ART, WHATEVER IT TAKES
Since the early pandemic in 2020, Rome Art Program has conducted a series of interviews, “Art, Whatever It Takes.”
Artists, Art Critics, and Art Historians living in Italy, the U.S., and U.K., share their insights during these powerful times.
Interview with Dallas Athent
Dallas Athent is an artist and writer living in London. Her work has been profiled in Mashable, Papermag, Bedford+Bowery, Gothamist, PANK, Luna Luna Magazine, At Large Magazine, BUST, Hyperallergic, xoJane and more. She was the Co-Lead Editor for the National Gallery’s 200 Year Anniversary Timeline. She was a participant in the Vevcani Artist Residency in Macedonia in June, 2024, and is attending Turps Off-Site program from 2024-2025. Her painting ‘The City of Bad Children’ was the first-place winner of The Holy Art’s BLAST award in 2021, and she was a finalist in the 2021 Orleans House grant. She’s found solace through expression in merging the body and buildings through painting.
RomeArtProgram: What is your definition of "art" today?
Dallas Athent: Today, I would define art as the act of creating something that is to be looked at, but maybe that definition will change tomorrow or at least, by the time this interview is published. Functional things can also be art, as their embellishments or design may have aesthetics in mind.
RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself... How does it change and how did it change us?
Dallas: I could go on this topic for a while, so I think I'll focus on European painting from the 1300s to today. We saw an oscillation in sort of nativist thinking (during the medieval period), to empirical thinking (during the renaissance), back to nativist (during the rococo period), back to empirical (during the academic era). I think humanity has some futile desire to answer the question of if there's a god through expression.
RAP: What role does art play today?
Dallas: Unfortunately, at least in the West, it seems as though the role art plays today has become quite a commercial one. However, I'm hopeful that people will become tired of this as the market continues to saturate, and we see a renaissance of rebels soon.
RAP: What would you recommend to an 'emerging artist' today?
Dallas: Learn the masters. They're our friends. It helps us understand the reference, and maybe even, our place in all of this a little more. It also helps you feel less alone.
RAP: How have new technologies & media culture changed art today?.. improving or worsening it...? ...challenges?
Dallas: I don't think that technology and media has changed art for better or for worse. All of these things are just tools people can use, and tools themselves, are only as useful as the individual who operates them. However, I think the commercialization of art has shifted the way people create in a negative way, as they feel pressured to bust out a series of work, or produce for the sake of production.
RAP: Understanding, interpreting, and then possibly judging the 'work of art'; what is the right path when confronted with a work of art?
Dallas: I think that's up to the viewer. I've always said that once my work is out in the world, it no longer belongs to me. It's owned by whoever is looking at it.
RAP: What is the real role of Academies and Art Schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?
Dallas: I think this depends on the professors. Instead of teaching technique or the "right way" to make work, it's a tutor's guide to try and understand the perspective of each student so they can offer them feedback on what they think the student is trying to accomplish, not what they, personally, feel is a marker of the "right" or "wrong" way to create. Without professors that can do this, there's not much we can learn at all from an institution, other than basic technique.
RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?
Dallas: In both London and New York, where I've lived, museums have positioned themselves quite democratically by either being mostly free or donation-based. Not to be dramatic, but this, to me, is one of the markers of a utopian society! And it's how I originally discovered i loved painting.
RAP: Will Art save us?
Dallas: I can't speak for the world, but it's always saved me.
dalliedoesit.com
@chixonthehud