Art.Culture.Spam asked Art History graduate and model Edie Campbell, 5 questions about Art, Art History and her work:
1.
We’ll start with the most boring and most obvious question – what made you want to study art history?
EC: Mostly because I like the visual world. And I like the way that people grapple with the process of putting thoughts or ideas into a visual or physical medium. And how this process is always so affected by the social, historical, cultural world that the art is made in. So it’s sort of a study of the world and minds of individuals.
2.
Your more theatrical work, such as your work with Tim Walker, is likely to inspire future art and costume historians, how do you feel about the idea of being the subject of art historical discussion and interpretation?
EC: Ooooh blimey that would be nice wouldn’t it! Well, what I love about working with people like Tim is the process – how Tim and the team of people that he surrounds himself with react to the fashion that designers are producing, and how they insert that into stories and narratives. And an immense amount of thought and work goes into this. So it would be nice for that to be recognised. Because people can be snobbish about fashion photography, because of its ephemerality and its sometimes commerciality. But you should never underestimate the incredible intelligence and perceptiveness of the best fashion photographers.
3.
As someone who is both involved in creative processes and who has studied art history, do you think that art historians have a tendency to over-think, over-analyse and over-complicate works of art?
EC: Yes absolutely. Having worked with a lot of incredibly creative people with incredibly quick thinking minds, I think a lot of art historians underestimate simply how many artists make creative decisions based either on gut instinct, or simply because it is the easiest, most efficient, or only possible way of achieving what they want.
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for over analysis, but I think you have to be aware that there is probably a massive gulf between your over analysis and the truth. And that over analysis is essentially a self-indulgence. And to be okay with that. There’s no shame in indulgence.
Above: Tim Walker shoots Edie Campbell for W Magazine in ‘Gilt Trip’, May 2014
4.
What do you think of ‘pop-culture art history’ such as Buzzfeed articles that list ugly Renaissance babies (which I’m guilty of over-sharing on Facebook) – do you feel that this sort of exposure to art history dumbs down the subject or is a means of exposure to/ interpretation of artworks that adds to the overall experience of art?
EC: I love Buzzfeed articles. Renaissance babies are monstrous. I particularly like @arthistorysnap on Instagram. I think that a dumbing down is a good thing – looking at art should be enjoyable, and if it’s just to laugh at the hideous babies then that’s great. I’m actually all for dumbing down because there will always be plenty of people over-analysing to balance it out.
5.
Finally- what was the last exhibition/ work of art/ gallery that you visited that you genuinely loved?
EC: I genuinely loved the On Kawara exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York [http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/past/exhibit/5895]. I have seen a few of his works in isolation before and always found them pretty emotionless. But to see them all in one exhibition, it gave such a sense of what he was actually like as a man: kind of nomadic, and quite solitary. Which is how a lot of my life is. I loved seeing his maps, the way he kept a perfect record of how he moved around the world. A perfect record of his time. It’s a very methodical way to live. It was really moving, which most ‘conceptual’ art is not.
Above: On Kawara ‘Silence’ at the Guggenheim, New York, 2015
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