Art students sell themselves at silent auction

Published On Thu 27 Mar 2014 by Grant Hill

Art students to sell themselves at silent auction

Two Duncan of Jordanstone College Art and Design (DJCAD) students will tomorrow put themselves on sale for their art as part of a live performance.

Sarah Smart and Aimee Stewart, both third-year students on the Time-based Art and Digital Film programme, will be the items going under the hammer at a silent auction at the DJCAD boardroom, Crawford Building, at 7pm on Friday, 28th. They are highlighting the extent to which artists must sell out in order to become successful.

The performance will explore how an artist has to turn their name into a brand, the importance placed on the signature present on the artwork over the contents and skill of the work itself, the lengths to which an artist has to sell themselves in order to gain any sort of recognition for their work, and the power of the auctioneer as well as collectors and media exposure in controlling the art market and determining the artist's value.

However, it will be the identities of the artists rather than their physical selves that buyers will be bidding on. Sarah and Aimee have created new identities as part of a project for their course including new names, debit cards, a signature stamp, website, twitter account, YouTube channel, brand name and logo, telephone numbers, email, copyright-free digital artwork, business cards and Vimeo account.

It is intended to be a hassle-free, pre-packaged identity aimed at anyone who wants to create recognition for their work while allowing them to remain anonymous.

Sarah said, “In terms of the performance, Aimee and myself will be using our own bodies and installing them into a space within the University for potential buyers to view. We are using our physical presence to represent this idea of ‘selling yourself’ in order to gain recognition for our work.

“What the buyer will be bidding on however, is not our physical bodies but our identities. These identities have been part of a larger project which we have been working on throughout the term. We feel that the discussions provoked by the work are beneficial to new artist graduates as well as anyone looking to get into the working industry.”

The audience will be invited to submit bids to the silent auction having viewed the 'lot', and any proceeds will be put towards the artist’s degree show funds for next year. The performance will be filmed and the footage used for documentation purposes and installed into a gallery space within DJCAD for an upcoming assessment.

Sarah and Aimee have collaborated on a number of projects throughout our time at DJCAD, with their work predominantly looking at issues on gender and the human body as an art material. As well as performance, they work in film, sound and photography.

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