Dear Angela and Esther
I am at Sotheby’s and I am from Switzerland. My parents have given me the best education but no one cares about that here in London, what can I do to be cool?

Dear Artist
Why don't you find an interesting gallery to work as an intern in, and not be paid? You could go to all the openings and meet the artists and everyone in the scene. You could also ask your parents to give financial support or backing to the gallery. You could buy work from new young artists, so you can meet them and hang out with them, go to the same pubs and bars and learn about them. That's cool. But mostly stop trying to be cool and wise up.
You can’t hide where you come from but you have a responsibility that comes with the privilege you inherited from your parents. I suggest reading about the political economy of contemporary art: what are its structures, how it gets funded, shown, talked about and consumed by collectors and the public alike.? This knowledge, of which we are sure you are aware, at least in part, will help you to think about supporting artists and making relationships with them, as they are after all what is all about. Julian Stalibrass, JJ Charlesworth and Dave Beech all write about economics in contemporary fine art.
Angela and Esther

Dear Angela and Esther

Is confessional art bad art or art at all? If it’s embarrassing does it mean its good?

Dear Artist
No, it doesn't mean its good but a reflection of the artist and their life. In the 1990s, diversity became fashionable and artists of wider cultural and ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations began to become highly visible, sometimes focusing on their own personal experiences. Women artists like Sue Williams and Tracey Emin, were criticized for bringing matters of sexual and domestic abuse-subjects, often regarded as "women's issues", to the forefront in their art. Supporters proclaimed that these artists were reversing the tradition of regarding woman as the muse or object of artistic representation, and were, instead, becoming agents of their own creativity. See the ICA Bad Girls exhibition of 1993 at esther.windsor.com. Richard Billingham's work, depicting his family and the curatorial work of Val Williams in photography and the family could also be seem as part of this genre. Confessional work is not specific to the 90's or to women but is part of social and cultural change. It’s easy to look at rape, alcoholism, sexuality and abuse and think they are confessional or 'embarrassing' but actually they are issues and sometimes issues that need to be raised and seen. This work often gains attention as it is easy to access and makes good press, the viewer imagines they are part of something and have engaged in intimacy. Perhaps real intimacy can be seen in artwork that is not necessarily clouded with 'issues' and what you can see, but rather is about thinking and imagining what you can't see.
Angela and Esther

Dear Angela and Esther
Does it have to hurt? I think I am too shy to be an artist, any advice?

Dear Artist
No need to be embarrassed. A lot of artists are very shy and don't like appearing in public. It’s up to you how you want to do it. Artists are like any other people, some people are shy and some are not. You should always try to be yourself.

Freud considered shyness to be a defense mechanism, like sublimation. Freud considered this defense mechanism the most productive compared to the others he identified as repression, displacement, denial, reaction formation, intellectualization and projection. Shyness and other defenses can come about when the pursuit of satisfaction would be contrary to ones ideals or social approval. Sublimation is the process of transforming desire into "socially useful" achievements, like "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art"art. Psychoanalysts often refer to sublimation as the only truly successful defense mechanism. So its good to be shy, use it, work with it. Ugly emotions, like shame, grief, jealousy and anger can be very productive too, if put to work. The substitution of work might not be quite what we want, but it is the only way that we can get part of our satisfaction and feel secure, too. You can get someone to speak or write for you if you feel overwhelmed representing yourself or being business like.
Angela and Esther

Dear Angela and Esther

I still live with my mum and dad even though I’m in my 40’s. It’s the only way I can afford to be an artist, but they live in Milton Keynes. I got caught dodging the train fare recently, cos I was so drunk I fell asleep and didn’t get time to hide in the toilets, when the inspector came round. Now I’ve got a caution and am banned from Virgin trains. Should I move to London, where would I go?

Dear Artist
You should move to London and live in a cheaper area of Hackney or South East London, where you can share a flat. Or you can find a squat with other artists. You can get drunk as often as you like and meet other artists and have fun. Angela

This is not the only way you can be an artist, is this part of your work, living with mum and dad and fare dodging? Nothing wrong with it if so.  Otherwise don't use this as an excuse, snap out of and grow up before you're too old. There's no denying its incredibly hard living in London (and that homelessness and lack of secure, affordable housing causes mental illness) but I sense you may have the tenacity to find a way. You could apply for social housing, choose the local council in the best borough of London and declare yourself as homeless and vulnerable. You might have to say you are mentally ill and go and live in a hostel before getting housed but if you stay at mum and dads you might not be the artist you want to be and also end up mentally ill and taking care of your parents or them you. Take the hard road now. Esther

Dear Angela and Esther
I just want everyone to love me and keep sleeping with curators and critics. Now everyone thinks I’m a slag. How can I get them to take my art seriously?

Dear Artist
Go cold turkey and don't sleep with anyone in the art world.  Especially avoid curators and critics for sex. You can sleep with other artists and pretend your sex with curators and critics was part of your work. Avoid sleeping with them at all costs!

We sympathise. Girls are socialised to be pleasing, sexually attractive and seek self esteem in others approval. Resist this seemingly natural urge. Make friends with other women artists and look for successful models to follow. Wise up and take action. No one is going to do it for you, however many men you sleep with. Look at the Guerilla Girls, they estimate that galleries still overwhelmingly show white male artists and strategise to expose this sexism. They measure the diversity of artists in shows, then sticker the information in important places, like museum toilets or bookshops. They call it creative complaining. Make people laugh at themselves. City Racing, back in 1992, (who were not women but mostly men), put an ad in Art Monthly exposing galleries who showed few or no women. These galleries do now. I don't know how far your reputation has traveled but you might have to reclaim 'Slag' as a positive term. An artist called Liz Neal did some great work painting prostitute cards. See her in 'its only words' at mirror gallery, estherwindsor.com.

Angela and Esther 
P.S. This is a confidential clinic for STD’s and also for sex addiction Dr xxx xxxxx tel xxx x xxx xxxx


Dear Angela and Esther
Does it help to be poor or working class, lots of YBA’s were?

Dear Artist
Not any more, everybody has to pay for art education now.  I think that the ruling class is going to the one who can afford to go to art school now. Before it was more interesting. Lots of YBA's pretended to be poor or working class to sound authentic or cool.  But before the early 90's, a lot of working class people did go to art school because it was free and they were financially supported with fees, even housing etc by the State. It was very good to be an artist in that time. Angela and Esther

Dear Angela and Esther
If I go on TV will people see my art and want to represent me? What about Big Brother or the weakest link? What would be a good show?

No you shouldn't do anything on TV as an artist. If you want to go to do TV, you should go as you, not as an artist. Angela

Jasper Johns went on 'the weakest link' which was quite cool because he is a bit geeky. All media is visibility but you are making an art statement by this act and should consider it as: performance, confession, art stunt or instruction to the self. Esther

Dear Angela and Esther
My friend had a show in a pop up shop, after recently graduating and the work was terrible, everyone thinks so. He is convinced he has to promote his work a lot, after a professional practice module we did and watching that Saatchi competition on TV. He doesn’t spend any time in the studio anymore. What can I say to him?

Dear Artist
We are going to give an answer given by Kerry James Marshall to an anonymous young artist: ‘Art schools are sort of like crack dens.  While inside, the environment feels cozy, everything there seems remarkable because you're all smoking from the same pipe. In the heady, hazy fog of dialogue and critique, the smallest achievements are amplified.  You have to believe that things you make or do have value simply because you did them. Your friends are all supportive, they like your stuff. Its all very interesting, a nice piece. Be wary of this incessant chatter. In the sober world, the world outside, nobody really cares. There you have to win attention, and the span allotted for recognition and celebrity is short and narrow, indeed. Nevertheless, you did inhale lots of bullshit, and now its time to blow it out and rehabilitate. Recognizing delusions is the first step to recovery, and, more likely than not, a successful career as an artist.   Isolate, re contextualize, shift scale, shift material, invert. The special status of art has more to do with its relationship to power and money than with any inherent attribute. Every day spend in the studio is another step toward being all that you can be. Marcel Duchamp thought of the studio as a laboratory. Embrace this concept off set and solve concrete problems.’ (Letters to a young artist: 2006: 26-7)
Angela and Esther

Dear Angela and Esther
I just like to write lots of notes about myself, is this art?

Dear Artist
It depends whom you ask and who you are? Also on your formal observance to contemporary art codes. There is a strong and sometimes self-righteous orthodoxy held by artists, teachers and critics that you should think and write about the work. So if you, or an activity of you, are your work, then providing you subject this art to rigor, conditions and methodologies of fine art, then yes. You don’t mention your age or occupation, We would advise understanding contexts of text works, diaries and even biographies of artists in contemporary fine art, to consider the strength of the ideas in your work. You may also want to think about the genre of ‘confessional’ in and outside of fine art and avoid common pitfalls. If you are a student it is considered normal to have introspection, reflective consideration and record of day-to-day activity, as part of your practice and notebooks.

Angela and Esther

Dear Angela and Esther
I am an angry ex artist. I feel shafted after all my years working in administration in public galleries and working for the student union, I gave up being an artist to have a job and now I’m on the scrapheap. I hate artists now and can’t bear servicing them. What can I do?

Dear Artist

Make anger work for you, but be clever. Don’t be bitter and destructive to others careers but think how you can exploit your experience and knowledge to your advantage. You know about the public funding system and the University system. Why not challenge yourself to make a work or even a proposal that would be the ideal grants for the arts application or write a manifesto for how the students union or Arts Council really works, in pay to the dominant ideologies that you ‘serve under’ now. Perhaps you can even excavate some really old work of you and our contemporaries and present it as archive. As an Agony Aunt I will present you with some questions as part of my responsibility to your health and wellbeing. Do you find yourself angry with people who walk to slowly in front of you? Do you feel irritated by others weakness? Do you have destructive fantasies involving authority figures? Do you find yourself drinking or taking drugs too much? If you answered yes to 2 or more of my questions then I’m going to suggest you call the number of a good old fashioned Freudian therapist: Dr xxxx xxxxxxxx tel no xxxx xxx xxxx Good luck.

Esther and Angela


Dear Angela and Esther

I want to be a celebrity artist, is this art if I am upfront about it?

What are you proposing being a celebrity for? Artists have been long exploring the plastic, schizophrenic nature of postmodern culture and experience. See Dave Burrows and Simon O Sullivan in ‘Plastic Fantastic’. You might also look at the work of Sarah Baker who makes work about celebrity and takes on styles and behaviours of very rich or celebrity type characters as documented performances. The art world is a small pond really and you need a enduring practice to be a celebrity or any kind of artist. We are going to give you an answer Baldessari gave to an anonymous young and fictional artist. (See below) Lastly a cautionary note, please consult a psychiatrist if you start to find you can only live in an imaginary world. It is important to be in the materiality of life and live a real life, that is yours, with all its failure and tedium as well as glamour.

Angela and Esther

Don’t go into art for fame or fortune. Do it because you cannot not do it. Being an artist is a combination of talent and obsession. Live in New York, LA, Köln, or London. As for money: If you’re talented and obsessed, you’ll find a solution. Yrs in Art,

John Baldessari
Venice, California