“Keep questioning yourself. Why are you drawn in to these particular details and what more can you find?” - Enrica Franca, The Art of Slow Looking - Tate
The process of looking at Art often comes with a lot of baggage and self-consciousness. ‘What is it?’, ‘Am I meant to understand it?’, ‘I don’t get it’, ‘I don’t belong here’.
There's a pressure to understand that comes with being an adult. This means we often rush through the gallery, never really looking at anything properly. Only to spend a disproportionate amount of time lingering in the gift shop.
It wasn’t always this way. When you’re a kid there’s a naive curiosity that means you take a slower approach to looking. Whether that be the illustrated book, a painting, or reading that bedtime story for the 108th time… it’s all the same. Perhaps it’s the reason 'Where's Wally' has stood the test of time. The longer you look, the more you see. The more you fill in the blanks, creating new stories in your mind.
When I was a kid I had a children’s dictionary of art. In it there was a picture of ‘The Little Street’ by Vermeer. I spent ages looking at it. I liked the mundanity of it. I liked the fact that I felt like I was an observer on individual moments the other characters in the scene couldn’t see. And the moments I couldn’t see were even better. What was behind the windows? What were the inside of their houses like? What was on the other side of the street? What were the two people kneeling on the floor talking about? Were they talking about anything at all?
As The School of Life showed - Vermeer had this way of capturing a kind of domesticity, and depth of emotion that can draw you in. Perhaps that was why I was so fascinated by it.
Yet, somewhere between childhood and adulthood that sense of slowness is lost. Maybe it’s the impending deadlines, or the constant flow of new information to absorb. But in a line of work that requires new angles in, new ideas, new thoughts, often slowing down is better than speeding up. Whether that be taking time to observe people where they are, digging beneath the surface questions. Or simply stepping away from a brief and coming back with fresh eyes.
Andy Warhol said ‘I don’t read books, I look at pictures’. Sometimes it’s the stuff that can’t be put into words that offers the greatest inspiration.
Until next time 👋 ,
Harriet
‘Find the time to do something’ - Boredom, a Tiny Desk with Tyler the Creator