During the course of my Degree I have felt a strong inability to conform to the courses philosophies. Although i feel it is an important part of the curriculum to research and refer to the works of notable mainstream artists, my personal influence comes mainly from street art and images obtained from the web, where the source is more often than not unobtainable. I have tried to ascertain why this form of art holds so much resonance for me, maybe its because i can connect with the anonymity of the work, and the artists need to create work without recognition, or because by omitting the artist i am free to appreciate the work without any preconceived views of the artist and their work…..or maybe its just to conceal my incredibly crappy memory!! I am aware that my memory is such that without constant referral to any given artist, the name will desert me far sooner than the image, so perhaps i refer directly to images to compensate for my poor ability to retain information. I am drawn to colour and subject matter and find it very difficult to contextualise the work which i view. i think this relates to the aversion i have of voicing my opinion, however my observations never really tend to evoke a deep narrative and contextualisation, instead focusing more on the juxtaposition of colours, objects and apparent meanings and messages. When i wrote my dissertation ‘When does an object become art and when in turn does that become a commodity.’ it was in reference to the ready made. I hoped it would help me understand and define my art more easily, but in fact it has only served to leave me more disillusioned with the system and society. It became apparent that anything could be declared as art, and that it only took a single person to view an object in this way to declare it as such. On the face of it this should have left me feeling more confident about my work….but it hasn’t, I now feel more responsible for my work than ever before.
