I am one of those artists that flits from one thing to the next, just focusing from one flowering idea to another. Well like a bumblebee collecting pollen, bringing back visual ideas to a collection to make a cheesy analogy. I have had a number of jobs; careers even, yet throughout each stage of my life being an art student seems to be the culmination of all those phases or places. That each place that I have been, even when no one understands or fully comprehends those places, has brought me to this point.
Abromovic (1995) tells us that
‘there are some places which are sufficient to feel that course of energy. And that those places are open to you…sometimes somebody else can come to the same place and nothing happens. ’ (excerpt from Cleaning the house )
While Abromovich is talking about being a nomadic artist going from physical place to physical place, this may relate to a mental state of place as well. I relate physical places to feelings and memories of experiences, and feel this is an emerging narrative.
Mulliigan states ‘All art is a reflection in images of a world transformed to opinion (which does not mean that such an opinion is per se a clear, rationally definable idea). (Mullligan as cited by Peters eds 1995 p. 69)
The ideas and the resulting reflections of the place – Room o.102, which I am now focusing, are not clarified. What is emerging is a search for meaning. The variety of points of view in which this search has launched has been unsettling for those watching the practice, yet comforting for me.
With so many theories, views and opinions to be considered, it is easy to find yourself in a mental labyrinth while in art school. The contradictions presented by our own thoughts and that of others creates many misdirects. The post modern themes of the loss of meaning and the death of the authors demand a theoretical space where there is no right or wrong, yet there are lines that must be understood to achieve. How does an artist move forward without becoming a character in a fable, such as the Emperor’s new tailor? Does an artist have to be a charlatan or wise woman to manoeuvre through this non-navigable space?
bibliography
Peters, P. eds (1995) ‘The Ideal Place’ Art and Design No 42. 1995 p. x, 69.
