‘Wide Awoke’- Are Female Artists Worth Collecting? with Joyce Harkin from Scotland, UK
‘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…
This engaging introduction to the ‘Women’ section of TheAppWhisperer highlights the diverse voices and perspectives within the mobile art community. The first instalment of ‘Talking Points’ features the remarkable mobile artist M. Cecilia Sao Thiago, who creatively explores her identity through the thought-provoking question, “What if I wasn’t me?” This concept challenges traditional notions of gender by envisioning her artistic expression from a male perspective.
Catherine Caddigan adds depth with her insightful piece, “What do we reveal to the camera?” Her contribution encourages reflection on self-presentation and authenticity in art.
Additionally, Susan Detroy’s compelling video offers a unique viewpoint on the women’s movement, intertwining her self-portraiture work with her artistic ethos. The section continues to flourish with contributions from talented artists such as Armineh Hovanesian, Deborah McMillion, Lynette Sheppard, Rita Colantonio, and Fleur Schim, showcasing a variety of experiences and narratives that enrich the conversation surrounding women’s roles in the art world.
In our ‘Wide Awoke’ section, we initially tackled a thought-provoking discussion at the Tate Museum in London. Recently, an article by Helen Gorrill in The Guardian highlighted concerns that female artists may be facing greater challenges now than they did in the 1990s. Gorrill stated, “Today, when men’s artwork is signed, it goes up in value; conversely, when work by women is signed, it goes down in value. The addition of a woman’s signature can devalue artwork to the extent that female artists are more likely to leave their work unsigned.” She further criticises the Tate for seemingly only collecting a ‘token’ proportion of work by women, despite them constituting 74% of fine art graduates.
This article sparked significant discussion here at TheAppWhisperer HQ, as addressing these issues is at the heart of our new Women section. To delve deeper, we reached out to several female mobile artists and posed the question, “Are Female Artists Worth Collecting?” We invited them to create short videos responding to our subheading, ‘Wide Awoke’. Today, we are thrilled to publish the sixth video in this series, featuring the talented female artist Joyce Harkin from Scotland.
We hope you find this new section engaging, and we encourage everyone to leave comments below. While it focuses on women’s issues, we warmly invite all individuals, regardless of gender, to view and participate in the conversation.
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.
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Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: joanne@theappwhisperer.com
