Malin Neuman

„… I’m tired of the competition“

I have since a young age been writing creatively and later found the urge to start making things too. In my twenties I became involved in an artist group and studied art in various places. After a year at an art school in London I grew tired of the competition and hustle and took a long break from making art. I couldn’t stay away though from the need to express myself visually and in 2020 I graduated from the Master program in fine art at Zurich University of the Arts.

Because I’m tired of the competition. I’m tired of artists being pitted against each other. I’m tired of not being considered relevant because of my age. I’m tired of the way artists are expected to commodify themselves and turn their art into a “brand”. I’m tired of the very narrow definitions of success and how we are told there’s only one way to make it. Still i believe in art. I believe art has the potential to transform our thinking. I believe we can create art and contexts that goes beyond the mere transactional. I believe there are more paths through the art world than one and I’m looking for other artists that feel the same.

Attending the Master program in fine art gave rise to a lot of questions: What does it mean to be an artist? What does it mean to be an art student? What are the conditions under which we are making our art? In 2019 I made a series of short videos on Instagram as a way of talking through these and other related questions. The project was called Artist Alphabet since the alphabet was used as a structuring mechanism to organize otherwise random thoughts on art. By using Instagram as the publishing platform the conversations was afforded an everyday quality in an effort to demystify the artistic process.