‘Wide Awoke’- Are Female Artists Worth Collecting? with Joyce Harkin from Scotland, UK
This time in our latest ‘Wide Awoke’ article, with Joyce Harkin, we speak behind the video, have a listen…
Several weeks ago, we announced our brand new ‘Women’ section within TheAppWhisperer and we kicked off with our first ‘Talking Points’ with the incredibly talented mobile artist, M. Cecilia Sao Thiago,where she visually channeled the creative argument of ‘what if I wasn’t me?’, envisaging herself as an artist whilst physically being a male, as opposed to female.Catherine Caddigan another accomplised aritst also contributed with a great ‘Talking Points’ entitled ‘What do we reveal to the camera’. We followed that up with a fabuolus insightful video fromSusan Detroy,with her perspective vis-Ã-vis the women’s movement, using her own self portraiture work and ethos. Successively we published the first in our Women’s ‘Wide Awoke’ section with Armineh Hovanesian and followingwork from Deborah McMillion, Lynette Sheppard, Rita Colantonio and Fleur Schim.
For our ‘Wide Awoke’ section initially, we selected a challenging discussion at the Tate Museum, London. Recently, an article was published in The Guardian, by Helen Gorrill, suggesting that female artists are less likely to succeed now, than they were in the 1990s. Gorrill expressed “Today, when men’s artwork is signed, it goes up in value; conversely when work by women is signed, it goes down in value, and the addition of a woman’s signature can devalue artwork to the extent that female artists are more likely to leave their work unsigned”. And even more scathingly, “The Tate seems to align to these views by only collecting a ‘token’ proportion of work by women, who form the 74% majority of fine art graduates”, Gorrill goes on to say.
This of course, provoked much discussion here at TheAppWhisperer HQ, after all, this is one of the key elements to our new Women section, we want to drag out all these issues and more into the open.
We approached several female mobile artists and asked them this question ‘Are Female Artists Worth Collecting?’ and asked them to create a short video of their answer to our subheading of this section ‘Wide Awoke’. Today, we are incredibly proud to publish the sixth in this series by none other than female artist, Joyce Harkin, from Scotland.
We really hope you enjoy this new section and of course, please feel free to leave comments below, this is a section about Womens issues but we invite all men to view and participate in commenting too.
Text of Voice over
Are female artists worth collecting?
If we turned this question around and asked “Are male artists worth collecting?” The response would be bemusement or outrage. Why is the question of gender even being asked in this day and age?
Historically there were few women artists because of the cultural norms and limitations placed upon them. Even in the recent past, it was conceded that women just might be creative in the more decorative arts like textiles or pottery but not in ‘fine art’. Remember the 60s? Equality, feminism, the glass ceiling? Why have we not moved on? It is infuriating!
Female artists and their massive contribution to the art world is not what’s in question here. Womens’ art has always reflected issues of identity, place in the world and how we are perceived and portrayed with integrity and honesty, in challenging, gutsy, humorous and beautiful ways. But who gets to decide what it’s worth? Who is collecting art and why?
It seems that most men buy art as an investment rather than for aesthetic or emotional reasons. Is this piece of art going to be a good investment? Not do I love it and want to look at it every day? Will this ever change? I don’t know but if we take the music industry as an example, it has already been transformed by direct downloading and the internet, perhaps the art world will likewise be turned on it’s head? Galleries will no longer be the way to promote and sell art. I feel optimistic that we are moving towards a situation where technology will provide a platform for artists of whatever gender to thrive on their merits and talents alone.
Please help us…
TheAppWhisperer has always had a dual mission: to promote the most talented mobile artists of the day and to support ambitious, inquisitive viewers the world over. As the years passTheAppWhisperer has gained readers and viewers and found new venues for that exchange. All this work thrives with the support of our community.
Please consider making a donation to TheAppWhisperer as this New Year commences because your support helps protect our independence and it means we can keep delivering the promotion of mobile artists that’s open for everyone around the world. Every contribution, however big or small, is so valuable for our future.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
