Artist Story: Ursula Sokolowska
How has the internet helped your career?
Ursula Sokolowska
Ultimately, the most daunting thing about seeking out organizations is the fact that there’s no predefined path to follow. It’s important to go with your gut and let the work you create reverberate with people. A lot of that is self-promotion but a good amount is simply will. It’s important to listen to what your work is saying not only to yourself, but to other people as well. When people identify with pieces strongly, its clear that you’ve made some sort of connection with them. That connection can replicate itself if you let yourself be open to the resources at your disposal. I think the Internet is the single most important backbone of connecting the artist to his or her own kind.
Social networking technology mixed with forums and blogs like Sharkforum.org have allowed me to connect with like minds. Coming from an analog background using discarded technology like slide projectors, I can understand the disdain a lot of artists have towards computers. I see it every day working with art students from varying backgrounds. The advent of computers, laptops and software to some seems like a crutch. I think it’s important to stay true to your art while embracing the tools at your disposal. You can stay analog and still employ the administrative advantages of global connectivity.
I find my work circulating on art blogs from countries I could never afford a plane ticket to. I receive correspondence and inquiries from online web catalogs like White Columns in New York. I hear about new trends and criticisms through pod casts like Bad At Sports. Social networking keeps like minds connected. Although they may not be organizations in an official sense they stay together by design. It just highlights the importance of sites such as Chicago Artist Resource.
At some point, the age-old myth of having to relocate and throw away your standard of living will vanish. Indeed it is never where you are from, but where you are. The boundaries have already disappeared. The U-haul and the 40 dollars of gas money have been replaced by miles of fiber optic and an invisible web of people who are closer than you think. It has been an important epiphany in the distinction between my art and my pursuit of getting it ‘out there.
The net is a bridge to the real world. It’s an artery to those pioneers anchored in the real world that teeter on the edge of the virtual. You never know who is subscribed or editing some of these prestigious web logs. Curators from the Museum of Contemporary Art, accomplished painters with an eye for the predatory culture that is the art world, literary critics who moonlight for major publications, or even simply people who actually appreciate art on a true level. In short, people who are your peers. The viral nature of expression lends itself well to the way data flows. No matter how pure the process of your art is, it’s imperative to utilize the tools at your disposal.
According to Wikipedia, an organization in regards to virtual worlds is exactly the same as the sociological counterpart. To put it bluntly, it is created out of a necessity to organize for a common goal. The Internet is the easiest way to assemble things together in an orderly manner and disperse it to as many conduits as possible. It also takes little effort away from the actual process of creating.
Do I chose to spend 400 dollars on film and mannequins for a project or on a cheap plane ticket, lodging and food to visit a slew of galleries that may not even be receptive to new ideas? Your body of work is the first and foremost allegiance you have. Promoting and cultivating those ideas in other people doesn’t have to rest on what people in New York you impress. It’s beyond that. The Internet and the organizations that exist within it are the easiest starting point to tackle for the emerging artist. To ignore it by principle is looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Ursula Sokolowska is a Chicago based artist who fuses projection installations with photography. She was born in Krakow, Poland and came to America with her mother at the age of 5. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001. Her photographs can be found in many public and private collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Tanqueray. Her work has appeared in CameraArts magazine, and featured in the Chicago Tribune. She is represented in Chicago by Martha Schneider gallery and White Columns in New York.