knowing who the artist was people seem to read the work from the artist's point of view giving it labels instantly because you saw the artist was disabled or from a minority where in fact the artist may not have even seen his/her work from that point of view.

So, this gallery here is for people to play, experiment and show their work as well as for artists who already have a pseudonym, to have a showing place for their work. I know by having the gallery wear its ideals on its sleeve the audience will view all the artist as liars cheats, not knowing how much or how little they actually are . I think this shows the potential of the project, which is a play on all the systems that art run, and only time will tell how it works out. There is of course a big fear that it will just flop - we will see.