Artist statements are so often labored over for weeks, months, years even. Last fall, we noticed a couple of very public examples of what we'd like to call "spontaneous statements."
Exhibit A: Kara Walker's much noted statement (scroll down in this link) accompanying her fall New York show, which puts off all pretense of describing her work but expresses with the very power of her work the intertwined exhaustion and fury of standing against racism. Maybe she labored over this statement, but it feels like it came out in a single breathless burst.
Exhibit B: Huang Yong Ping's statement in response to the Guggenheim's pulling the live animals in his Theater of the World from the work, leaving just its armature (see here). This one is scribbled on an Air France air sickness bag—it doesn't get much more urgent than that.
Lately we've seen a few spontaneous statements around A&L, too. Here's one we love by Kathryn LaMontagne (Textiles), below. If you have an artist statement—spontaneous, refined, or anywhere in between—come on in; we'd love to hear about it.
