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Audacity Works
Audacity Works
Transforming Fear into Fluency: Artist Residencies for Aerialists
Afraid of navigating the complex world of artist residencies as an aerialist? You don’t need a residency specifically geared towards circus artists to flourish.
When you aren't used to it, verbalizing your work is awkward AF. This episode encourages embracing that discomfort. Imagine the experience of being able to talk about yourself and your work with ease.
Episode 31: WTH is an artist residency?
Circus Center Artists in Residency
Zaccho Dance Theater Residencies
The Big List of Residencies! Be aware, it is a beast. :)
Don't go back to sleep.
xoRachel
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Welcome to Audacity Works, a podcast inspired by and dedicated to the working artist, the creative entrepreneur and generally doing the damn thing. This exists on the premise that the world belongs to those who have the audacity to believe that their lives have value. This is for you. Hi, friends, and welcome to Audacity Works. I am your host, rachel Strickland, and this is episode number 37, in which we're going to talk a little bit more about artist residencies, because I'm getting some questions. So an artist residency in its most essential terms is dedicated time and space. This can be in the form of subsidized studio space, a complete, all of your needs are met, experience for a couple of weeks in a place that's designated to hold artist residencies, or anything in between. Truly, now the rest of the world knows about artist residencies, and has for a long time, and it's only in recent years that I have seen circus artists are catching on or the world is catching on to circus artists. I don't know both ways, and we're like well, that is actually really, really helpful. Yeah, it is. That's why I'm going to talk about it some more. If you want more on the nitty gritty and kind of a baseline, you can check out episode 31, which is all about artist residencies like what the hell is that? And I will link that in the show notes. So, assuming you already know what an artist residency is, i got a question from a girl, mira, who says I've been stumped on how to integrate aerial into residencies. I'd love to hear more about how to talk, rigging slash, explain yourself to potential residencies or any other thoughts. I always have other thoughts and I'm going to tell you about them.
Speaker 1:So, given that thing that I just said, artist residencies for aerialists are not as common as other disciplines until recently. So when, if you are interested in doing artists residencies and why wouldn't you be you may, in your search, find that there isn't a ton for you to choose from. And this is where my next point is very important. You do not have to find a residency that is specifically aimed at circus artists or aerialists to take advantage of that residency. I repeat, you do not have to find a residency that's specifically geared to your discipline to take advantage of it. It would be easier, but, like I said, it's not like there is just a smorgasbord of options out there and you might find a particular place or a particular organization that you really jive with and you want to do a residency with them, but they don't know what an aerialist is. So that's fine, it's 100% fine. You can approach them, just like Mira is saying, and present your case.
Speaker 1:So before you get all like but we need specialized equipment to do what we do. Every artist needs specialized equipment to do what they do, and I think, as circus artists and aerialists, we're used to being the big pain in the ass because, like, oh, guess what? Now we need a scissor lift And no one else is as paint as much of a pain in the ass as an aerialist because of the specialized equipment needs. And that's not true, because think of all the weird shit that artists do. They're like I'm going to bring sand from 15 different countries and then I'm going to make things out of the sand and then I'm going to destroy it. That legitimately describes one of the artists that I was on residency with in Florida in 2021. And she was like the darling of the whole thing. Everyone loved her work and loved what she did. They didn't care that she was a pain in the ass. I mean, as a person she was absolutely lovely. But you know, a bunch of sand is kind of a big thing to haul around. So if you're dismissing the thing that you want to do because you think that you're going to be too much trouble for them to bother with, don't assume that it's not true.
Speaker 1:That said, if you are talking to a residency and you want to use a particular space to do your work, let's just assume that you're an aerialist and you need rigging. You do need to know how to talk about that And you have three options for doing this. One you can have a rigor in your life that you know how much they cost, you trust them, they trust you and you have a good working relationship, so you can hire a rigor. Two you can educate yourself on rigging so that you know what words to use and you know what to ask for. You know the difference between working load and breaking load and what those numbers are. Option three is a combination of these two things. If you feel intimidated about talking about rigging, even though you do have some education around it, i do recommend that you practice this. Grab your nearest friend who's an engineer And I say engineer because engineers are just like brilliant at picking up on little things that have been left out in my experience anyway, and let them be your guinea pig for this conversation.
Speaker 1:This is no different from many, many, many situations that you are gonna find yourself in as a working artist, which is, you need to know what your needs are and you need to be able to ask for them. This probably applies to lots of other situations in your life. You need to know what your needs are and you need to be able to ask for what you need, because nobody is going to read your mind, or at least let's not count on that, shall we? If you'd like a success story of how this went well in my life, i applied to the artist residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, which is in no way geared towards aerialists. That didn't matter at all, because what they ask for is evidence of your work. They ask for a projected use of the space, like a statement of intent, as in what do you plan on doing while you're here? And if all of those things are in order and you've made a clear case for yourself like, yes, i am a working artist, yes, I do have an idea. No, i'm not just walking around looking at the sky wondering when is my dream job gonna fall in my lap. If the evidence is there, you have a good case for being taken on by the residency or being awarded the residency. This is what happened to me, and I explained my needs to the administrative office and I learned that in the theater there were steel I-beams up top that didn't have lights on them so they weren't already being stressed by more things hanging on them other than the building. And because they're super legit and had their shit together, they did have a scissor lift and they had a custodian that didn't live on the property but was there pretty much all day, every day, and so when I brought my equipment in, we all met in the theater together and they were great about making sure that I had exactly what I needed. Of course, i had to provide the equipment. Like you can't go to a residency that isn't designed for your specific discipline and with your specific needs in mind without owning your own equipment. Like you gotta have your own stuff.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're shy about having these conversations or advocating for yourself as an artist, particularly in a landscape, that like kind of cocks its head at you and is like what are you? What kind of what are you? I don't know what you are. I've never seen you before. Um, that's fine. It just means that you need to practice, and the confidence for having this conversation doesn't come before you have the conversation. It comes after. But something that is really helpful when preparing to feel confident about this conversation is having your shit in order, like have your artist statement written, have several, make a terrible artist statement and then improve on it. Have your bio ready, you know. Have evidence of your work ready, um, make sure that you've read the application and you're actually giving them exactly what they're asking for in terms of video length and, uh, variety of pieces of work that you've made, perhaps. So preparation is the best, uh is the best thing that you can do to feel confident before you've actually done the thing, but then confidence just comes, you know, after you've done the thing. Isn't that a bitch? I? I really think this is super valuable for us to be forced to articulate what we do to someone who doesn't necessarily understand it, and in trying to um aid someone else in reaching an understanding of the thing that you are doing, you will get a deeper understanding of the thing that you're doing and you're going to have more vocabulary to use around it. So that sounds pretty good, right, and it is good.
Speaker 1:Uh, and between not feeling comfortable talking about your work to someone who doesn't understand it to feeling confident talking about your work to anyone, there's a lot of times of discomfort in between that Lean into that discomfort, don't dissociate. Stay in the room, stay with the discomfort. That discomfort is teaching you, even the discomfort of writing an artist statement which is uh, it's, it's an, only necessary for really specific things, and we can do a separate episode about artist statements. If anyone is interested, just let me know, because otherwise I won't know unless you tell me.
Speaker 1:Like, the first time that I wrote an artist statement, i was ready to rip my hair out. I felt resentful of the fact that I had to summarize myself Like I didn't want to. I was being very petulant, like a little kid, like no, not to, but I want the thing that you have and I can't have it unless I do this stupid thing. And that childish petulance that I felt, which I recognized right away, i'm like uh-huh, i'm, i'm throwing a little tantrum, that's what I'm doing. It made sense. Uh, the tantrum made sense because I was being pushed far outside of my comfort zone. Um, but I did stay in the room with it. I saw help from my smart friends, um, and I got help. Thank you, ross Travis.
Speaker 1:And afterwards, like the understanding that I had and my ability to articulate what I was doing in my work in concrete terms was vastly expanded. I went from using flowery, esoteric language to using concrete terms, all of which had a definite meaning, and that was extremely powerful. And that's part of the power of um, working in ways that you aren't accustomed to working in. So if you're intrigued by residencies and they intimidate you, cool, good, stay, lean into that, do that, because the understanding that you will get about your own work and your ability to verbalize it will be immense. And to be really specific to Mira's question, because she's asking like uh, how do you talk about yourself? uh, as an aerialist to a residency, to appeal to them as someone who's not who they usually would host.
Speaker 1:And the second ago, when I was talking about artist statements, i use the term concrete language And this was like this is one-on-one in creative writing, which is what I got my degree in many, many years ago. So concrete language are things that have actual meanings and the opposite of them is an abstraction, and abstractions are things that, at least in poetry, we are taught to try and stay away from, because there's no picture, and poetry is okay one woman's opinion, i guess but poetry is pictures. So abstractions, which are the opposite of concrete terms, are intangible, like they refer to intangible qualities and concepts. They're things that we know what they are, but we only know them intellectually through our own experience, like truth or beauty or soul. And these are words and words like them that I see lots of like every time, pretty much in the first draft of any artist's bio, when they write their bios for week five of the Audacity Project. And I see a lot of first drafts and pretty much all of them are full of abstractions because we don't yet have the language to speak about ourselves in terms of our creative work.
Speaker 1:So, as an example, something that I learned and understanding that I reached while I was writing in my appeal for my artist residencies was here's the abstraction I'm a weirdo, it's true, and if you know me you know why it's true, but these people don't know me. They're like well, how are you weird? And that's where I was forced to really pair down my language, make it concrete. So that went from I do weird things to. I employ the application of mud and gold leaf and unnatural dimensions to a human body as part of my work. I did not enjoy pairing that down, but I very much enjoy having it paired down. There is a quote I don't know who said it. I could easily look it up, but I'm not going to right now And the quote is I don't love writing. I love having written, and that was very true for me. I didn't love the experience of coming to a deeper understanding of myself and my work, but I love having the deeper understanding.
Speaker 1:So, as a review, ways that you can approach residencies that aren't accustomed to your discipline, particularly in terms of rigging for aerialists. One practice practice on your engineer friend to have a rigor or know a rigor, ask for advice. You have to know the words to use. You have to know the vocabulary, you have to know the numbers associated with what it is that you need to keep yourself safe. You really have to know these things anyway if you're going to work or participate in the culture in any kind of way. That's going to be unexpected ever, because that just means that you're inhabiting places that weren't necessarily designed for you, and there aren't a lot of places that are specifically designed for this thing that we do, to practice talking about yourself, your work and what it is that you intend to do or accomplish during residency or during a period of time.
Speaker 1:Using concrete terms, do a brain vomit right, just like. Write out what do you do, why do you do it, how do you hope the audience feels? I'll say it again What do you do, why do you do it And how do you hope to make the audience feel? and then read back over that and circle all the abstractions, the abstractions in there. Then take another second to write out what those things are in concrete terms for you. For example, in my first draft, one of my abstractions was I hope to make the audience feel moved. Well, obviously, like durr, you know. Thank you, captain. Obvious, everybody hopes to make the audience feel moved mostly.
Speaker 1:But when I was forced to sit that down and divide it and put it into concrete terms, what I actually walked away with. The real truth about what I want to do with my work is this To uncover the suppressed aspects of the psyche, particularly the feminine aspects of the psyche, which are present in all people, is both my subject matter and the intended effect on the viewer. Now, there's still plenty of Abstraction in there, but you know a lot more from the second statement than from the first statement. That statement took me hours to come up with. I didn't just come up with that after sitting in thinking for hours. It took many different iterations to arrive there, but once I did I was like oh my god, it feels so good to be able to. I I have this further Understanding of what I'm doing and I never would have verbalized it if I didn't have to, and you have to be able to articulate Something if you're appealing to something that you want to be a part of. That doesn't know what you are. So there are some.
Speaker 1:There's lots of residencies that are intended just for area lists. During a quick, rudimentary Google search, there's in the San Francisco Bay Area alone, there's Zaco and circus Center. Both offer several different kinds of residencies and they're kind of like OG in the Bay Area for physical artists. But I also want you to consider lots of places that aren't designed just for you and I. There is a list. It is probably outdated but I'm gonna put a link to it. I'll put a link to the Zaco and the circus Center residencies as well in the show notes as, as well as this long list that I found randomly through the internet And it's just like a whole crap ton of Residencies and most of them will not apply to you. That's okay. This is how I found my residency is from this long list, so I'm gonna go ahead and share that with y'all. Use it, peruse it, search for it, do a like control file or control f, search to to search for words like Dance and movement can be very helpful to find residencies that do intend to cater to movement artists, because one thing movement artists like really needs is Not to be sharing a studio space with like 20 other people in close proximity.
Speaker 1:That doesn't work very well. So take a look at those and practice putting things into concrete terms and making a case for yourself. And, by the way, just like one little more note here if you See a residency in a place you really want to go, you want to experience it, but it has nothing to do with your discipline, don't dismiss it. It is very valuable for a physical artist to do things that are outside their main discipline Very, very valuable.
Speaker 1:I'm obviously at some point, if you're an aerialist, you need to get into the air. That's true. Also, you need to be doing a lot of things that aren't in the air to further your understanding of your own practice and to further develop your work, so don't dismiss it. Yeah Well, look at the look at the buffet. Look at the dishes that look tasty, even if you're like, oh, that dish wasn't intended for me, eat it anyway If you. If it looks good, eat it, eat it.
Speaker 1:So, looking at the time, thank you so much for sitting here with me and letting me talk into your ears. Talk into your ears about abstractions and concrete terms. If you have any requests for future episodes, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I'm super nice. Mostly, i'm on instagram at rachel strickland creative and on patreon at rachel strickland creative, and thank you all for being here. Otherwise, i'm just a woman talking to myself in my office. And especially, thank you to my wonderful patrons for Enabling me, for being the best darn enablers That a girl could ask for. I couldn't do it without you. Happy july, everybody. Don't go back to sleep.