Last month saw some great strides in the Self Representing Artists movement by a little band you might have heard of once or twice: Radiohead. Rather than letting a record company call the shots, they spent the past 2 years making exactly the album they wanted and then released it as a download on their website. They even let the fans decide how much they wanted to pay for the download. This kind of trust in their fans and in themselves is exactly what the self-representing artist's movement is all about. Artists putting their work out there for the public, available directly from the artist. It's an amazingly liberating feeling. Getting to connect one-on-one with people who are excited about your art is becoming less rare, as it should. Obviously, the indie movement in art, craft, and music, is nothing new. Prince has been in on the secret for ages. But it's gathering strength. And with the advent of social media and dozens of new ways to share one's work, these artists (us!) are taking the world by storm. So the next time you hear someone snort and say that the self-rep movement is for hobbyist hacks who can't get a gallery, send 'em to Thom Yorke. Or Trent Reznor. Or even Madonna. They'll be happy to set them straight.
Amie Gillingham
1 November 2007
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