ABSTRACT
This essay argues that by working collectively, some artists may better weather neoliberal and capitalist forces that underpin the creative arts industry. Using the Light and Air and Space and Time (LAST) Collective as a case-study, I draw a connection between the unstable and elemental concerns that lie at the heart of these individual artists’ practices and an ethical orientation and attitude of care for the world around them that the artists also share. These concerns, while not uncommon in art practices, are nevertheless quite difficult for an individual artist working alone to sustain. This is because, despite a prevalence of dematerialised and conceptual practices exhibited in the public realm, the machinations that underpin contemporary art more broadly still firmly sit within a neoliberal, capitalist market. To sustain practices that don’t always, or necessarily, produce tangible marketable outcomes requires a considerable amount of momentum and spin, to propel them successfully into this world. However, by working alongside one another, the artists in the LAST Collective are able to constantly reaffirm their care for one another’s practices, which in turn reinforces their commitment to less tangible aspects of their own. This model of artist collective activates practices of care, and in turn care for practice. Through the process of deeply engaging with and valuing each other’s work, this approach improves these artists’ chances of surviving in what is still a determinedly neoliberal cultural environment, as well as re-attuning them in their ongoing commitment to the mattering world.
