Another rejection letter

Here's another rejection letter. I've seen a book by some artist which just consists of rejection letters he has received. I tried to find it through Google, and found this website instead. It's called Rejection Letters of an Emerging Artist. You can't say this woman isn't trying to get her art out there! My application was for Off the Wall at Art Sydney, a local art fair. I submitted a number of hair weavings, but alas, to no avail. Here's the rejection:

Dear Rodney

We were overwhelmed this year with over 300 entries for Off The Wall.

The panel took a combined total of 20 hours to make their decisions.

On this occasion, your work was not selected for the event, but we thank you for the time and effort it took to make the application.

We do keep applications on file for several years though and often have dealers and curators sifting through them looking for works that their needs. Many artists have gained representation this way.

Your work will appear on our website shortly, and you will be notified when it is “live”, this is also a resource used by many dealers as they can contact you directly through your email address,

Commendations and high commendations will appear on the website also, I am unable to advise of these at the moment.

Unfortunately I am unable to enter into correspondence regarding your application due to time restrictions.

We will be holding a free professional development seminar at Art Sydney 08 on Friday 24 October at 12 noon, you are welcome to attend and I will be holding a Q & A session afterwards.

Thank you again for your application and I wish you all the very best in the future

Yours sincerely

Cash Brown
Off The Wall Coordinator

I always like that rejection letters tell you how many entries/applications there were. Regardless of whether there were 20 applicants or 500, they still preferred other people's work to my own, which in my mind makes their ability to discern quality art questionable. Of course the artists who were selected will be praising the judges for their insight and good taste! It may not have been the work they didn't like, but the quality of the prints I sent. Here are the images I submitted:

The first three are from my Six Degrees series. Three of this series (there were ten in all) will be in the Tamworth Fibre Textile Biennial which opens in Tamworth in November, then will tour nationally for two years, and another two will be in a group show in September here in Sydney, so I'm not taking the rejection as reflection of the quality of my work. Maybe it's just a question of taste.
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The last three are from a series called The Devil's Cloth which also uses human hair, but replicates stripe patterns from different cultures. The title comes from a book by Michel Pastoureau:

From Library Journal
Convinced that "clothing is always the bearer of important meanings," Sorbonne paleographer/archivist Pastoureau here explores hitherto uncharted territory. In this intriguing little book, he traces the negative connotation related to stripes in cloth and clothing in Western societies as evidenced by documents and illustrations from the Middle Ages until today. He begins with the Carmelites' scandalous use later banned of striped monks' habits in the 13th century and gives numerous examples of striped clothing "marking" marginalized members of society: prostitutes, mimes, domestic servants, bankers, criminals, and, sadly, concentration camp inmates. He admits that the use of stripes on coats of arms is not pejorative and that stripes have been used successfully in modern fashions. The book raises as many questions as it answers and points to further research. The examples given are from French history and culture and may be unfamiliar to most American readers, making this book suitable for academic collections only.