The Hybrid Artist

This thesis investigates artists’ labour markets in Australia, specifically the under-investigated subject of hybridity in the practices of visual artists. It is common knowledge that artists often hold multiple jobs to support their artistic practice, also applying their skills in applied work in the creative industries. A recent study in the Netherlands and Belgium has observed the emergence of a hybrid artist who can no longer be said to have multiple jobs as their autonomous and applied practice blur, so that it is not possible to make a clear distinction between the two. There are different positions on what this means for the autonomy of the artist, that it is a threat to the autonomous space of the artist, or that the romantic ideal of artistic autonomy should no longer retain as much relevance in contemporary art. In order to observe whether this is not an isolated phenomenon, this thesis investigates whether hybridity can also be observed in the practices of Australian visual artists by obtaining data through an online survey distributed to alumni of a visual arts school based in Sydney, Australia. This thesis specifically focuses on whether there is an increase in the levels of hybridity in practice and in attitude for more recent graduates. The findings reveal that there is no consistent upward trend in hybridity levels over time, however it does reveal that graduates from the 1990s onwards are increasingly hybrid in practice and in attitude until the mid-2000s when attitudes shift, marking a clear opposition to the blurring of an autonomous and applied practice.