He’s no good at being uncomfortable, so he can’t stop staying exactly the same
Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine
It’s a year since we launched Figurative. And that’s as predictable as I want this personal reflection to get.
I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort and familiarity in a world that feels increasingly difficult to parse. I watch my teenagers soothe themselves with programmes they’ve watched countless times; I read posts on LinkedIn that regurgitate the latest forty-word hit parade in a comforting semblance of information, dialling down the self-promotion to comfortable levels with acceptable injections of humility (sometimes!) It’s natural to need comfort, but not to extrapolate this necessity into a drive for zero discomfort; or to allow our indulgence of it to shape our tolerance of friction, novelty and challenge. Safety is important, but it’s also important to remember we can be safe without being comfortable.
I could list the things we’ve managed in our first year, but I can’t claim them (…and luckily our brilliant Comms Manager has created a beautiful infographic! Please see below). The investment, impact and philanthropy teams, who in comparison to me work harder at, are closer to, and are more skilled in our core capabilities, have humbled me with their commitment and diligence, even amid the choppy seas that every intrepid little start-up has to navigate, all while attempting to grow, assert and adapt itself. We couldn’t do anything without our phenomenal Operations Manager. Meanwhile, the majority of what I’ve been engaged in, and (arguably…?) achieving is more the task of understanding who we are, how we work, and what exactly we’re trying to do, in what context.
It’s been really uncomfortable, most of the time. In meetings, including our Figurative team meetings, I often know less about the specifics – art form, region, organisation, art work, policy initiative, impact programme, research canon, coding language, tech hardware, financial regulation, fund structuring, legislation on fiduciary responsibilities, private capital markets, art fairs, and definitely high-end fashion – than most people in the room.
Doing new things is uncomfortable. Change is uncomfortable. And if I’m ever having a confidence crisis and wondering what skills I actually bring to the table (happens easily when you’re surrounded by the Figurative team!), I remember that I’m really well practised at being uncomfortable. In doing things in ways that may feel obvious to me but aren’t common.
Algorithms are designed to give us what we want, not what we need. We crave comfort, reassurance that we’re loved and successful, and that we’re going to be OK. That how we think is acceptable, and that this means we’re good people. This leads to illusions of conformity, and ultimately an undercurrent of cognitive dissonance. We aren’t the same, and it doesn’t benefit anyone if we all agree about anything, let alone everything! Ideas need challenge, opposing forces to tether them and to refine them. The big tech companies that govern our lives, and may soon be more influential than governments on what we are exposed to, with whose endorsement and in what order, have shaped our interior landscapes more than most of us are happy to admit.
In this world of ones and zeros, we must remember the art of balance, of probabilities, of risk taking, of the unknown. I want the experience of seeing Goodfellas, hearing Kraftwerk, or witnessing Olafur Eliasson or Sarah Kane for the first time, back when each work’s sphere of influence contained only its central point, to be available for future generations. (To be clear: I’m not suggesting AI can’t make new things – we saw with AlphaGo’s Move 37 back in 2016 that creativity is categorically possible!) But genuine synthesis requires the deep engagement driven by intrigue, which seeks not solace but data. A frontier, not a comfort zone.
Art has always challenged the status quo, and sometimes even the very notion of a status quo. Nabokov’s ‘iron bars of determinism’ are even more of a threat when decisions are being made by mechanisms that pull away from the unknown, towards the comfortable and predictable. Great art provokes new and different thoughts and feelings, and in doing so reminds us of our emotional and intellectual range.
To make art is bold, and generous. In some ways, part of the practice is relinquishing control of your impact; letting go of who sees your work, being prepared never to know how it has affected them. Artists proceed down their career paths with perhaps less financial security or predictability than ever before.
And how does this fit with paying back loans? With asking organisations to have confidence in their cashflows? New work, along with outreach and free access, is one of the elements of our amazing cultural and creative offer in the UK that, to my mind, is a necessary use of public subsidy, and also attracts philanthropists. While some capital projects can generate new revenue streams or cut costs, many include overdue maintenance. So grant subsidy is, and will remain, vital to the sector.
The cultural and creative sectors are uncomfortable. And they are not safe. As I appreciate more in every interaction with global colleagues, the UK’s creative and cultural assets are a jewel to be treasured, maintained, cultivated and supported to grow and flourish for our economic, social and cultural wellbeing as a nation. We’re looking at how we can use new funding models to support this, such as utilising a blended capital fund to support urgent decarbonisation initiatives for our precious cultural infrastructure. We are working with experts such as Renew Culture (Theatre/Arts Green Book), Gallery Climate Coalition, Julie’s Bicycle and Buro Happold, among others, to understand what is needed alongside finance to support the cultural sector to lead the nation’s built environment assets towards net zero.
Our long term mission is not to move organisations from grants to loans, and therefore push organisations towards more predictable pathways. It is to boost the amount of money available to the sector, and revolutionise how it is delivered, in instruments that enable and incentivise organisations not only to enhance their positive social impact, but also to invest in those assets they have that could grow revenue, increase efficiency and boost financial resilience and independence: bricks and mortar; skills, systems and capabilities; or brand, rights, networks and IP. It’s a new way of thinking, and it might be uncomfortable, but we hope that out of this productive discomfort comes a stronger cultural and creative sector, and an ecosystem that supports making art. Art that keeps us all thinking and feeling things we don’t expect to.
Since launching in 2024 the Figurative team has worked to support the sector through impact loans, philanthropy development, research, advocacy and advisory services. Take a look at our infographic for a snapshot of our impact.
