"Get a Job"
Straight outta the Comments
In the lecture, the professor was talking about a well regarded work of art. It was a kinetic sculpture piece so he showed us a video of this distinguished artist’s work in motion. Because the video was on YouTube, I couldn’t help but notice, when the professor exited out of Full Screen, what the first comment on it was. It said, “Get a job.”
My heart sank a bit, I have to say. I have seen comments like this before, of course – it seems to be a favorite insult of artists for assholes on the internet. Actually, it has always been a favorite insult, even before the internet. But to see it on the video of an artist’s work I was seeing in a lecture was just especially gutting. Here’s this incredibly successful artist with big exhibitions around the world and the winner of a Guggenheim fellowship; We’re talking about him in a class and the first comment on his video is not about his work but some asshole saying, “Get a job.”
Hey asshole, he has a job. He’s an artist. And you just came to his place of work and shat all over it. It really got under my skin.
Like, okay, if people are assholes to me and mine in this way, I can see their point. No, I am not contributing much to the economy. Sorry. If that’s your measure of worth, then, well, you’d be right. I don’t make any real money to speak of. But this guy? With exhibits in biennials and his fellowships? Goddamn it, hasn’t he earned at least a comment about his actual fucking work? If the comment was “I hate this weirdo sculpture video” - that, I could understand. But the asshole who took the time to write the first comment couldn’t even engage with the piece! The piece is interesting! And, sure, yes, also disturbing, so maybe you could complain about its impact on you but…Get a job? Fucking hell. I know Tim Hawksinson does not need me to defend him. (I’m sure the Guggenheim committee could do a much better job at that than me.) But the profound disrespect of a respected artist has an impact on ME, an artist only respected in very small circles. I don’t like it. It makes me mad.
People don’t comment on plumbing ideas like this. Or explainers. Or influencers. Or even movie trailers. Were people standing behind Van Gogh as he painted going, “Get a job!” ? Maybe they were and maybe that’s why he ended up going a bit mad.
Do commenters like this think they’re being funny or something?
Like, are they seeing it as a clever riposte to a work of art? What are they trying to do? Deny the importance of art entirely? Why does this seem like a thing to say? And so immediately, as well. I’m assuming this guy was so anxious to tell this artist “Get a Job” that he was poised to do it as soon as that video went up.
I just – don’t understand the hostility to art. The hostility is everywhere and it is hard to avoid. Like, what did art ever do to these people to make them shout such a thing? Are they just mad that art exists? That they don’t relate to it or understand it? There are far more frivolous professions than art – but almost no one gets hit with the “Get a Job” stick like artists do.
I don’t know why I took a random comment on the internet so to heart. It wasn’t even to me! But it does make an impact on me. Or maybe more significantly, it reveals an impact that has been slowly accumulating over the years.
The same day I saw that comment, a friend pointed out that all of us artists would be in a much different position if we lived in a country that actually supported the arts. And I suppose I’m feeling the decades of living in a country that has, not only no actual support for the arts and artists, but that has such active disdain for them. Like, I know there’s no money for what we do. I have made a kind of peace with that. But to have such disrespect ladled on top of it is just…too much. And I don’t have any idea how it could shift. I don’t think artists can shift it. It has to shift around us. There’s nothing an artist can say in response to “get a Job” that will change that person’s mind about our worth.
In person I might ask them what their job is. I might ask them about meaning and purpose. But on the internet, the only response to “get a job” is “get some manners!”
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