Sometimes, I worry that my enthusiasm borders on a kind of uncriticalness. I try to remind myself that delight can also be a great foundation for critical positions.

 –  Erin McFayden

Sticky Teeth’s micro-interviews ft. words on the intersection of arts and writing. 

 

In this edition, writer and editor Erin McFayden calls for looking at artistic activities as labour through a prism of the often unseen goods they create rather than purely for their economic value.  

 

xx Tahney

Erin McFayden is a writer and editor from Awabakal and Worimi land (Newcastle).

She is Deputy Editor at The Suburban Review, and from 2020 to 2023 was Deputy Editor at Artist Profile. She lives and works in the UK, where she is also a board member at Art4Space, a community arts organisation in Lambeth.

Tahney: What are some issues in our approach to arts writing (and the like)?

Erin McFayden: My non-serious answer to this question is ‘-ality’. 
 
More seriously, I think we still have some figuring out to do when it comes to our model of ‘artistic’ activities (like arts writing) as labour. There is a lot to like about the new Cultural Policy’s emphasis on the idea of art as work—primarily the idea that artists deserve to be able to go about their vital work while also receiving enough money to live and that this would be of benefit not just for artists but for their communities. 
 
However, I’m suspicious of arguments about art’s value which emphasise its economic value: the way it makes us happier and more motivated workers, the way it generates tourism, the way it serves our idea of ourselves ‘as a nation’ (Art Guide published a great essay by Lauren Carroll Harris on this last point in August). 
 
We should remain interested in how art creates ‘goods’ (as in goodnesses) that we don’t already think of as good, or even know about at all. Maybe this is the start of an argument for universal basic income—I know other sticky teeth interviewees have written about this. I also feel it’s important to consider how arts organisations, and the people doing administrative and logistical work who sustain them, are themselves sustained. 
WhatsApp Image 2023-12-05 at 7.18.31 PM copy - Erin McFadyen

What writers have you been turning to? 

Simryn Gill’s Clearing, with caption text by Tom Melick and an essay by Catherine de Zegher, will always stay with me—and, no doubt, will keep throwing up new things for me to digest for years to come.
I’d recommend sticky teeth readers check out Stolon Press (who produced this publication) if they haven’t already. I like their practice because it takes a tender approach to publishing as a material, social, archival, and imaginative activity.
I’d also like to include Angela Goh’s work with movement annotation under the category of ‘working with writing.’ I’m thinking especially about the work Gloss, which I was lucky to see as part of Primavera at the MCA in 2022. I like its use of written record-keeping as a generative, not a delimiting, counterpart to a performance work.

Your own work, lately– some highlights?

This is a tough question because I can become obsessed with any (good-hearted) artist or artwork I spend enough time thinking about. Sometimes, I worry that my enthusiasm borders on a kind of uncriticalness. I try to remind myself that delight can also be a great foundation for critical positions.

 

On the editing side, I loved working as a member of the copyediting team on the book accompanying The National 4: Australian Art Now, alongside my colleagues Melissa Peša and Kon Gouriotis. This was a huge project involving many different writers and artists, as well as four major arts institutions across Gadigal and Dharawal lands in Sydney. We got to read a lot of short, sharp, and scholarly work. Kon, Melissa, and I also worked on a book about Khaled Sabsabi through the dark days of the pandemic. I can’t overstate Khaled’s generosity as an artist and as a person. 

 

On the writing side, I just like writing about artists. My favourite things to work on recently have been essays on Renee So, Jacqueline Rose, and Lucy Guerin.

 

The next thing I’ll have published is an essay on Jaclyn Wright in Foam Magazine—her work is clever, tuned in to the capacities of its medium, and thoroughly (and variously) researched. 

 

Any other writing you’d like to point us to? 

 

Not really a straight-down-the-line answer here, but I recently read Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow (a bit late to the party, I know…), which has some moving, understated museum scenes. Read it if you haven’t!

More on Erin McFayden here

Interview by Tahney Fosdike. 
 
Hey! My name is Tahney. I design words that fill the space between you, your creative project, and your audience.
August 21, 2024

David Willis: “It is my personal mission as an art writer to strike a balance between critical rigour and concise readability.”

July 25, 2024

One night in bed, I decided to stop saving tattoos on Instagram. The more I saved, the more ads popped up, each increasing my fear that most tattoos are badly chosen and badly executed, as if all rules of visual art and even aesthetic pleasure usually policing other artforms are irrelevant.

June 30, 2024

Carmela Vienna talks about the overreliance on AI in arts marketing and social media, and the need for more inspired, well-edited content, as well as treating arts marketing more seriously within arts orgs in general.

May 28, 2024

Too, with the Venice Biennale as a whole, in this unearthliness, the curatorial was a blur of impact and thought. I wasn’t sure if it was possible to achieve anything cohesive. I’m still not sure if it’s possible to look at, en masse like this, the variety of mediums, ideas, and cultural contexts and get it and not just be overwhelmed, weary, and clueless.

April 25, 2024

Haneen Mahmood Martin talks about shared accountability and diverse perspectives in the arts industry, matching words with actions—i.e., more POC in leadership positions—and the use of clear, accessible, but impactful language.

March 18, 2024

Liv Collins has an infectious energy rare in an industry of pretension. I’m really excited to feature her in this sticky teeth micro-interview for her truths about writing education at art school and some hot insider arts reading suggestions.

February 20, 2024

Anna Kate Blair speaks on the intersection of art, writing, and time. She explains her major concerns for lack of enough resources for the writing process itself, and also touches on history, capitalism and imagining alternative futures for creativity.

January 22, 2024

Brussels-based journalist Sarah Schug discusses the challenges of language in the art world, the need for accessibility, the diminishing value of art writing and her proud accomplishment—a self-published book on Iceland’s contemporary art scene.

December 17, 2023

Writer and editor Erin McFayden reflects on framing artistic activities as labour and advocating exploring the good it creates rather than its economic value – as well as her reccs for some artistic endeavours.

November 14, 2023

Writer Yazmin Bradley touches on the pressure on authors under the commercialisation of Bookstagram – how can we reclaim the creative process from capitalism? She also explores working with her grandmother on her memoir and the possibilities of Substack for creativity.