Our bodies and our art - reflections on Holly's blog

Managed to find and set-up FeedRabbit so I can more easily keep track of some of my peers' blogs. Which was great because I caught the latest excellent post, "She has a body of work, OnlyFans", from Holly. It's well-worth a read. I was stuck by the number of unexpected parallels between her work and mine, despite the subjects and approach be quite different at first sight. We are both:

• Considering how people react to images that are, in some senses, socially taboo
• Thinking about how we place ourselves and our personal lives into our art as source material, and both perhaps considering making art from something many people could consider 'off-limits'
• Making art that explores stereotypes around the body, and what it is acceptable to do with it

For me, it sparked some further questions I need to consider in relation to my own work:

• To what extent is everyone a performer? Is it unusual to make art from yourself? Or is it an extension of what we all do anyway? We are all using ourselves to make money/social capital in some way
• How do the audience relate to the work? Is it just for their titillation, be that sexual or voracious?How do you want them to relate? What impact does it actually have on them? In some senses there is the same thrill in seeing a glimpse of someone's private grief as there is in seeing a glimpse of their bare skin
• How do you create an experience that lasts with the viewer? To have an impact, I need to make a lasting impression - people might (one day!) engage with my art by hitting 'like', or pausing in a gallery, but will the then almost instantly forget it? If so, what can I do to bury a worm in their subconscious? I need to research how education helps plant ideas in the brain, and perhaps make art that is more than just a passive image to be viewed
• To what extent do our bodies/lives belong to us? To what extent other people? On what basis? To be a carer, is in some ways, to lend your body to someone else. I love my home and I don't mind my car, but neither would be the way they are if it was just up to me. How does money relate? What other ways do we transact? My kids show me love in exchange for the care I give them
• Pity and exploitation? I imagine people looking at my art and being moved to think again about difficult topics, but to what extent may they just feel pity? Worse, to what extent might that be hypocritical or even voracious pity - the same mixture of false pity and voracious enjoyment that makes people watch TV shows like Jeremy Kyle?

All in all, an amazing haul of ideas and insight, so glad I took the trouble to read Holly's work :)