I very much agree. After writing my artist statement and cutting it down as much as possible I started wondering why artist statements have to be so short. Like I understand the difference between an essay and a statement, but I can’t seem to figure out why there are such close word limits for an artist’s explanation… It kind of goes against my whole idea of what art can be. That it has the potential to infer infinite meaning.
Unless we do as the scientific community does with symbols (which might be a fun idea) I think it should be accepted to have an artist statement that could be one sentence, 5000 words, a poem, or whatever. Like word limits? Really? it’s like making height regulations.
like, I can understand for grant and curatorial purposes why word limits work, but not for shows and what-not. As most people who aren’t interested in art, why they aren’t interested in art, and the answer will most likely be, “I don’t understand it”….so why don’t we combat this in the David Deutsch way and provide “a better explanation.”
AMANDA LEHMAN-CHOI 
Good find Amanda. In a nutshell, the biggest problem that ‘visual’ art faces.
I very much agree. After writing my artist statement and cutting it down as much as possible I started wondering why artist statements have to be so short. Like I understand the difference between an essay and a statement, but I can’t seem to figure out why there are such close word limits for an artist’s explanation… It kind of goes against my whole idea of what art can be. That it has the potential to infer infinite meaning.
Unless we do as the scientific community does with symbols (which might be a fun idea) I think it should be accepted to have an artist statement that could be one sentence, 5000 words, a poem, or whatever. Like word limits? Really? it’s like making height regulations.
like, I can understand for grant and curatorial purposes why word limits work, but not for shows and what-not. As most people who aren’t interested in art, why they aren’t interested in art, and the answer will most likely be, “I don’t understand it”….so why don’t we combat this in the David Deutsch way and provide “a better explanation.”