The Gift

My first (and perhaps last) sortie into the art market had me peddling my wares as part of the S.S.A. contingent at the Glasgow Art Fair. Operating as the only artist / housewife, my work went like hot cakes - so much in demand that I had to go home and cook up some more.

My hors-d'oevre was based on gift, an ingredient which would be dangerous in larger quantities.In the anything-goes bazaar of the Art Fair, it is an unpredictable substance, by its very nature undermining the tasteful exchange mechanism which delicately balances our cultured society. Gift is so unlike the freebie which came to replace it; a tantalising simulation, a foreplay to transaction. Gift does not demand such promises to the bearer; it is, in an instant, pure play - you either engage or you don't. It stands opposed to the titillating taster: to accept the latter is to reject the breast in favour of the plastic scooped powder.

So off I went with my trolley, bearing artefacts which, admittedly, looked a bit like, and indeed tasted like, home-made cakes. But they were, if not masterpieces of their genre, components of a perfectly unsellable art work. Operating as Psycho-Housewife I was concluding my research which, happy to say, confirmed my already cynical suppositions whilst debunking a few notions.

I confronted mistrust: that genteel fuzzy shirk, out of focus, out of mind regard, the kind one attracts unconsciously in a flight departure lounge, the look that says "Clear out of my space" politely.

But the vast majority of gallery representatives and the viewing public did indeed interact, possibly attracted to the otherly value of gift, sandwiched in a melange of economic gluttony. Possibly because they were hungry... In any case I enjoyed engaging, on my own terms, with those who represent "The Art World" that I generally have little to do with.

Only two art spaces refused to play. Perhaps this was because they see themselves at the forefront of art, relying as they do on statist patronage rather than exchange. Perhaps they take themselves too seriously and have difficulty in distinguishing between pure gesture and sellable parody. Sad, when one considers the original spirit on which such spaces were founded. But that was a long time ago... So long ago, in fact, that I probably have difficulty in convincing you that my ideas are not half-baked.