On Wednesday, when I posted a link to my previous posts on facebook, Franny posed these questions and I said I would get back to her…
Why do I feel the need to question the work?
I am driven by the ideas, the thoughts about how one thing touches and reacts to another. Specifically I suppose, increasingly these days I’m down with the nitty gritty and how my own body is reacting to the world around me, its capabilities, and incapabilities. What makes life difficult? Or easier? And what makes me forget the body, what absorbs me and distracts me even?
I do have processes and “rules” that I follow. And I move between media and method maybe not seamlessly, but more easily than I used to.
I feel the need to question the work when I feel directionless. If I have played with the process and the rules to the point where I’m no longer achieving something, or even feel I’m getting close, so maybe flabby is the right word? Easy is another… if it is too easy I feel I am degenerating into style over substance, it might look “pretty” but it isn’t feeling strong, doesn’t mean anything much.
And then, yes, I get bored. It does feel like a dead end and I back up a little, look back at things I’ve done and try to find a different thread to pick at.
If I don’t question the work, or myself in this way, I’m coasting. Not doing my job properly.
I’m not necessarily bothered about projects. When I have got to grips with something I will take a space and have another exhibition, but otherwise I plough on…
Does that answer the questions of questioning Franny?
