Unresolved trauma
An excerpt from Near and Far, a collage of interviews about how artists impact collaboration.
From an interview with Monika Jiang, House of Beautiful Business
Meredith: I'm biased because I come from an arts background, and I love artists. But I have to remind myself that I've seen some terrible behaviour from artists over the years. Individuals who were not terrifically good to work with in amongst the ones who were.
I remember years ago I was producing a show, just a little fringe show in Melbourne, and it was being performed in an office building because it was set in a corporate environment. And we managed to get a corporate sponsor who let us take over the empty floor of one of their buildings, which was perfect. I remember the actors and the director during rehearsals speaking of this corporation, like they were absolute bastards, capitalist pigs, you know, the enemy. And I'm glad our sponsors weren't there to hear it. But I also remember the people I was liaising with from the corporation were coming up to me and saying that they were so excited to have this activity in the building. And their manager came to the opening night of the show, and he made a little speech to me, and he said, it's really meant a lot to us knowing just that this was happening here. Which was lovely to hear. And I was struck by how ungenerous the artists were in their attitudes to these people who had let us take over a floor of their building for no cost. This happened a long time ago but that lack of generosity shown by the artists still makes me cringe.
That’s one example. But I also remember some less than great attitudes and behaviours being shown between artists themselves, which made some – not all but some – arts projects I have worked on a less positive experience than they could have been.
And I want to emphasise that a lot of artists and creatives I have worked with have been terrific collaborators.
You guys may reach out to people who already share the ethos of the House of Beautiful Business – with its emphasis on making work between people ethically and culturally beautiful - but do you ever encounter a dark side or a limiting set of self-beliefs some artists have or bring into multidisciplinary work?
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