In this age of algorithms and social media, a lot of artists’ output has become about giving an audience what they think they want and pandering to the expectations and trends that are guaranteed to get engagement.
So it may be one of the most radical things an artist can do to cast off all of those expectations and worries about the audience and to instead just make something for themselves.
That’s the premise behind the sprawling new solo exhibition from Norman photographer Cody Giles, who’s titled the show “Selfish Art.”
Opening at Norman’s Uncanny Art House Friday, August 14th, “Selfish Art” is set to show off more than 150 photographs taken by Giles over the past decade around Norman and beyond.
But where Giles is maybe best known as an arts and event photographer – regularly shooting and supporting live music as a member of the Norman Arts Council and the Norman Music Festival board – this exhibition doesn’t have a single focus or a single narrative designed to pull an audience in. Instead, it’s a broad personal overview of Giles’ own journey through the past decade of his photography career, captured with all the nostalgia, honesty, and soft, natural light for which his work is known.
Still, Giles said that after Uncanny manager Chase Spivey offered him the exhibition, it took a long time to figure out how he wanted to present his photography in the show, and to allow himself to drop the expectations and create something for himself.
Cody Giles: So this is kind of my biggest solo show for sure.
I really didn't plan to do it. Chase called me last year and said, "Hey, we have an opening in August next year, if you want to do a show,” and I was like, "Sure.” I was like, "I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I’ll figure something out.
You know, the first iteration was I'm gonna do 10 years of going through like all of my event photography and just do like street photography style candid shots of people in Norman, but like I wasn't feeling it. I wasn't. I wasn't getting that like excitement about it that I know myself well enough to know if I'm not feeling it, I'm not feeling it. I don't want to run with something I'm not feeling.
And so I didn't say anything to Chase. I just kind of was just, like, “I'll figure it out.”
Brett Fieldcamp: Late in the game and still struggling with what he wanted the show to be, he turned, as he says he often does, to the music of singer-songwriter Noah Gunderson, a consistent source of inspiration and creative clarity for Giles.
Cody Giles: One night, I was just up thinking about, you know, what I wanted to do and brainstorming and you know just kind of letting it passively kind of run through my brain, and I was listening to a Noah Gunderson album, and his song "Selfish Art" came on. And the line in the song is “there's nothing more sincere than selfish art.”
It's that art that you created that you love, and you don't really care if anyone else loves it because you love it, and you created it, first and foremost, for you, and because it was your expression and your thing.
And I got thinking. I was like, "Oh, that'd be really cool.” And then, you know, and then the fact that this is my 10th year of living here in Norman, I was like, "What if I just chose my favorite pieces or favorite images that I've taken over the last 10 years of living here?”
And then it was like fire. I was like, "Well, let's go.”
Brett Fieldcamp: With that feeling of being unshackled from an audience’s expectations, Giles began compiling a retrospective just for himself, showcasing the full breadth and wildly disparate scope of his work, from concerts to candids and from posed portraits to people on the street, but always adding new elements and new chapters to his own personal story that, in some cases, only he will ever know.
And the self-actualizing energy of that approach then opened the door for the exhibition to offer that same feeling for other artists with a special one-night presentation event hosted during the show’s run.
Cody Giles: And then in September, we're going to do a night called “Selfish Talks,” where we're going to have people submit like three-to-five-minute PowerPoint presentations where artists can apply to come talk about their favorite pieces of their work, and we'll invite you know art professionals in the community to come and listen. You know to let these artists get in front of some of these art professionals and like see their work and come brag about your own art.
Like, be selfish for a night, you know.
Brett Fieldcamp: But in Giles’ mind – and in the world created in photographic relief throughout “Selfish Art” – that selfishness isn’t about entitlement or self-centeredness. It’s about letting your own story and your own place in your community be your guide, and about paying homage to the people and places that have made you.
Cody Giles: I called it, you know, a love letter to the community who allowed me to become who I am now, because the person who moved here in 2016 is not the person putting on this show. It's a person who's 10 years older, 10 years wiser and weathered it all in this town with this community, and I'm looking at these images, and these images represent that community.
And so, you know, I think there is some sort of weak juxtaposition of calling it “Selfish Art” when really it's not. It's the most, like, “community” thing I want it to be.
I want it to be about the community and show off the cool things that happen in this town and the cool people that exist in this town.
Brett Fieldcamp: “Selfish Art,” a solo exhibition from photographer Cody Giles, opens Friday, August 14th at Uncanny Art House in Norman.
For more, visit uncannyarthouse.com and follow @creativegiles on Instagram.
