City, Culture and Society 6 (2015) 75e81

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City, Culture and Society

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ccs

Art and resilience: The spatial practices of making a resilient artistic

career in London
€ holm a, c, 2
Cecilia Pasquinelli a, b, *, 1, Jenny Sjo
a
Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University, Box 513, S-75120, Uppsala, Sweden
b
Gran Sasso Science Institute, viale F. Crispi 7, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
c
Department of Social Change and Culture, Culture Studies, Linko €ping University, Linko
€ping, Sweden

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper focusses on the spatial practices of resilience put in place by individual professionals who face
Available online 16 May 2015 changes and challenges related to their life and career aspirations. In the frame of changing labour
markets, and a transition to precarious work in post-Fordist regimes of production, this paper draws
Keywords: attention to the case of visual artists in London. Through a multi-scalar approach to the analysis of
Resilience resilience, the paper shows that artists have to learn how to navigate through temporary and flexible
Visual artist
work arrangements by learning skills that enable a strategic adaptability. A resilient artistic career is
Adaptability
portrayed as a geographically situated process that is often played out through complementary and
Spatial practice
alternative communication channels and spaces that are mostly located outside the mainstream and
established art system.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction interpreted as yet another ‘trick’ of the growth machine imposing a

“unity of interest” for all city dwellers in a framework of urban
Social scientists’ interest in the concept of resilience has grown propaganda (Kirchberg & Kagan, 2013).
alongside an increasing scepticism of the concept. The critique has Beyond critiques against the neo-liberal exploitation of the
mainly developed in relation to the term’s fuzziness (Hassink, 2010) concept, however, we agree with those scholars who suggest that
and its use as an ‘empty signifier’ whose meaning varies, depending resilience should not be left to the ‘neo-liberal’, thus avoiding dis-
on the pursued goals (Weichselgartner & Kelman, 2014). This missing resilience before understanding its explanatory potential
malleability has been interpreted as smoothing the difficult (see e.g., Martin, 2012). Resilience is increasingly becoming part of
narration of a turbulent future whose governability is ambiguously the urban policy discourse (Wilkinson, 2012), and it can analytically
narrated through the use of terms such as ‘resilience’ and ‘pre- frame the response of communities and individuals in the face of
paredness’ (Amin, 2013). The semantic domain of resilience, which socio-environmental changes and challenges. Resilience can
also includes flexibility, self-help, and self-organisation, is said to describe how communities and individuals deal with disturbances
easily fit with a neo-liberal agenda (Martin, 2012) according to and hazards. While empirical research is still seriously lacking in
which the weights of a ‘bounce-back’ process in a turbulent econ- this field (Weichselgartner & Kelman, 2014), a deeper empirical
omy are placed on workers, in an attempt to re-launch productivity engagement might reveal that resilience works as a platform for
by cutting costs. Resilience can be interpreted as a ‘mobilising discussing and organising reactions that challenge the status quo
discourse’ that places responsibility on local communities to adapt and for negotiating alternative routes of development, in contrast
to global capitalism (Mackinnon & Derikson, 2012, cited in to the consolidated arguments about resilience as a neo-liberal and
Weichselgartner & Kelman, 2014). In other words, resilience can be regressive agenda (Brown, 2014).
This paper focusses on the spatial practices of resilience put in
place by individual professionals who face changes and challenges
* Corresponding author. Gran Sasso Science Institute, viale F. Crispi 7, 67100
related to their career aspirations. In particular, this paper seeks an
L’Aquila, Italy. Tel.: þ3908624280262; fax: þ3908624280265. understanding of resilience strategies in relation to uncertainty and
E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Pasquinelli). institutional ambiguity in the current volatile labour markets. The
1
The author moved to Gran Sasso Science Institute in September 2014. framework is one of a changing labour market e a transition to
2
The author moved to Linko € ping University in February 2015.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2015.04.001
1877-9166/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
76 €holm / City, Culture and Society 6 (2015) 75e81
C. Pasquinelli, J. Sjo

precarious work or immaterial labour in post-Fordist regimes of “proliferation of life within them” that produces novelties and
production e which is now so profoundly part of a large majority of unanticipated developments (Amin, 2013).
cultural workers’ lives (Gill & Pratt, 2008; Ross, 2008; Seijdel, The second part of the first question e the scale at which
2009). Drawing attention to the case of visual artists in London, resilience should be analysed e is not an easy one to solve. Resil-
this paper shows that the sampled artists had to learn how to ient, complex, adaptive systems emerge from “multi-directional
navigate through temporary and flexible work arrangements and a feedback processes” (Desouza & Flanery, 2013) that are generated
lack of predictability and security by learning skills that would locally, or may be at least partly rooted in global networks. In order
enable a strategic adaptability. to make the multi-scalar nature of resilience emerge, we propose a
micro-perspective of the individual as the unit of analysis, i.e. his or
Resilience: a multi-scalar approach her practices, networks, and spaces. In relation to urban resilience,
Lazzeretti (2012) stressed how the creative capacity of the city,
The literature on resilience increasingly emphasises a shift from emerging in the face of change, has to be traced back to individual
a conservative to a transformative understanding of the term, or collective actors and their own propensity for innovation.
stressing transformation and change instead of an adaptive Framing resilience at the city level carries a risk of personifying ‘the
response maintaining a steady equilibrium (Brown, 2014). Both city’, while individual or collective actors within the city are the
engineering and ecological resilience (Martin, 2012; Simmie & ones who decide, choose, and take action in the face of hazard and
Martin, 2010), which take equilibrium-based approaches, are change. The vitality and resilience of a city cannot be found at a
limiting when applied to territorial and spatial resilience due to systemic level but instead at the level of its individual elements
their incapacity to explain the “geographical differentiation and (Kirchberg & Kagan, 2013).
unevenness of resilience of places” in the face of uncertainty and Studies have focussed only weakly on the role of human agency
constant change (Pike, Dawley, & Tomaney, 2010, p. 61). The notion in the resilience debate, however. Some attention has been paid to
of adaptation, which refers to a rapid movement towards pre- key actors who can play a significant role in institutional change,
conceived and known paths in the short run, is coupled with the e.g., influential entrepreneurs and political leaders (Boschma,
notion of adaptability, which instead refers to a dynamic capacity to 2014). There is room to further explore an ‘agency-based
undertake new, alternative, and unexpected trajectories (Pike et al., approach to resilience’, however, which may explain key differ-
2010), by restating aims and redefining procedures and practices. ences between the mechanisms of resilience that we observe in
The resilience of complex systems implies flexibility and openness nature and society (Bristow & Healy, 2014). Learning and the
to learning (Folke et al., 2002), the pooling of explorative skills for accumulation of knowledge boost human ingenuity, anticipatory
new solutions (Pike et al., 2010), and serendipity that will enable ability, and an attitude towards behavioural change. Learning and
learning from unexpected situations and failures, thus activating a the accumulation of knowledge may explain such differences.
trend of iterative learning (Kirchberg & Kagan, 2013). Through individuals’ strategic development of skills and compe-
To further define resilience in a way that mirrors its complexity, tencies, “new patterns of interaction, […] new ideas, new action
we propose a multi-scalar approach that connects the individual possibilities, new products and artefacts, and even new systems”
spatial strategies and practices of resilience with the urban context, (Bristow & Healy, 2014) may emerge, potentially contributing to an
which may provide individuals with quality scenes, resources, institutional change.
connections, and soft and hard infrastructures that shape (but also A micro-perspective, however, does not mean neglecting an
are shaped by) individuals’ resilient paths. This approach not only analysis of the spaces and places of resilience. There is a relation-
differs from the more consolidated approach to urban and regional ship between individuals’ assets and the wider environment in
resilience that focusses on the dynamics of a complex adaptive which they operate (Bristow & Healy, 2014). Ibert and Schmidt
system as a whole, but also from the consolidating approach to (2014) explored the spatiality of musical actors’ strategies of resil-
individuals’ resilience. We promote the unit of analysis to be in- ience by focussing on the relational spaces that labour market ac-
dividuals, their practices, and their related spatialities. This tors create over the course of their careers. While these authors
approach to the study of resilience acknowledges that regional argued that these spatialities are not locally embedded, in this
systems are “collections of individuals, organizations, industries, paper we propose a focus on the spatial practices and strategies of
networks and institutions, each of which may have their own individuals whose decision-making and actions are geographically
distinctive feature of resilience” (Boschma, 2014). ‘situated’ and, to a certain degree, connected to a complex adaptive
To better define resilience and to position our study, we need to spatial system, i.e. the urban context where individuals live and
tackle questions such as “resilience to what and at what scale?” work. From our perspective, resilience is inherent to the dynamics
(Weichselgartner & Kelman, 2014) and “resilience for whom?” of a relational web (Ibert & Schmidt, 2014) whose local nodes e e.g.,
(Pike et al., 2010). Concerning the first question, resilience was network gatekeepers, artefacts, and institutions e cannot be
originally applied in contexts of sudden and rapid change e caused, neglected. A notion of resilience acknowledging “the situated na-
for instance, by natural disasters or terrorist attacks. Scholars have ture of social, economic and culture action” is also the most
increasingly argued, however, that the concept of resilience is meaningful to the cultural economy, which is particularly “sensitive
relevant in contexts of smooth change, which implies continuous to local embedding” (Pratt, 2015). A local, critical mass of cultural
risks as well as the constant need to anticipate these risks and to re- producers and consumers takes part in a cultural co-production.
organise in ever-evolving scenarios. Resilience literature thus is Concerning the “resilience for whom?” question, Pratt’s distinc-
moving from the analysis of pre-shock and post-shock contexts to tion between two paths of resilience is here proposed (2015). A first
focussing on ‘slow burns’ or ‘slow-moving crises’ (Pendall et al., mode is defined as an ‘atomistic and closed’ path, consisting in the
2007 cited in Hassink, 2010), which may impact and even corrode a maintenance of a system despite decreased resources. In an
system more than single-event shocks will. This relates to a broader attempt to reduce the functioning costs, the burdens of resilience
insight into resilience, which, while it originally focussed on re- are necessarily on some agent of the system, who ends up
sponses to exogenous shocks, also considers endogenous risks and embracing a philosophy of self-help. The second mode is, instead,
shocks emerging from within a system due to internal social and defined as ‘social and open’ and is more suitable to the cultural
political dynamics (Brown, 2014). Cities are “unstable entities”, not economy. This is a collective modality of resilience, where ‘sus-
only under the impact of external influences but also because of the tainable living’ and ‘thriving’ are pursued in place of economic
 €holm / City, Culture and Society 6 (2015) 75e81
C. Pasquinelli, J. Sjo 77

growth. Throughout a collective effort to build inter-related activ- Sjo€ holm & Pasquinelli, 2014) as well as the building of profes-
ities, this mode of resilience is based on the construction of a local sional networks and close alliances in the art world (Bain &
capacity building, i.e. a local endowment of skills, infrastructures, McLean, 2013; Currid, 2007; Neff et al., 2005). Particular charac-
and education assets. This characterises a ‘self-sustaining system’ teristics of the post-Fordist economy, such as rhetorical and
where cultural agents deploy practices of resilience (Pratt, 2015). communicative skills, have come to play an increasingly important
This represents a ‘collective innovation’ in a context where indi- role for creative workers. As Gielen (2009) stressed: “Virtuosity has
vidual agents might not have the resources to define innovations by shifted from making e as evident in the working of the artisan e to
themselves (Sedita, De Noni, & Pilotti, 2014). speaking” (p. 12).
Artists’ labour and careers rely on their social capital (Bourdieu,
Artists in volatile labour markets: professional lives, practices, 1993) as well as on their embodied capacities, performances, and
and spaces appearance: what Warhurst, Nickson, Witz, and Cullen (2000)
referred to as ‘aesthetic labour’. The concept of aesthetic labour
The current expansion of the global art markets and art worlds was originally developed in relation to studies of embodied ca-
(broadly defined) has meant that the arts have entered a period of pacities of interactive service workers working in larger organisa-
institutional, market, and industry transformation; as a result, art tions, but has since come to include creative labour and therefore
workers perceive competition as being intense, and view gaining also freelancers and entrepreneurs (Dean, 2005; Entwistle &
recognition and commercial success to be increasingly difficult Wissinger, 2006; Hracs & Leslie, 2014).
(Wulff, 1998). In her critical discussion of the development of the This paper focuses on artistic work in relation to artistic free-
creative economy in England, McRobbie (2011) stressed how the lance and micro-entrepreneurial activities. These workers can be
“cultural and creative sector has grown to the extent that it now described as being part of a larger group of precarious and creative
becomes not just a normal occupational sector but in certain cities workers that have to be self-motivating and self-governing, as well
and geographic locations dominant” (p. 33). Although artistic bi- as taking full responsibility for their career, image, and learning
ographies throughout history have been described as being subject through high levels of uncertainty (Dean, 2005; Edstro € m, 2008;
to insecure and exhausting working conditions (Baumol & Bowen, McRobbie, 2004b; Ross, 2008). Artists are situated in an economic
1966; Vasari, 1998), the nature of creative work is changing; these system that has often been described as demanding of its cultural
conditions have become exacerbated by the less secure and more workers’ flexible working hours and a continuous demand for
competitive post-Fordist economy (Thornton, 2008; Throsby, creativity and performance, as well as for both physical and mental
1996). mobility (McRobbie, 2002; Menger, 1999; Seijdel, 2009). Artists
Precarity, freelancing, and entrepreneurship are key features of located in London work under particular uncertainties. As put for-
artists’ and other creative workers’ constant search for resilient ward by McRobbie (2011), the British cultural sector is surrounded
paths throughout their professional lives. The case of art workers, by weak socio-structural supports and workplace protections and
however, provides an opportunity to discuss the concept of resil- securities.
ience as a more or less permanent state of assessing, choosing, and Precarious work e its insecure forms of living, and its demands
acting in a turbulent society. Uncertainty and instability have long for being a performing and communicative worker e puts a great
been regarded as permanent ingredients of art practice; the arts are deal of pressure on workers. As a consequence, precarity, as put
often discussed as being a traditionally risky and precarious sector forward by Gill and Pratt (2008), simultaneously offers new forms
(Donald, Gertler, & Tyler, 2013). Practitioners have to manage un- of solidarity and struggle; through precarity, “the potential for new
certainty in relation to career opportunities, but there is also an subjectivities, new socialities and new kinds of politics” (p. 3)
uncertainty at the very centre of every artistic practice and pro- emerge. Drawing on Bain and McLean’s (2013) study on the ‘artistic
duction, and even knowledge processes (Danvers, 2003, p. 53). This precariat’ and the idea that the way out of an insecure and pre-
supports a view of resilience studies as an analysis of “how humans carious existence is through collective agency, we point to an
interact within an ever changing world” by putting in place both artistic entrepreneurship that potentially could create new social
the practices of adaptation and adaptability (Ibert & Schmidt, forms that specifically grow from grassroots levels. Following
2014). According to a recent study on musical actors, resilience in Wallmon’s (2014) notion of the social entrepreneur, entrepre-
labour markets implies both an ability to carry out predictable tasks neurship can boost change and promote a changing institutional
and an ability to manage unpredictable circumstances through setting.
spatial mobility and the development of multiple positional iden- Particularly drawing on Ettlinger’s (2007) study of precarity and
tities, which tend to change over time (Ibert & Schmidt, 2014). An its untidy geographies, we argue that artists’ precarious work is not
analysis of artists’ resilient practices helps focus on “the practice of fixed to particular workspaces and time periods. Accordingly, pre-
affected people at risk” (Weichselgartner & Kelman, 2014) by carity and uncertainty are multi-scalar and context-specific pro-
raising awareness of the variety of purposes and developments that cesses. Ettlinger’s study of the spatialities of precarity essentially
are imagined and pursued. entails a view ‘from below’ and a focus on everyday micro-
Studying the making of an artistic career involves not only spatialities, which nevertheless is connected with processes
stressing the production of art, but also the making of a conscious unfolding at other scales or, in her words, ‘at the top’, or at a macro
and strategic entrepreneurial practice. Artists, together with many scale. In the spirit of Ettlinger’s notion of ‘untidy geographies’, we
other cultural workers, are viewed as entrepreneurial subjects who illustrate later on in this paper how artists actively construct and
continuously have to calculate how they might develop themselves navigate towards a variation of spaces and spatial resources as part
and their lives (du Gay, 1996) in sectors where ideas of self- of their work e whether it is the larger city, the specific neigh-
realisation and competitiveness are particularly present and high- bourhood, virtual spaces, or the individual studio e in order to
ly valued (Ross, 2008). In order to stay competitive, artists are ex- adapt, dampen, or resist the effects of flexible working conditions
pected to develop creative and innovative work, and to capitalise on and changing art worlds.
and communicate their work (Bain, 2005). Consequently, an artist
has to spend large proportions of his or her time on many different The spatial practices of making a resilient artistic career
outreach activities: media and public appearances and personal
brand development and communication (McRobbie, 2004a; In the following sections we present illustrations of London-
78 €holm / City, Culture and Society 6 (2015) 75e81
C. Pasquinelli, J. Sjo

based artists’ uncertain and flexible working conditions amidst a communication channels and spaces outside the mainstream sys-
changing art world and volatile labour markets, as well as some of tem. This is partly because the intense competition excluded them
their strategies and spatial practices of resilience. Beyond artists’ from galleries, but also because artists frequently have to adjust to
adaptation strategies that attempt to move towards a pre- uncertain labour markets by creating market space for themselves,
conceived path, which is represented by traditional and institu- and because they want to avoid sharing their proceeds or relin-
tionalised art circuits (which of course can also be associated with quishing control of their art whenever possible.
uncertainty), we mainly focus on artists’ adaptability. Artists’ The new trajectories partly consist of self-organised art world
adaptability is about artists’ abilities and initiatives to undertake collectives and informal systems of exchange. These collectives
alternative (and sometimes unexpected and new) trajectories in were explained to occasionally be politically motivated, but most of
constructing an artistic career. It is about activating and developing the times they were described as a way for the sampled artists to
entrepreneurial skills e which are not necessarily needed to gain feel recognised, get feedback and also emotional support. For these
access to pre-codified and institutionalised markets e and about artists, living in a fluctuating area between failure and success, the
skills and attitudes needed in order to create new markets, social establishment of a feedback system through temporary and
forms, and spaces where value can be created and exchanged. informal peer groups is important in order to handle uncertainty
and volatile labour markets. In doing so, artists look for London-
Methodology based shared studio spaces; they nurture their networks from art
school and search for forums and member’s organisations that can
The empirical work was carried out to describe artists’ spatial support their practice. In this way, artists create their own London-
practices of resilience. We approached this research by way of a based art scene and knowledge milieus. This can work as an
qualitative study that took place between 2008 and 2012. The study investigational and experimental solution that will enable learning
draws on serial and in-depth interviews, complemented by and feedback but also a sense of visibility and stability from peer-
participant observations in artists’ workspaces: in particular, in oriented feedback. As Bristow and Healy (2014) suggested, new
their art studios. In total this study is based on thirty-six meetings forms of interaction, action, and even new systems can potentially
with twelve artists, which together added up to around eighty emerge through the artists’ search for feed-back, new skills, and
hours of recorded interview material. All interviews were digitally competencies. The artist ‘Louisa’, for instance, created a peer group
recorded, transcribed, and coded according to theme. The study is together with her artist friends, consisting of artists who were
based on twelve visual artists (four men and eight women) who active within the visual and performance arts; it was an informal
were between the ages of 23 and 67 at the time, who all worked critical mass, mainly constructed out of her private sphere. Louisa,
within the framework of the visual arts but in different media, who experiments with sound art, usually brought her laptop to
including painting, drawing, installations, animation, photography, group meetings and let the group listen to what she had created;
film, etching, and printmaking. This work focusses on individuals sometimes she presented a potential project to them to get their
who view themselves as professional artists and actively seek feedback and to enrich her work with other artists’ ideas and
diverse markets and venues for their work. It is not a study of techniques that were shared during meetings. Louisa reported that:
artists’ professional failures or successes, but it is about artists who
“In London there is a quite small field of people that are inter-
have, at least partly, found a way to have an artistic career, whether
ested in improvised music. They all go to each other’s perfor-
it be by grants or commercial contracts, through secondary occu-
mances. It is always the same people, it is quite close. Someone
pations, or through sales of their own work.
arrange concerts in someone’s front room and he will get three
London and Paris are often depicted as Europe’s most important
people to play and he invited me to do so” (Louisa, Interview I).
employment centres for artists and cultural industries, with dense
cultural activity, production, and networks in both cities (Nielsen &
Power, 2010). Being an intensive centre of cultural and creative There is the opportunity in London for pooling collaborative
production, London provides a relevant urban context with which initiatives, which might be small yet highly specialised and
to analyse artists’ entrepreneurial practices and risk-mediating engaged in experimentation. In some cases, informal venues can
strategies. There is an existing normative cultural economy pool a significant number of potential buyers. ‘Rose’ has worked as
discourse in London that embraces the creative economy and the an artist since the late 70s, and recently started to create and curate
contribution of the arts. This research does not focus on the special a series of group exhibitions. She said that during her most recent
character of London as ‘the creative city’, however. Rather, the focus show, which was held at a pub, more people turned up than she
is on individuals’ resilient practices and the geography of artists’ thought would have, and most of the exhibited art was sold. Such
resilience. The urban context certainly provides the concrete spaces exhibitions usually get many visitors on opening night, which is
of resilience, including (yet going beyond) formalised and institu- also when most sales are made. Rose meant that these events had
tional spaces for cultural production and consumption (Watson, started to create their own market; they opened up the art world to
Hoyler, & Mager, 2009). We acknowledge that being located in customers who would not otherwise ‘consume’ or purchase art,
London offers cultural workers a variety of potential resources and and the artist does not have to negotiate with gallery owners or
access to networks, but, as discussed by McRobbie (2011), it also curators in institutional art venues. She arranged and curated an
comes with many expectations and a certain pace of work, which unconventional exhibition space so that she and other artists would
can be highly challenging for artists’ work and careers. have a chance to show their work in the way they wanted it to be
shown. Artists create temporary peer groups to set up their own
Artists’ spatial practices of resilience: a situated approach spaces of display in unconventional art spaces such as their own
transcending ‘the local’ homes, unoccupied spaces, and pubs. Such ‘pop-up’ galleries can be
seen as an emerging artist-led trend and movement that partly
Traditional channels and connections for artists are based on seems to have benefited from a decline in property values, which
communication and sales to galleries, art fairs, juried shows, and has meant that venues have become available. The examples pre-
corporate and museum collections e in short, the established gal- sent an alternative or an ‘independent’ art scene and a realising of
lery system (Jeffri, Greenblatt, Friedman, & Greeley, 1991). In this exhibitions and events that primarily depend on local relations.
study, however, artists often found complementary and alternative Personal friendships, networks, and group affiliations account for
 €holm / City, Culture and Society 6 (2015) 75e81
C. Pasquinelli, J. Sjo 79

the social capital that allows artists to take part in (and position a broader audience. The following examples illustrate how such
themselves and even advance in) their professional field (Bourdieu, virtual spaces are linked to the city through connections to artists’
1993). physical and local workspaces, such as their studios, but also
These two examples of artistic collaboration echo what Bain and through connections to other art world actors and spaces of the
McLean called “do it ourselves collectives” (2013, p. 99) in their urban context. Through the use, modification, and interaction of
study of artists and their strategies for managing precarity in their both virtual and physical workspaces, artists create milieus that
everyday lives in Toronto. The artists of this study also collectively enable an audience to experience their work and, to an ever-
produced temporary spaces that supported recognition, experi- increasing degree, their creative process; new ways of conceiving
mentation, and collaboration. To counteract a sense of work that and consuming art are being created every day.
was too isolated, Louisa with her friends and Rose with a group of Social media, websites, and blogs may allow an audience to
artists created their own spaces of co-production and learning; experience an indirect yet immersive experience of a space that is
they had the opportunity to get other contacts to help them to built and designed by the artist. That is, a version of studio-based
reach an even wider scene and, eventually, broader networks. creativity can be recreated and socialised in virtual spaces created
Through collective efforts and interrelated activities, artists might by the artist; these recreations are considered to be fundamental
succeed in building a local endowment of skills and assets, which, tools for self-promotion and an opportunity to communicate
according to Pratt (2015), are crucial to a sustainable system. unique personality and recognisable style to an audience, which is
McRobbie (2011, p. 33) showed that the interpersonal meetings so important in order to pursue a career in the cultural sector
with other people of the art world and their network activity are (Entwistle & Wissinger, 2006; Sjo €holm & Pasquinelli, 2014). On her
often “geared towards being sociable and pleasing and endlessly Facebook page, Rose created and displayed photo albums of work in
self-promoting in order to keep all opportunities open”, rather than progress, drawings, watercolour sketches, prints, and scribbles.
collectively constructing a political awareness and any deeper There was also artwork in its finished form, tracings from her
foundation for change; this (again according to McRobbie) is the research work and field trips, and updates and short comments
real antidote to uncertain labour conditions. The artists sampled for relating to her art practice; here she posted and sent out invitations
this study, however, generally identified these events as crucial to openings and exhibitions, both by her and by other artists.
moments in their careers, and part of the process of creating the The artist ‘Helen S’, in collaboration with a prominent London-
conditions for what most of them have aimed for: to get the op- based museum, created her own blog, where she documented
portunity of having a solo exhibition. her work process in the research project. On the blog one could
London is a city that offers social opportunities and feedback follow the development of her work over one and a half years’ time.
opportunities, but the social possibilities can also be an over- She showed photographs of field and studio-based practice, and
whelming challenge. In order to become a player in the professional wrote down her thoughts on her work alongside the photographs.
field and the local art world, one first needs to have an already This project concluded with an exhibition, which also was mar-
established level of social skills and capital. Secondly, for artists keted and documented on the blog.
who are part of a professional field, it can become a burden to stay Artist ‘Helen B’ stated how her website homepage worked as a
connected to the social networks (McRobbie, 2004b). The artist fruitful tool that connected her with potential London-based
‘Marianne’ had just recently moved to London after building a collaborators:
career in New York. She seemed well aware of the network ex-
“I have my own website. And I am on various other artists’
pectations and found it hard, she said,
websites. The web, the Internet, is the way I do it myself. I put it
“because you have to have a certain level of confidence… I have up on my website with no special purpose or aim doing that, but
kind of just started sending out prints and stuff, showing my it kind of works because people see it and now I got these people
work in London … I used to do shows, when I was in New York that want to commission my work now” (Helen, Interview I).
and I was doing photography … And then when I came here it
just died. I think it was because I needed to just do some work
These examples show how artists’ virtual presence encourages
here and it is in the last few years that I have kicked it up again. I
connections to social nodes in London’s art world and beyond, ar-
think I found it very difficult to come here. I found it very
ranged by themselves rather than through the connection to pro-
expensive. Rent was expensive, wages were bad and I didn’t
moters, gallery owners, and art dealers. These individual workers
have ‘the London experience’, I didn’t have the network expe-
thus shape their resilient practices and strategies through “the
rience” (Marianne, Interview I).
dynamics of relational webs” (Ibert & Schmidt, 2014), where
London-based nodes such as personal workspaces, artefacts, and
Marianne said that she needed to become better at making institutions are highly involved and intertwined. The examples
contacts and creating a local social platform from which she could further show artists’ capacity to undertake new, alternative, and
show her work; she still worked on developing what she called the unexpected trajectories of adaptability.
‘London experience’. During our second meeting she said that
through her job as a teacher (at a large art institution in London) Final remarks
she had started to slowly develop her London network. Through
work-related projects at the school she had got in contact with A resilient artistic career has been discussed as a geographically
other artists and curators e people who could give her information situated process that is played out through complementary and
and therefore also a sense of being part of an art scene. The quote alternative communication channels and spaces, rather than
shows not only how aware artists are of their network expectations, through the more established art and gallery system. Instead of
but it also points to how artists have to manage and balance their mainly discussing individuals’ professional resilience in relation to
outward and entrepreneurial activities with their more inward and individuals’ economic growth and security, resilience has been
creative activities. analysed as a situated and on-going process of continuous antici-
Another self-organised and entrepreneurial trajectory for the pation and re-organisation, based on collective efforts and indi-
sampled artists was their strategic usage of virtual space as a means vidual learning. The sampled artists, situated in the fluctuating area
of projecting themselves, their work, and even their workspaces to between professional failure and success, have to continuously
80 €holm / City, Culture and Society 6 (2015) 75e81
C. Pasquinelli, J. Sjo

learn how to navigate through temporary and flexible work ar- to become entrepreneurs, brokers, marketing experts, and brand
rangements and a lack of predictability and security; they do this by managers, often at the expense of their creativity and their artistic
learning skills that enable a strategic adaptability. production. In this vein, the question of ‘resilience for whom?’
In this paper we have discussed artists’ explorative strategies mentioned earlier remains an open one.
and practices of adaptability within a changing world. We have This research focussed on the individual practices of resilience
suggested the need to ‘unpack’ the concept of resilience by focus- by reconstructing a geography that has been proved to have a clear
sing on individual spatial practices. This enables a multi-scalar urban character. Future research should engage with the multi-
approach to the study of resilience. The study highlights situated scalar approach and further investigate the special character of
processes in the urban context: however, the ‘untidy geographies’ the city of London, which arguably plays a unique role in fostering
of constructing an artistic career points to the idea that local and (but also challenging) the spatial practices of artist workers. What
global dimensions of individual resilient practices are highly peculiar conditions of resilience does London offer? Connections,
entangled. The micro-perspective of the individual artist (his or her serendipity, cross-fertilisation, and reputation are arguably
practices, networks, and lived spatialities) is connected with pro- intrinsic to the London urban context, which, on the other hand,
cesses unfolding at the urban scale. The artist actively constructs represents an extremely competitive arena where cultural workers
and uses a variety of urban spaces and resources e whether it is constantly face high risks. In addition, further research is needed to
public or private space in the city, the neighbourhood, or the studio investigate how gender in particular influences artists’ employ-
e in order to face the effects of flexible working conditions and of a ment experiences and resilience strategies, and how men and
changing art world. A resilient artistic career is facilitated by women might use different types of resilience and networking
networking and bonding, critical mass, collective display spaces, strategies to gain knowledge, support and sources of employment,
proximity, and a series of events, micro-events, and social and to mediate risk.
encounters.
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