Intricate by Nature: What Ruth Asawa can teach us about curating our body of artwork online
Three things artists can take into their website, inspired by the process of Asawa.
Ruth Asawa's work is intricate, experimental and deeply considered. Yet the visual language of her work is remarkably clear.
Her approach to making does offer us some useful reminders for artists thinking about how they present their work online. Your website isn't simply a place to upload a collection of images. It is an opportunity to shape how people encounter your practice, curate your work and create a clear online presence.
Here are three principles Silver & Bloom Studio considers when working with artists to ensure their website remains cohesive, communicates their vision and connects with their audience.
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Your work has value. Make its authorship visible.
Artists build an enormous body of work over a lifetime. Your website should make authorship clear and ensure your work isn't presented without the appropriate attribution and copyright information.
Consider how images are displayed, what information accompanies them, and whether copyright and usage terms are easy to find.
Tips:
This is why we advise clients to construct a Copyright Notice, a clear statement outlining how your work can be shared by others.
Ensure your image files, metadata and website content clearly identify you as the creator of the work.
• You can read our blog post for further suggestions for watermarking and authorship verification tools.
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You know your practice. Let that knowledge guide the edit.
Asawa's work is incredibly intricate, but there is a sense of clarity within it. Nothing unnecessary competes for attention. Your website doesn't need to show everything you've ever made. Curate with authority. Choose the work you want people to spend time with and give it room to breathe. The work you elevate should reflect the vision, philosophy and making behind your practice. The website should support the work, not compete with it.
Tips:
Allow space to elevate the images added to the page.
Consider how the website behaves on mobile as well as desktop. Mobile visitors are often scrolling quickly, so sometimes less really is more. Squarespace also allows certain blocks to be hidden on mobile, giving you greater flexibility to reduce clutter and tailor the experience for different screen sizes.
• Think about your strongest work and let it shape the story of the website. A powerful image can anchor an artist's website in much the same way a logo anchors a business.
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Don't only show us what you made. Show us something of how you got there.
The finished artwork is only part of the story. Sketches, experiments, materials, works in progress, studio photographs and the thinking behind a piece can give your audience another way into your practice.
People are curious about how a work comes into being. Sharing some of that process can create connection, build understanding and invite people further into your world.
Tips:
Your audience wants to know how you think and how you process your work. Social media can offer an informal window into this process, while your website provides the more considered home for your practice. Tools such as a BIO site can help connect your social following with your website, blog and other channels.
Your blog can become the moving engine of your website. It's a place to share works that may not fit neatly within the curated structure of your main pages, as well as studio insights, ideas and reflections. It allows you to share, in real time, something of your personality, what you care about and the way you process your work.
Digital courses can take your audience deeper into your process. They offer another way to share your technique, craft and authority while creating an additional revenue stream, or they can be offered freely as a way of introducing people to your practice, and sharing your work.
Often, it is through this deeper engagement that an audience begins to know the artist behind the work. That relationship can build trust, connection and, ultimately, a greater desire to engage with or purchase the work.
Your website is part of your practice.
It isn't just somewhere to display the work.
It is another space in which you curate, communicate and invite people into your creative world.
You can view the complete life story and redirections encountered by Ruth Asawa here.
