Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton

But I resisted the ready-made role of the critic. If I had wanted to become a full participant, I would have accepted one of the many offers I had to write catalogue essays and reviews. ST: I’m an experienced ethnographer, so I’m pretty good at balancing participation and observation. It adds humour and tension.ĬKL: Did your background in art override your sociologist side? Of course, some bullshit is fascinating-like when the speaker really believes what he/she is saying-so I leave that in and let the reader be the judge. But the people who became characters in the book (rather than simply interviewees) did so, in part, because of their comfort with being honest, revealing, even raw. As my profile rose and my research gained momentum, I encountered more masks and more bullshit. ST: When I started the book, I was a nobody sociologist for whom most people couldn’t be bothered to perform.

It’s almost an ethical thing-a way of dealing with the conflicted feelings you experience as an ethnographer of the elite.ĬKL: Did your “subjects” perform for you? I managed to obtain terrific access to some very exclusive and semi-private milieus, which fuelled my desire to make the book as accessible as possible. I wanted the book to be funny and absolutely accurate for art-world insiders but also enlightening for outsiders.

So I hope the Canadian media will eventually get around to giving Seven Days some airtime and column inches.ĬKL: Initially, did you intend the book for outsiders to the art world or, as Grayson Perry suggested in the book, young upstarts? It’s something I express in the final chapter of the book, when I enter the Canadian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and can’t contain my glee that David Altmejd has taken over the difficult teepee-like building so masterfully. I’ve lived outside of Canada-in London, Los Angeles and elsewhere-for 20 years, so I’m not really in a position to say… Strangely, the longer I live abroad, the stronger my sense of being Canadian. Sarah Thornton: Seven Days in the Art World was on the Canadian non-fiction bestseller list for four weeks, so Canadians must have heard about the book somehow.

Does this say anything about the status of contemporary art in Canada? Lau: So far, there has been not much Canadian press for your book. Earlier this winter, she answered questions about her book from Canadian Art contributor Charlene K. Thornton speaks in Toronto at the Art Gallery of Ontario on April 15, and then in Vancouver at Vancity Theatre on April 18. The book, Seven Days in the Art World, is based on first-hand involvement that takes readers inside auctions, crits, art fairs, prizes, magazines, studio visits and biennales. Sarah Thornton, a Canadian sociologist and writer based in London, UK, is the author of a recent book on contemporary art that’s making waves for its observant distillation of today’s art scene.

Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton