Danielle Rhoda is a Manchester based artist I have been following on Instagram, her use of colour and texture with the grainy charcoal and pastels in her work resonate with my own work though her work is more minimalistic and focused on people. Rhoda also takes an interest in the things around her, drawing is her way of exploring and communicating what she sees as she documents her own human experience and the everyday life of perfect strangers. This innate curiosity and desire to interpret what we see is very human and her method of drawing is quite unique to herself, the same as a fingerprint her thought process in each image makes them unique as a piece of her “self” is woven in them. She calls her own work “naïve” as she depicts diversity, as if her exploration of society and the community around her is done in a childlike way similar to her drawings which are quite loose and freeing.

“Fountain” Marcel Duchamp,1917, above replica 1964 (Tate, “Marcel Duchamp”)

Duchamp has been a longstanding believer that the audience is key to the “completion” of the artwork, that it plays a vital part in finishing the communication of the artists message. The above image is a replica, the original urinal, Duchamp purchased from a regular supplier which he then signed and submitted Society of Independent Artists as an artwork under the name “R.Mutt” which was denied and scrutinised. The artwork caused fury with many refusing to even refer to it as art, the “readymades” as Duchamp referred to them, were cause for controversy and scrutiny that led to the desire for more freedom within the art world as they felt the artwork being removed was censoring the artist. The importance of the audience in his work is the freedom of interpretation without the censoring of the artists work, the participation of an audience seems to be an important part of the work which is why being denied the participation and chance to give the work an audience outraged Duchamp so. In doing so they effectively disrupted the cycle leaving the work unfinished in his eyes, Duchamp wanted to free up the artworld more and question and give validation to alternative forms of art and give it the opportunity to have an audience. There was a desire to mock and provoke the ideas of what art could and should be, Duchamp believed that for an object to become art it must be proclaimed so and exhibited given an audience to consider and spectate the work cementing it as artwork.

Pablo Picasso, painting with light, Photograph by Gjon Mili

 Picasso along with photographer Gjon Mili created a set of photographs that experimented with drawing using light with the air as the canvas (Agora Experts, 2017) . The artwork would not have ever happened if they had not collaborated as it was a necessary step in sharing their creative processes with an openness to experiment that resulted in the wonderful work. In collaborating artists are able to share aesthetics, an audience and mutually convey a desired message or theme. The opportunity to work together gives artists opportunity for new growth and perspective by exploring things they hadn’t previously considered yielding innovative new work.

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