{"id":5654,"date":"2024-07-16T10:26:49","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T09:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theprintspace.co.uk\/help\/?post_type=ht_kb&p=5654"},"modified":"2024-07-16T12:58:05","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T11:58:05","slug":"adding-context-when-posting-your-art-on-instagram","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.theprintspace.co.uk\/help\/knowledge-base\/adding-context-when-posting-your-art-on-instagram\/","title":{"rendered":"Why you should add context when posting your art on Instagram"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Adding context to your work is like the score to a film or a music video, it helps create the vibe and gets people emotionally engaged in your work. And that will help your career and your sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When researching this article I realised that very few artists do this really well. This is maybe because reaching your audience directly on social media is relatively new for artists, and they have not fully learnt how to express the context surrounding their work, and there are many misconceptions about what this means; for example that it\u2019s about putting your personal life online or explaining the meaning to your work. It is neither of those things, something we will explain in this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people if they love a creator of some sort, like a musician or a band will know a reasonable amount about their life and influences, how they came to make the work, where they lived, their backstory, their family and relationships, some of their public statements and events in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does knowing anything about them matter? The reason is that it gives context to the creative output. Knowing something about the creators of important works of human creativity or understanding deepens the connection to, and the understanding of the work itself. This is why people read autobiographies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For visual artists this is also true. Of course we can appreciate and understand visual art without knowing anything about the artist, but we can relate to it better when we do. If we did not know Andy Wharhol came from New York in the 60s, the centre of the advertising industry, would his Campbell’s Soup Cans have been fully understood in the same way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we mean by context?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The subject of context is not straightforward however. Context does not necessarily mean putting out posts about yourself and your life. It could be that but there are plenty of other ways of contextualising work and that depends on your work, you and what matters in terms of how your work comes about. The way you add context is as personal and individual as the work itself. The best way to understand this is to look at some examples of how other artists are doing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with Banksy for example. On first glance it would be easy to assume there\u2019s no context to his work because he\u2019s anonymous. However there is a ton of contextualising information out there. We know he is a pioneer of the street art scene, from the Bristol area. Anonymity is a statement in itself, creating intrigue and it makes sense in terms of the work as graffiti artists would often be arrested for criminal damage, more so before it was more fully accepted as an artform. Anonymity is also a statement about the often politicised or humanist nature of his work. This plays into the heritage of stencil graffiti which has often been used for political, revolutionary messages, messages of dissent or commentary on daily life. So his context is there and it really matches the work, and it\u2019s clever in the sense that it says a lot through what it doesn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will start looking at some examples of artists who add valuable context, but before we do we will lay out some statements of what we believe in terms of adding context:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Adding context doesn\u2019t mean explaining what your work means. Usually this is advisable as it deprives the viewer of the agency to interpret it themselves. <\/li>
  2. Also, it doesn\u2019t mean putting yourself forward personally, as an influencer does,  unless of course that is an important aspect of the work. This gets confused on social media because it has become so synonymous with influencers. However, Tracy Emin\u2019s work is very personal, so knowing who she is and certain aspects of her life makes sense in order to contextualise it. <\/li>
  3. Context can exist in a very minimalist way or even in an empty space, again if that makes sense to the work\u2026but this is way harder to achieve. Sometimes the work itself does the heavy lifting, whereas other work needs more contextualisation.      <\/li>
  4. Context could be anything. It could be something that is seemingly unconnected to the work, context does not have to be connected to the work in a linear way. Contextual information usually works best and is most memorable if it is delivered in the form of a story. <\/li>
  5. Context is unlikely to make sense if it is not authentic and honest. <\/li>
  6. Most of the things people do that are successful are things that are natural extensions of their personalities and what they love to do or believe in passionately. In other words, their art or creative thinking was born out of their personal context. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    There are some things we think you need to start contextualising your work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Your need to have some sense of your why, i.e. what makes you do what you do. If you do not have any sense of this, then we advise reading Start With Why? By Simon Sinek<\/a>. <\/li>
    2. To look at the examples we have provided below of artists who contextualise their work effectively on Instagram. This will help you get started. That doesn\u2019t mean you are copying what they are saying, but rather you are getting ideas on how to express your context. <\/li>
    3. Be brave enough to be honest & authentic. Go gently at first and put some things out there. Remember they don\u2019t have to be hyper-personal, unless that is what the work needs. See the response in terms of the comments to see if the context has resonated with your audience. <\/li>
    4. Be open to working on this. Unless you have already achieved all your goals, or you are well on the way to achieving them then try to avoid thinking  \u2018my work is enough, I don\u2019t need to add context\u2019. This is rarely true, and usually is true when someone is high profile enough to have other people, journalists or bloggers, to contextualise their work for them.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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      Examples of context from artists on Instagram<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Jonas Peterson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      One of the best examples for someone who is great at contextualisation of their work is Jonas Peterson<\/a>. Jonas has had many careers; advertising, creative direction, copywriting and photography. He has always approached his work through the lens of storytelling. One formative experience for him happened when he started writing a blog back in the early 2000s. Just after starting writing it, he experienced the bereavement of a close friend. As a result he started writing very open, honest and emotionally raw posts in response to this. Suddenly he had hundreds of thousands of readers for the blog. He found this emotional expression and rawness ended up really striking a chord with people, and helping them through their own situations. I.e. it created connection, which is one of the things an artist might be seeking to do. This now feeds into how he contextualises his work as an artist. Here\u2019s a few posts he has done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      A post shared by Jonas Peterson (@jonaspeterson_ai)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>