IN/VISIBLE GEOGRAPHIES: ABSENCE, EMERGENCE, PRESENCE, AND THE FINE ART OF IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

In this paper I draw on interviews with professional visual artists in Toronto, Canada to reconstruct an occupation-specific reading of the urban landscape. I use a detailed examination of one specific occupational identity to reveal the intricate relationship between self, work, and context at different spatial scales. The underlying mechanism that supports the articulation and negotiation of artistic identities, I argue, is the sustained tension between absence and presence, visibility and invisibility within different spaces of the urban fabric.

Resisting the creation of forgotten places: artistic production in Toronto neighbourhoods

“…In the popular imagination, artists are often considered to have heightened sensual awareness that allows them to use their creativity to extend the boundaries of experience to reveal significance in the ordinary. In descriptions of places that artists demonstrate strong attachment to (e.g., studios, studio buildings, streets and neighbourhoods), as I have documented elsewhere (Bain 2003; 2004), they frequently describe the visual and aural texture and form of spaces. The rough tangibility of decaying buildings and objects in the urban landscape, for example, often provides artists with a sense of historical lineage and creative possibility.…”

“…They were recorded using a micro‐cassette recorder, transcribed verbatim and coded by hand using an open coding, cut‐and‐paste approach in which categories and themes were teased out from the transcripts and compared across the interviews. These interviews have formed the basis of several scholarly journal articles (Bain 2003, 2004a, 2004b, 2005, in press).…”

Ruptured Landscapes

“…Still, the industrial cluster built around Kohtla-Järve saves the city from becoming a total ghost-town; a couple of its urban districts now show some signs of revival as residential areas for the capital of the county, Jõhvi. For me, the presence of the demolished buildings is felt even in their absence (Bain 2004;Wylie 2009;Mansvelt 2010). To my recollection, the house included a shoe repair workshop.…”

Valuing the Arts: Theorising and Realising Cultural Capital in an Australian City

“…As time went on, the arts were increasingly viewed as an economic sector until finally the creative arts were located within the ‘Cultural’ or ‘Creative Industries’, a key driver of an emerging knowledge economy. Such a shift has been echoed in a number of other countries – such as the United Kingdom (Donnovan and Middleton, 1987; Myerscough, 1988; Hall and Hubbard, 1998; Hall, 2000), Spain, France, Italy (Bianchini and Parkinson, 1993; Gomez, 1998; Power, 2002), Canada (Toronto Culture, 2003; Bain, 2004), the United States (Levine, 1992; Wagner et al ., 1995; Hannigan, 1998) and Singapore (Chang, 2000; Renaissance City Report, 2000; Chang and Lee, 2003). This move to locate the creative arts within a broad and expanding economic sector can be read in a number of ways: as indicative of a structural shift towards a more symbolic economy (Caves, 2000; Scott, 2000; 2001; Hesmondhalgh, 2002), but also as a response to a neo‐liberal politics demanding economic returns on government investment in the arts.…”

“…As well as the significant numbers involved in paid and unpaid work, attendance at cultural venues and activities is vast -85% of the Australian population over 15 years old or 12.6 million people attended at least one cultural activity in the previous year when surveyed by the ABS in April 1999, spending $10 billion or $27 per week on culture (SWG No. 9, 2002;2004). Further, during 2000 there were 2.5 million people or 16.8% of the population over fifteen years old who did some paid or unpaid work in culture and leisure activities.…”