Exposure - a never ending visit to the dentist...

May 30th, 2005

Exposure - a never ending visit to the dentist...

You are an artist.

You want your works to be seen by everybody. Every artist has his or her own unique style and we want to let people know about this. At the same time you want to stay anonymous. You want to have peace in your mind. You love to do your work in quietness. This is the artist's dilemma. You need exposure but you hate it. You need to earn a living but you disgust the exposure of yourself. But. If you want to be in contact with "the real world" you must give up some of your needs for living and working anonymously, in peace and in quietness.

If you do this in the wrong way.

If you do this in the wrong way, however, if you expose yourself and not your work you end up as a "4th of July speaker" (in Danish it is called a "grundlovstaler"), one that lectures for free, one that newspapers ask for an opinion on anything, one that is asked for free pictures to associations, one that supports any charity organization, one that is constantly asked for sponsorships. You end up as a celebrity, a fool, a clown (see my self portrait "crying clown" to the right). You end up as a slave. Your image becomes a yoke of bondage.

Artist's dilemma.

I feel this artist's dilemma right now. I feel this never ending visit to the dentist *. I have to be in contact with "the real world" in order to expose my works. Not myself. And I want to get in touch with the society around me. I have to give up some of my needs for living and working anonymously, in peace and in quietness.

So, no fancy excuses. I have to advertise. And be aware of what I do - and why I do it...

Ad in Danish

I want to address all Danes. There are 5.5 million inhabitants in Denmark. The Internet can help me along.

But the Internet does not address all Danes.

The strongest media in this sense is the newspaper. I have to advertise in newspapers. Next Saturday I publish the ad, that you see to the left in newspapers covering the whole country. I create the ad as if it was an ordinary newspaper ad.

My goal however is to tell people what is on my web sites www.lonvig.dk - art, design etc. and www.lonvig.org - writings, lectures etc.

The reader of the ad has to feel that he has the option to look at the internet. Not an obligation. A lot of newspaper readers would decline to look at the internet, if it is not optional.

The ad is in one color and one column to keep it simple.

Ad in English If this way of web site exposure succeeds in Denmark, I'll simply use the method in areas where I have an exhibition.

The New York Times might be a good start? 1.700.000 on Sundays. The price? Several thousand dollars - careful consideration is needed. In 2 weeks my works are featured at Manhattan Arts International, New York.

In near future I am opening exhibitions in Buenos Aires and Quebec. If I pass the review tomorrow I'll open an exhibition in Rome, Italy, too. There are a lot of possibilities!

And.

If I don't succeed? If the web sites are not exposed this way? I'll take a deep breath. A pipe of tobacco. A cup of coffee.

And then I have to try again.

*) Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretian on the Quebec problem.